On the heels of his rehab visit, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is determined to stay sober — and he tells Us Weekly that going to the gym and having a workout routine helps him keep his body and mind in a healthy place.
“They did a lot of self-care there,” he tells Us exclusively of his one-month rehabilitation stint at HeadWaters at Origins holistic treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida, to treat depression and alcohol abuse. “So it’s really about taking care of yourself, eating healthy, going to the gym is a big one.”
Besides his fitness regimen and diet, the Jersey Shore: Family Vacation star, 33, embraced a holistic approach to wellness at the center. “Basically, we got massages and, like, reflexology, and acupuncture. It really helps you focus on yourself,” he says. “Because if you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anybody in your life. I can’t take care of my daughter, I can’t take care of my family. I can’t take care of my friends.”
Ortiz-Magro shares 10-month old daughter Ariana with his ex, Jen Harley.
Though the reality star has always had a workout routine, he tells Us his aims are different now: “I try to get to the gym every day. Before it was like, ‘Well, I’ve got to work out.’ [Now], it’s like just get to the gym and release some blood in your body, get it moving. It just makes you feel better and it helps your brain just start going, instead of just sitting there marinating on the couch.”
In the video below, Ortiz-Magro demonstrates his five simple go-to exercise moves: box jumps for legs, push-ups for biceps, shoulders and pecs, Russian twists for core and transverse abdominals, battle ropes for upper body and cardiovascular benefits and the foam roller to stretch it all out.
As for his diet, the MTV personality said cleaning it up helped with his moods. “It basically just was high protein. No more junk food,” he says. “That’s another thing I noticed when I was drinking is, I would feel depressed. I would eat and I would just eat junk food. My thing was candies and chips and cake. It was just like I didn’t care. I would still go to the gym and work out, but I wasn’t getting the results that I used to get.”
He credits the facility for helping to change his eating habits. “In there, they fed us really well. I really enjoyed it,” he says. “They kind of spoiled us in a way, because now I’m like, ‘Oh now I’ve got to go home and start ordering Uber Eats again!’”
And his goal is to avoid going back to the way he ate when Jersey Shore premiered in 2009. “It’s also taught me the way I used to eat when I first started the show, when I was really, really good shape is like, it’s not about how you look. It’s about how you feel,” he says. “When you eat healthy, you feel healthy. Then when you look healthy, you feel good.”
While all his cast members and MTV have been supportive of his lifestyle changes — including Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, who has been sober for three-plus years — Ortiz-Magro can count on Vinny Guadagnino as a diet buddy. The 31-year-old has cataloged his 50-pound weight loss and body transformation on the keto diet on his @ketoguido Instagram account. Not that Ortiz-Magro will give his buddy credit for the inspiration! “What I tell Vinny is, ‘Remember bro, I was dieting before you were dieting,” he says. “You were still eating Polish Sunday dinners when I was eating grilled chicken and lettuce like a rabbit.”
With reporting by Emily Longeretta
