If you’re anything like Us, you fell down the Instagram rabbit hole this weekend as the Julianne Hough bachelorette party pics started rolling in one after the other, featuring major vacation (and body) envy. Just a few days before she left on her epic Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, weekend with girlfriends (see below), we caught up with the engaged Dancing With the Stars regular (fiancé is NHL player Brooks Laich) at a Fitbit cycling event at Swerve Fitness in NYC to launch Alta HR, the slimmest fitness wristband with continuous heart rate, to chat all things fitness, beauty and fashion. Read on for her tips!
Us: You always stay so active, whether it’s dancing, cycling or doing dance cardio. What’s in your gym bag?
JH: I always have my Proactiv Face Pads, because I like to clean right before I workout, and right after as well. Also, 100 percent, my Fitbit Alta HR, because it’s my life. Everything I do is revolved around that. I wake up, I check my sleep tracker, and then it reminds me to get up and move all day long. It’s my security blanket, and so I feel like I can go throughout my day without feeling like I’m lazy, because it’s constantly reminding me to move. I’ve got tons of hair ties. Sometimes I literally can’t find any hair ties, and they’re all in my car actually, because I take them out in the car and air-dry my hair. Also chapstick, the cocoa butter that looks like a gluestick, that big one. My La Mer Lip Balm. I always have a yoga towel and my mat. Sunglasses, always sunglasses. I love Oliver Peoples — they’re low-key and not too crazy, kind of chill.
Above: Fitbit Alta HR, $150, fitbit.com
Us: How do you find time to relax and unwind in the midst of working, traveling and planning for a wedding?
JH: I like to get to bed or start getting into bed around 10 o’clock. If I go to bed at 10, I’ll wake up at 7. I only really started doing that once I started dating my fiancé, because sleep is so important to him. So what am I going to do? I’m going to sit here? Guess I’ll go to sleep, too.
US: Congrats on your new MPG Sport athleisure line. What are some of your favorite pieces?
JH: We really went with colors and word blocking. I’m loving this really cute jacket with black and white letters on it, the black leggings with white piping and mesh and my vibrant blue sports bra with laser-cut detaiI. When I wear these to the airport, I look presentable, but cozy!
Us: When you’re on the Move Beyond Live on Tour with Derek, is the dancing enough to keep you in shape, or do you work out on top of it?
JH: One thing that I love is Core Power, and it’s all over the country. I can do Core Power in Boston, I can do it in Denver. So sometimes in the afternoon before a show we’ll get a whole bunch of people together and we’ll go and do a class, or if we have an outdoor show we’ll go up in the stadium and go up onto the lawn and do a big group workout. But it’s more about maintaining your body versus working out. I just need to be healthy and strong so I can get through the show.
Us: And what do you eat that energizes your body, since you’re so active? Before a workout, before a show.
JH: It’s all about moderation, but I realized that carbs are often talked about in a negative context, like, “Carbs make me fat or bloated.” But I think for me, I have to have some sort of carb, whether it’s rice or pasta or bread or whatever it is, and not big amounts, but I do need carbs because it makes my brain click on.
