‘My kids would live on chicken nuggets
and French fries if they could!’
Slimming magazine: June 2005

Ever wondered how a supermodel looks so good with two young children and a working life? Cindy Crawford shares her secrets.

So, Cindy, what’s the secret to healthy eating?
It’s definitely about keeping your body fuelled. If my blood sugar levels drop I get irritable, I get shaky and then when I’m offered food, I don’t make good choices; my body starts craving the wrong things. If I’ve let my sugar levels drop, I’ll eat three pieces of bread before my dinner comes.

People think it’s difficult to eat healthily, do you agree?
Once you educate yourself a little bit, it’s really not. I think the biggest misconception people have is that you’re going to be hungry all the time or that you can’t eat in restaurants, and my life is so not like that. A lot of times I’m on other people’s schedules, not at home boiling a chicken breast. Once you learn to go for a balance of protein and healthy carbs, you can do it anywhere. Last night I went out for Indian food, I had some chicken, some fish and some broccoli and I felt great. I didn’t load up on the naan, although I love it, I let myself have a little piece, that way I don’t feel deprived. Most importantly, I didn’t go there starving, I had my bar at four o’clock and when we sat down to dinner at nine and wasn’t completely starving.

Do you fid it difficult to encourage your kids to eat well?
My kids would live on chicken nuggets and French fries if they could, and sometimes that’s OK.
I always put fruit on their plate, every meal. Sometimes they eat it, sometimes they don’t. They know that if they don’t eat the healthy stuff they’re not going to get a treat after dinner. I trust children’s bodies to know what they need. Sometimes my daughter doesn’t want to eat the healthy stuff, but then other days she’ll eat a whole bunch of grapes. Or she’ll eat three portions of fish one day, and then there’s two days where she doesn’t really want to eat. I try to give them stuff that I know they like that’s within the realm of health food, not junk food. I think with kids - with my kids anyway - so long as they eat one really god meal a day that’s OK. The rest of the day, they’re grazers. I make sure I always have cheese sticks or grapes, my daughter loves cottage cheese, that’s a treat for her. Or yogurt, we freeze it so it feels like a Popsicle, but its got protein too, not just sugar. I think the best way to teach kids, though, is by example.

How about your husband?
You know, Rande’s a big boy and I let him make his own choices. He’s not as committed as I am, but I think for a man it’s different, it might not hit him until later - and it hasn’t really hit him yet - that he might have to change his eating habits one day. Rande’s more of a meat-and-potatoes guy, so if I make grilled steak and he wants a potato, I’ll make one big one for him and then I’ll make a vegetable and a salad for me. What I don’t like is making three meals, one for the kids, for Rande, for me. So I’ve figured out how to do it; if he wants rice or pasta I’ll make some, I’ll add a vegetable for me and some salad. The kids can choose and we can all eat together.

If there was one thing you could do to improve everyone’s health, what would it be?
I’d ban smoking. There are so many other problems with it. People use it to not eat and then they quit and they gain weight. I would say that’s the biggest health culprit.

What advice would you give to parents facing the obesity crisis?
You have to lead by example; I think that’s the biggest part of it. Maybe you could go for walks together and eat the same foods.
But there are some people who are just rounder than others and you want everyone to be able to love themselves, so don’t obsess about it. I know that if I say I’m not going to have any sweets, then the one day I miss, I feel bad about it and you feel like failure. I think, ‘oh forget about it, I’m not a good person, I don’t have any willpower.’

Do you every have bad days?
Yeah, if my kid’s up all night puking or something like that, I have no energy. But take this morning for example, we were out a bit late last night. I woke up at seven and I had to be up at eight, I thought ‘OK, I could lay here for another hour, or I could go down to the gym’. And it’s hard to get your shoes on and get down there, but ten minutes after being there, I know it’s actually going to give me more energy for the rest of the day.

Are you still an advocate of the low-carb diet?
If I was going to do a swimsuit shoot next week, I definitely would cut down on carbs for a few days, but I know that that is not my lifestyle. When I had my son, I did pretty much no carbs and it was effective for a short term, for getting rid of baby fat. But the truth is I didn’t feel as good. I felt almost depressed. It’s not sustainable; you can’t live your life not eating carbs. I like to drink a glass of wine each night with dinner. If I have a shoot coming up, I won’t drink wine, but I don’t want to live my life never having a glass of wine. I think there are times when you can use a no-carb diet. But to say you’re never going to eat carbs is pretty impossible.

What’s something that everyone could do to be a little bit more like Cindy Crawford?
I don’t think that should be a goal. I think everyone should be their best self. I did some exercise tapes a few years ago and the fact is that if you’re five-two and you do the tapes, you’re not going to grow seven inches and suddenly look like me. But you are going to be closer to the perfect you, a healthier you. For me, it’s trying to maintain my weight, eating right. Sometimes I have late nights, or days where I’m just off. I exercise some, but not crazy, I drink a lot of water, I try to get enough sleep and I don’t smoke. I think all those things are part of how I keep it all together.

Cindy’s food diary
Breakfast: Yogurt with fruit and bran flakes. So I’ve got my healthy carb, plus some protein and fruit. I’m not a big coffee drinker  –  I like it,  but I don’t want to have the crash from it.

Snack: I have an AdvantEdge bar (available from health-food stores), to maintain my sugar levels. This means that by the time I sit down to lunch, I’m not starving, which means I’m not making the wrong choice.

Lunch: Vegetables and some protein.

Snack: I’ll have a four o’clock snack, like low-fat cheese, or carrot sticks, if I’m at home.

Dinner: We’ll grill some chicken, or fish, sometimes a little lean red meat, or pasta, and always with some vegetables or salad. I make pasta because my husband really likes it. I’ll make a meat sauce, maybe turkey sausage or something, and then I eat the sauce with a little bit of pasta on top and Rande has the pasta with sauce on top.