“You’re looking a little less jiggly right now.” He reached over and grabbed Janey’s waist and pinched her love handles. “Still have a ways to go.”
She saw her teammate dive beneath the barbed wire, which was Janey’s cue to take off. With Beau close behind her, Janey heaved the sandbag up and over her head with barely a grunt, lifting her knees high to slog through the muck. At the other side she threw the bag on the ground in front of Beau, causing him to stumble and fall facedown into the gloop.
“YASSSSSSS!” she heard CJ scream. Even her FitWand was excited for her. “You’ve reached peak heart rate. You are burning an optimal level of calories,” it announced. “You are a good human.”
Janey turned to see Beau fume as he wiped the sludge from his face, taking off a palm-sized swipe of concealer with it. She was halfway up the rope wall when she felt a hand clasp her ankle and realized Beau was trying to pull her off. She kicked down at him, ignoring whistles from the Tigers admonishing them. All eyes in the grimy warehouse were on them. This race brought out Janey’s basest instincts. She finally wiggled free from his slippery grip, taking great pleasure when her heel grazed his expensive new nose. She summoned all her arm strength to heave her body over the top of the wall and onto the trampoline below. She could see CJ standing at the finish line holding her phone in front of her taking a video. Next to her, Beau’s muse nervously chewed on a perfectly manicured finger. Janey could feel him gaining on her when she emerged from beneath the live wires. She stretched her arms to begin the monkey bars. Beau hated monkey bars. She remembered sitting with him at recess while he mocked the other children who organized races to see who could cross the bars the quickest.
“They call them monkey bars because they’re for stupid, brainless monkeys, Janey,” he’d say to her, and she’d nod, because she wanted him to think she was also too smart to do something so silly.
Not now. Now she wanted him to see how much better she was at this than he was, how much stronger and faster she could be. In the middle of the metal contraption Janey knew she had him beat. She threw her legs up over the bar and hung upside-down to face him as he dangled from the first rung. She smiled, flipped back right side up, and continued, crossing the finish line and bringing home more of a victory than the Tigers would ever know. Her teammates greeted her with high-fives, and CJ wrapped her arms around her waist. She’d already gathered Janey’s coat and purse and began moving her toward the exit as Beau dangled helplessly from the metal bars.
“You’re so fierce. You’re a fierce, fierce warrior queen and don’t you forget it,” she said. “Now let’s shower and find a bar where we can consume some empty calories and celebrate how fierce you are.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
www.elle.com
HOW HOLLYWOOD’S FAVORITE BLOGGER EATS EVERY DAY
She’s an Academy Award–winning actress, ridiculously successful blogger, skin-care guru, and a mom to two of Hollywood’s most adorable kids. And did we mention her killer bod? Kate Wells’s daily diet is filled with things you’ve never even heard of, but you’ll be dying to try.
By Maxima Moore
When juggling busy careers and lives, it’s not always easy to find the time to hit the gym or prepare a healthy meal. For inspiration we’re asking influential women in a variety of industries to share a typical day of eats and fitness to see how they balance a healthy lifestyle with their jam-packed schedules. Today we’re lucky enough to talk to our favorite Alister Kate Wells about the magical superfoods that keep her going.
6:00 A.M. I wake up according to my body’s circadian rhythm, but always before the sun rises. I’m the first in my household to get out of bed, so I cherish the moments of peace before the place turns into a zoo. I begin the day with ten minutes of Kundalini yoga and then treat myself to Moon Juice’s Beauty Milk, which is chock-full of tocotrienols, which boost muscles and regenerate tissues to promote cellular functions that make the skin really glow.
7:00 A.M. With the kids awake I become a full-time mommy and I need extra energy. I have a warm chi drink filled with 25 grams of Parsley Health’s Rebuild protein and two liposomal vitamin-B complex packets, which is a better energy boost than two espressos. I also take two scoops of probiotics. A healthy gut is a happy gut.
9:00 A.M. Once the kids are off to school I indulge in an alkalizing green juice to balance my moods. I promise you it’s even better than therapy. And a lot cheaper.
NOON-ISH. For lunch I make a super seaweed salad (raw and enzyme rich!) with sprouted brown rice proteins, daikon, maca, and cilantro with a raw tahini Dijon-based mustard. If I need a protein boost I’ll add a poached egg.
3:00 P.M. If I’m hungry midday I’ll binge on a banana, mango, and bee pollen paste. So decadent!
7:00 P.M. A couple of times a week I let myself indulge in whatever the hell I want to eat. If you keep your diet too strict you’ll never stick to a healthy plan. If I’m cooking for friends (like Mario, Jay & B, or Cameron) I’ll prepare something like a yummy squid ink pasta. I learned the recipe at a tiny bistro in Taormina, Sicily. But if it’s just the kids and me then I prepare simple chicken or fish tacos with a side of grilled kale and an avocado and papaya salad—it’s like summer on a plate! The taco shells are made from Kernza, a perennial wheatgrass known for its carbon-capturing root system.
11:00 P.M. I finish the day with what I like to call sex bark and spirit truffles. The sex bark is a natural aphrodisiac made from heirloom dark cacao and a ho-shou-wu herb tonic used by ancient scholars to improve the sex drive…every little bit helps, right, ladies? I then give myself an extra treat of spirit truffles made of dark chocolate, spirit dust, and hemp seeds. The spirit dust activates the pineal gland and the hemp seeds nourish the brain and stimulate the subconscious to make for incredibly vivid dreams and the deepest sleep you’ll ever have.
Ivy was taken aback when Kate Wells answered the door herself and smiled at them sweetly, wrapping Summer in a hug and delivering three kisses, Dutch style, on her cheeks.
“Hello darling. I’m so happy you came by. Is this the wonderful trainer you were telling me about?” Kate turned her attention to Ivy and took one of her hands in both of hers. “I’m Kate.”
Ivy stopped herself from saying “I know.” She still wasn’t sure how she was supposed to behave in front of celebrities. SoarBarre had plenty of famous guests, and she always erred on the side of treating them like anyone else. She once screamed at Meryl Streep in the front row that she was a lazy goddamned bitch. She felt terrible afterward and chugged a bottle of wine alone that night while watching Mamma Mia! Kate was prettier in person than she was on-screen and in magazines, softer, with the most perfect skin Ivy had ever seen on a human. It looked as though it were lit from within.