At 93, Ellen Burstyn shows no signs of slowing down.
The Oscar, Tony and two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner – one of just 24 actors to achieve the industry’s ‘Triple Crown of Acting’ – recently revealed the habits that have helped her stay strong, independent and mobile well into her nineties.
‘I walk every day and work out in the gym and I take care of myself and it pays off,’ Burstyn – who received the Venice Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement this week – said in an interview with The Oldster.
‘I exercise, walk my dog several mornings a week or almost every morning, have a trainer [and] work out in the gym,’ she also told Fox News.
The Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore actor also revealed on Live with Kelly and Mark that she’s a regular in New York’s Central Park.
‘That’s how you get to be 93 and still kicking,’ she joked. ‘You can’t miss me, I’m in a giant sunhat – like, a comically large sunhat.’
Staying active has also helped her manage longstanding injuries.
‘I have a brace on my hand, [and my] wrist has been broken twice,’ she told The Oldster. ‘There’s a little arthritis that needs to be attended to, and I have to keep moving.’
Her lifestyle extends well beyond formal exercise, too.
‘I read an awful lot. I go to concerts. I play with my friends, have people over,’ she told Interview.
‘I seem to be busier than I’ve ever been in my whole life,’ she reflected to The Oldster. ‘I’m still working. It’s incredible.’
‘If you’d asked me when I was 20, “What do you think you’re going to be like at 93?” I wouldn’t have thought I’d be writing books and exercising and living well and having a grand old time,’ she continued, referring to her recently released book, Poetry Says It Better: Poems to Help You Wake Up (HarperOne, £19).
Changed of lifestyle in her 40s
Dia Dipasupil//Getty Images
Exercise is only one part of the equation.
Burstyn says many of the habits she credits for her health today began in midlife.
‘Around my 40s, I stopped doing everything unhealthily,’ she said. ‘I’m a vegetarian. I have been on and off all of my life, but since my 40s all the time.’
She also gave up alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana.
‘I don’t drink alcohol anymore, which I did in my 20s and 30s. I don’t smoke marijuana anymore or cigarettes. I just stopped all of that.’
‘Eating well’ has become another cornerstone of her approach to healthy ageing, she also told Interview.
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