Brunette Ambition (12 page)

½ onion, finely chopped

½ carrot, finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Black pepper

1 tablespoon soy sauce

¾ cup bread crumbs

1 egg

½ cup spinach

½ lemon

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS

1 slice vegan pepper Jack cheese

Organic ketchup

¼ avocado, sliced

1 whole grain burger bun

1.
Bring 2½ cups salted water to a boil. Add the lentils and cook for 45 minutes.

2.
Preheat the oven to 200˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3.
In a saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and carrot and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.

4.
In a large bowl, combine the onion, carrot, lentils, pepper, soy sauce, bread crumbs, and egg.

5.
Form the mixture into patties and place them on the lined baking sheet.

6.
Bake the burgers for 20 to 25 minutes. Place them on a dish or serving platter.

7.
In the same pan you used for the onion and carrot, wilt the spinach, about 2 minutes.

8.
Squeeze the lemon over the spinach and spoon it over the burgers.

9.
Top the burgers with anything else that you like—I usually add a slice of vegan pepper Jack cheese, some organic ketchup, and a few slices of avocado. Serve on a whole grain bun, if you like.

DINNER

Salmon + Asparagus

I always buy wild Alaskan salmon—when it’s high-quality, it tastes great with the simplest of preparations.

1 cup uncooked brown rice

Half a salmon fillet

2 teaspoons olive oil

Sea salt

Juice of 1 lemon

6 asparagus spears

1.
Start a grill and let it heat until it’s dry and hot.

2.
Put the rice in a rice cooker; if you don’t have a rice cooker, you can use the stovetop (follow the directions on the package, though in general it’s a ratio of 1:2 of rice to water).

3.
Brush the salmon with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil, sprinkle the pink side with a bit of sea salt, and pour the lemon juice on top.

4.
Place the salmon on the grill, skin side down, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

5.
Drizzle the asparagus with the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil and some sea salt, and carefully place each spear on the grill.

6.
Flip the salmon flesh side down and grill for a few minutes, until cooked to your liking.

7.
Once the asparagus are nicely charred and tender, about 5 minutes, remove from the heat and serve them alongside the salmon and rice.

NAVIGATING THE GROCERY STORE

I’m a strong believer in keeping my house healthy. Some of it’s
really
healthy, like gluten-free bread and rice cheese, and some of it is a little naughty (but never terrible). That way, when I do feel like indulging, I have good choices. I save major treat time for when I go out with friends.

I love going to the grocery store. It’s dorky, but it’s part of my perfect day. I put on my headphones, listen to great music, and really take my time to shop. This gives me the chance to really look and check out the options, which is how I happened upon most of my favorite healthy alternatives. I only found Ezekiel bread (a low-glycemic “live” bread that’s healthy, delicious, and packed with grains like lentils and barley) because I stopped to linger in the bread aisle to weigh my options; same with Redwood Hill goats-milk yogurt, which has probiotics, vitamins, minerals, and complete proteins. It’s so easy to go straight for the things we know and love—but there might be something right next to your go-to that you’ll love even more. Give yourself plenty of time to read labels, check things out, and hopefully take some chances!

CHECK THE GROCERY STORE FOR HEALTHIER ALTERNATIVES TO YOUR FAVORITE FOODS.

In action at the grocery store.

The Spotlight

1.
Remember that your body is your temple. It deserves good things to eat that will give you the energy and strength you need to take on your day.

2.
Resist the urge to count calories. You can consume all of your calories through Hershey’s Kisses and not give your body the nutrition it really needs; alternately, starving yourself isn’t an option, either.

3.
When you’re going out for dinner, read the menu in advance so you can be thoughtful about your choices.

4.
Check the grocery store for healthier alternatives to your favorite foods—you might be surprised that there’s an even yummier (healthy) version of Cheetos.

5.
Pack a lunch when you’re traveling—not only is it far more nutritious (airplane meals tend to have a ton of sodium, too), but you’ll never go hungry looking for the peanut cart.

CH 5

LIVING THE FIT LIFE

“I’m a work in progress.”

