Eva Mendes is a Girl in Progress in more ways than one.
The 37-year-old actress tells the March issue of Marie Claire that like most women, it takes a lot of effort to keep her body in tip-top shape. “I run four to five times a week, mixing it up among distance running, intervals on a track, and running uphill on a treadmill,” Mendes says.
“I don’t eat meat and stopped eating chicken,” the actress adds. “My skin has gotten a lot better.”
Mendes admits it took some time for her to gain a healthy body image in Hollywood. “It doesn’t matter what you have or what you look like. It’s something everyone has to work at,” she explains. “I realize I have contributed to a certain happy, healthy, empowered image, but that’s not all of me.”
“I feel it’s important to let women know that I have similar struggles. What I tell girls is what they don’t like about themselves now, they will probably end up loving as an adult, because that’s what happened to me,” Mendes says. “When I am complimented on things that I didn’t like when I was 13, like my overbite and my mole, that’s when you realize that your imperfections are why people love you.”
Mendes is currently dating Ryan Gosling, 31, whom she met on the set of the upcoming movie The Place Beyond the Pines. “He’s your dream costar,” she gushes to Marie Claire. “I have never felt so creatively satisfied on a film.”
