The dancing queen maintains a sunny disposition and amazing figure thanks to her can-do attitude, which means having it all — including carbs!
She’s not one to brag, but Julianne Hough knows that that she radiates “sunshine and happiness and positivity.” Those irresistible qualities are what made the charismatic, blue-eyed beauty a household name practically overnight as a dancer and judge on Dancing With the Stars — and later boosted her to fame as a country music artist and an actress on the big screen, starring in movies like Rock of Ages (2012) opposite Tom Cruise and Dirty Grandpa (2016) with Robert De Niro.
What’s the secret to the Emmy-winning, triple-threat performer’s runaway success?
“I don’t second-guess myself,” Hough has said. “Whatever decision I make is the right decision because I make it be the right decision. I could say, ‘Oh, I probably shouldn’t have done that,’ but screw that! I’ve got to learn from it.”
Confidence aside, the 32-year-old’s recipe for happiness and living her best life is simple: putting first things first — namely, her two-year marriage to hockey pro Brooks Laich, staying fit by working out and eating well. Speaking of which, Hough maintains her famously taut, trim figure — don’t hate her for it — with a balanced diet that includes starchy carbs.
The holidays are always an especially joyous time for Hough as the countdown to Thanksgiving on Nov. 26 is on. But she stays merry all year long by grabbing life by the horns. “I’m adventurous,” she says. “If there’s something in front of me that scares me, I think I should do it.” Full steam ahead.
Keeping The Romance Alive
Hough tied the knot with Laich in 2017, and their marriage initially went from strength to strength until the unexpected announcement in May that they had separated. Grazia confirmed that Julianne, 32, and Laich, 37, are trying to make their marriage work after announcing their separation in May.
“For anybody that you love and that you care about, that’s all you want,” her brother, Derek, said last week. “You just want people around you to be happy and to support them in any way you possibly can and to serve them. That’s really the key. For me, whenever I’m at my happiest is when I’m helping others or serving others — and sometimes I could just be holding a space for somebody and that’s it.”
He added: “I think that’s what we all want, right? We just want all of our family, we want all of our friends and everybody to be happy. And then if we can help that, then we’re happy to do it.”
Prior to the split and reconciliation, Hough took fans inside her marriage. “Every day is just like an evolution, and you get to grow together,” she’s said. “I was [recently thinking] like, ‘Man, I cannot wait to see how much I love [Brooks] in, like, 20 years.”
Openness and no-holds-barred honesty have kept their union strong. When she was younger, “I did and said things because I wanted to be accepted. But there’s a point where you grow up. Now I’m much more honest with myself and other people,” she’s said.
In August 2019, Hough revealed that she’s “not straight” and said that since telling her husband, they’ve only become closer and even more intimate. “I’ve never felt more like a woman in my life,” she explained, but even Hough was hesitant to come clean at first. “I was connecting to the woman inside that doesn’t need anything, versus the little girl that looked to him to protect me,” Hough said. “I was like, ‘Is he going to love this version of me?’ But the more I dropped into my most authentic self, the more attracted he was to me.”
For his part, Laich, says his significant other has also helped him become his best self. Before they met, “I had no balance and no true happiness outside of the sport, [but] that changed when I met Julianne,” said the hockey pro, who recently revealed that they began IVF treatments last year and plan to start a family — hopefully, a large one. “She’d make the most amazing mother,” he added. “Julianne has the best heart in the world — that’s why I fell in love with her.”
Dancing Machine
The Dancing With the Stars alum and judge takes fitness seriously on and off the dance floor. Hough works out five or six days a week, mixing weight training, yoga, SoulCycle, running and hiking — all of which she regularly documents to inspire her 5 million-plus Instagram followers. In 2016, the performer also launched an athleisure line with MPG Sport. Dancing, though, is her lifeline.
“I felt like that was my superpower,” says Hough, who began dancing competitively when she was 9 years old. “It really transformed my experience and gave me a way to express myself.” Movement doesn’t just help her stay physically strong, but mentally fit as well. “I believe that those two-work hand in hand,” she explains, which is why her daily routine is to rise, shine and then “put music on immediately, which helps my auditory and sensory experience… So then my body is activated and I’m moving, which changes my whole energy level for the day.”
Having It All — Including Carbs!
Staying active, though, is just one part of staying healthy. “The rest is sleeping — and what you put in your body,” says Hough, who maintains her enviably trim 5-foot-3 figure by whipping up nutritious meals at home — and never, ever, skimping on carbs! “I’ll eat them all at every single meal. I think when you deprive yourself of carbs, that’s when you crave pasta and pizza and all of those things.” Instead, Hough never misses an opportunity to carb up by indulging in a small amount of healthy starch, like corn, peas or whole grains. Her go-to favorite — a sweet potato she enjoys with chicken and veggies — “helps my brain focus,” she says. “I thought carbs were my enemy, but they’re actually my best friend.”