—BARBRA STREISAND

N
eedless to say, acting—particularly on a show like
Glee
—requires a lot of energy. Actually, scratch that: Life in general requires a lot of energy. I can’t roll onto set out of shape or sleep-deprived and summon everything I need to make Rachel Berry come alive on the screen. Besides wanting to feel generally
good
, one of the requirements of my job is that I really bring it to the set.

When I lived in New York, I never belonged to a gym, or even gave a second thought to scheduling in exercise, because, plain and simple, I was constantly on the move. On Broadway, I spent my days dancing numbers on the stage, which is arguably equal to about three spin classes. And even during my days off, I wasn’t sitting around. Walking the New York City streets and heading up and down the subway steps is a workout; it’s easy to put in the miles without even thinking about it. Because of this, I got a little spoiled.

Thanks to my Italian heritage, it’s safe to say that I love carbs. When I was on Broadway, I was easily burning more calories than I consumed without any extra effort, so if I ate a box of Annie’s organic macaroni and cheese when I got home from doing two shows, I really didn’t think much of it. Thanks to my anti-sedentary lifestyle, though, I had plenty of energy to perform—and then some. But when I moved to Los Angeles, things changed.

Los Angeles is a car culture, and because you drive everywhere, you’re automatically sitting around for most of the day (hello, traffic!). I didn’t really take this into account when I relocated; in fact, because L.A. has some of the best produce around, and you get to be outside 365 days a year, I figured I’d be my healthiest yet! Not so much. After the first few months of filming, I started to feel a bit tired and listless, and giving Rachel the vivaciousness she requires and deserves was becoming a struggle. I’ve never owned a scale, and the costume department never made a point of it, but when the season aired, and I got to see myself on TV, it was clear that I had gained about five or six pounds between episode 2 and episode 12. Five or six pounds may not sound like a lot, but when you’re five foot two, it’s very visible!

I really didn’t care that I had gained weight—I cared that I didn’t feel well and didn’t have as much energy as I really needed to play Rachel every day. For that, I needed all the help I could get! I had already sworn off late-night meals from the craft services truck (rice and pan-fried vegetables, yum!) and started to inject a lot more movement into my days. On Broadway, I was doing eight shows a week involving a lot of dancing. While
Glee
is active, the schedule is different every day: Sometimes we’re doing musical numbers and learning choreography for hours on end—and then there are the days that we’re sitting in the choir room. And sitting is all we do.

I started to investigate all my workout options, which was a whole new world to me. And because working out sucks sometimes, I wanted to try to make it as fun as possible and try everything until I found the best fit. There are a handful of different exercise tribes in Los Angeles: There are the gym rats, who spend hours at Equinox or the famous Venice-based Gold’s Gym doing a majority of their socializing, people-watching, and mirror-gazing; there are the studio addicts, who are exclusively devoted to SoulCycle, Tracy Anderson, or Pop Physique; and then there are those who take advantage of L.A.’s preternaturally nice year-round weather and spend their downtime biking along the Pacific Coast Highway or hiking in Mandeville Canyon. After a lot of trial and error, I determined that I belong to the last two tribes: I have the luxury of enlisting an amazing trainer, Devon Butler, who helps me make the most of my own backyard for various strength-training exercises, and then I spend my weekends exploring L.A.’s hiking trails and popping into the occasional class.

I really urge you to try everything, because the right experience can completely change your perspective on exercise and make you actually look forward to moving around. When I started the class circuit, I was initially intimidated to try a spin class, since everyone told me they were so hard. But I discovered that I loved spinning—and what’s even better, I was actually good at it! And same with Bikram yoga: I’d only heard horror stories and been told that I’d hate it, but I actually love stretching it out in such a hot room. Meanwhile, I thought I would love Pilates but found it’s not for me. So, I’ve found that the combination of hiking, yoga, and working out in my backyard makes me the happiest—with an occasional spin class with a friend thrown in for good measure. Scheduling workouts well in advance really helps me stick to them, and I ask friends to text me when they’re going to a class in case I can join, because having company is an extra incentive (also, you feel extra bad when you bail!).