Pink – real name: Alecia Moore – has a new album, a new upcoming tour and a new outlook on life. She’s 43 years old now and a mother of two children. She covers the latest issue of Women’s Health to talk about love, loss, mental health and physical health. She honestly sounds like she’s only now coming out of a particularly brutal era – she lost her father a few years ago, she lost loved ones to Covid and cancer, and her body was so banged up, she needed surgery. Her new album is called Trustfall and the songs are about a lot of this.

Her image as the “snarling, man-eating, righteous person”: “I was the perfect person to take all of that flak. I have very thick skin. I do what I want. I can handle criticism; it doesn’t move my needle. It hurts my feelings, I guess—or it used to. But it doesn’t change my actions.”

She left LA for Santa Barbara after she hated her daughter’s nursery school applications: She ended up placing Willow in a school that was “outdoorsy and muddy.” The country has been good for her family: Willow, now 11; Jameson, who is 6; and her husband, former motocross racer Carey Hart. She considers the ocean and the woods healing. She knows not everyone gets the option to leave a place that isn’t working for them, and she feels lucky. “In my career, I’m around so many people with so much energy directed at meand I also make noise for a living. So it’s important for my mental health to unplug and be in nature.”

She spent three years making Trustfall: “I had time, because of a worldwide pandemic, so I went really, really slowly. I was able to take more chances. COVID slowed down life in a ‘what matters’ kind of way for me. Now all I want is to put things in the world that are meaningful and see my kids grow up.”

Dealing with loss, trauma, Covid & MAGA politics: “I kind of feel like we were walking around with this low-level trauma that some of us were aware of and some of us weren’t.”

Her workouts: On tour, she works out three times a day—once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and “two hours of pure, psychotic cardio at night” onstage. The workouts invigorate her. “I have so much energy.” Back in Southern California on her farm, P!nk works out every day—a diligence she credits to growing up in a military family and competing in gymnastics. “I like being strong. I identify with my core, my intuition, and my strength. I have wide, big feet, and I joke, ‘The better to kick you with.’ I’m short, close to the ground, fast, and agile.”

She was exhausted last year: She was coming off hip and double disc replacement surgery in her back. She’d eaten a lot of sourdough during the pandemic, and her joints responded poorly to the weight gain. “I was probably a bit depressed from all of the loss and I couldn’t lose weight to save my life. I would work out three hours a day, eat clean, and my metabolism was a dud—I couldn’t get anything started. And I was like, ‘I’m exhausted, I’m sad, I haven’t been away from my family for three years—not even overnight. And I just need a minute.’”

The gift she gave herself: P!nk signed up for a two-week program at SHA Wellness Clinic in Alicante, Spain, where she adhered to the Kushi diet—an anti-inflammatory plan rich in vegetables, beans, and whole grains. Before every meal, she drank apple cider vinegar mixed with water, and she refrained from drinking while eating. The thinking, according to the regimen, is that the body absorbs nutrients more effectively and feels sated if liquid doesn’t interfere. “It was the longest I’ve ever been away from my kids, and the biggest gift I’ve ever given myself. I did it for me, which in turn would be for them.” The shift she felt after her time at SHA was due to more than nutrition. “I got rest. I wasn’t getting rest before. I slept in a bed by myself for the first time in 11 years. I had time to meditate and cry and journal.”

[From Women’s Health]

Society is so judgy about moms taking time for themselves, or prioritizing their own health above other people’s health, but I hope more women learn to do what Pink did. Not specifically checking into this clinic, but knowing that they can take some time away and get some rest and heal their bodies and minds. While the diet sounds meh, just the fact that she got some sleep and slept in a bed alone was probably amazing. And really… it doesn’t surprise me that she suddenly has some difficulty losing weight or keeping it off. She had just had major surgery, and… well, girl, welcome to your 40s.

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