Eva Longoria has a lengthy cover profile in the latest AARP Magazine, which I receive because I’m a member, OK? She’s promoting her CNN show, Eva Longoria: Searching for France, premiering this Sunday April 12. Eva, 51, doesn’t get enough credit for making strategic business decisions (she’s an early investor in the John Wick franchise for one) and for reinventing herself as needed (she’s producing and directing now). I feel like I could learn some things from her and appreciate the wisdom she drops here. She’s very self reliant and that comes from advice her aunt, who raised her, gave her at a young age. Eva got her master’s degree while she working on Desperate Housewives, something I haven’t heard about until now. She’s a hustler, but a very Gen X one who makes quiet moves and I appreciate that. Here’s more of what she told AARP:

Eva’s aunt Elsa told her not to ‘depend on anybody for anything—you do it yourself’
When young Eva wanted something, Elsa’s answer was consistent: You’d better figure that out.

Want to be a cheerleader? Figure it out. Want a quinceañera dress? Figure it out. “And you do,” says Longoria. On top of playing three sports and becoming head drum major in high school, she worked at Wendy’s, an ice cream shop, an oil change garage and a dentist’s office. “Because that’s the other thing Elsa taught me — the value of a paycheck.”

While shooting Desperate Housewives, she earned her master’s degree in Chicano studies at California State University
Longoria saw it more as not wanting to be a showbiz cliché. “I didn’t want to be a dumb celebrity given talking points to say on a stage,” she says. “Everyone in my family had a master’s degree. I didn’t want to be the disappointment.”

Her fitness routine
“When I was 20, I looked 15. When I was 30, I was still getting carded for alcohol. I’ve never looked my age. So it just followed me into my 50s.”

It helps that she takes excellent care of herself. Longoria lifts heavy weights. She’s loyal to supplements (magnesium for sleep, potassium for muscle cramps, electrolytes because she drinks too much coffee, she says). She bounces on a rebounder trampoline.

She and Bastón recently installed a padel court at their house (think pickleball’s more intense cousin). She’s also refreshingly willing to declare defeat when a trend doesn’t suit her. “I’m not a fan of Pilates,” she says. “I tried it for years. It was always too hard.”

On what she considers success
“I always ask myself what defines success for me,” she says. “As I get older, it’s not some superficial thing. I’m at a point where I don’t want to waste my days. We only have so many years left. How are you going to spend them? What are you going to do in this moment? That focus makes getting older exciting.”

On her marriage to José “Pepe” Bastón
“I’m with an adult,” she says. “He’s the kindest human being in the world. Pepe brightens up every room he enters.” Not that it’s all perfectly curated serenity. They bicker about GPS navigation (“The map is right there on the screen in the car, and he makes a wrong turn”) and meal times (“He’s Mexican, so he wants lunch at 4 and dinner at 10. I want dinner at 5 or 6, and then I want to go to bed”). “We’re passionate about our differences,” she says, “but we always make up.”

On if she has a secret to life
“I don’t think there’s a uniform formula for satisfaction,” she says. “You could do exactly what I did and not have the same outcome. I think everyone needs to find their own way.”

[From AARP]

I debated whether to make the title her quote about pilates or the one where she admitted she eats dinner at 5 or 6 and wants to go to bed. (My first title for this piece was about pilates, but if all of you ignore it and don’t comment I’ll switch it out.) Both resonate with me! Like pilates is both too slow and too difficult. (Have you seen the videos of football players trying it?) I would rather lift weights or do hard cardio any day. It’s reassuring to hear that Eva Longoria hates it too. Some exercises are just not for you. I’m also one of those “early to rise” people who eats around 5 and then starts getting ready for bed. I wake up between 4-5 am though. You can probably tell by the publishing schedule on this site.

As for her aunt’s advice to do everything yourself, that definitely has a limit. There’s value in learning when to ask for help, which some of us Gen Xers have learned the hard way over the years.

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Photos credit: IMAGO/RW.Mediapunch/Avalon, Roger Wong/INSTARimages, Getty Images, AARP Magazine