I don’t go to the gym to look cute,” flatly states Emmy winning actress Jaime Pressly with a hint of a Southern lilt to her husky voice. Dressed in black capris hitting her well-toned calves, brightly coloured sports bra and black tank top, the North Carolina native has made a name for herself via modeling, followed by some seductive roles. “I go to work out my body.” At 5’5”, the blond, beautiful Pressly is as famous for her looks as she is for her award-winning role as trailer trash Joy Turner on My Name Is Earl.
She now stars in Fox TV’s I Hate My Teenage Daughter, as single mom Annie, struggling to raise her over-privileged teen daughter, ultimately having her turn out to be a mean girl, just like the ones who tortured Annie years ago. “I was never a bully,” explains Pressly on her school years, “yet in middle school, I was definitely the one who was bullied. I was a tomboy, very much into the arts, very athletic and kind of didn’t fit into the small Southern-town mold or formula. I’m still that tomboy.”
Pressly was a competitive gymnast and dancer as a kid, growing up in Kingston, North Carolina, yet by 15, she was modeling in Japan and Italy without a chaperone. “Some people find a tomboy sexy and some don’t. I personally don’t think about it. I find general confidence and strength sexy no matter who has it and most tomboys do possess those traits.” At 34, her confidence, strength, sophistication and style have given her the credentials to make a name for herself and corral lead roles in Hollywood. After Earl retreated into a trailer park sunset, Pressly took a two-year hiatus to be with her son Dezi, now four. “I got to be with my son, be home, be a mom and enjoy it all. That was actually the first time I had taken some downtime and experienced what it felt like to relax and unwind. It was nice.” Now back to shooting her TV sitcom, Pressly relaxes by working out or actually doing nothing. “Having the two years off, it gave me the opportunity to learn that it’s okay to take a deep breath and do something for myself or do nothing at all, which is just as good for you, if not better. I now feel I don’t have to have the most productive day every single day. The world won’t come to an end if I don’t get up at the crack of dawn on my day off…it’ll still be there for me to do the next day.”
Looking at Pressly’s well-toned body with curves in all the right places, it doesn’t seem she would give a nanosecond of thought to extra pounds. “I gained 42 pounds when I was pregnant,” she squeals. “However, I’ve always been somebody who has been athletic and driven in that way. I went back to the gym when Dezi was 10 days old, so I lost 35 pounds in the first three months and the rest came off about a month later.” Though she has a personal trainer who got her into shape, celebrities still have to sweat and strain like everyone else. “I was in the gym six days a week for two hours for those three months – now I don’t push as hard.” Today’s session, though, still isn’t for the faint of heart. She does about 300 reps of various squat positions, resistance exercises to work the lower back and butt, abdominal exercises utilizing gravity boots and weights and some cardio in the form of kickboxing or boxing.
Having been diagnosed eight years ago with hypoglycemia, Pressly keeps her blood sugar levels even by eating four-to-five small meals a day. “It’s much easier when I’m working because we have craft services there with food. I supplement with a multivitamin, B-12, acidophilus, omega-3 and biotin which is really good for nails, skin and hair,” she says. Healthy foods run the gamut from fresh vegetables to chicken to cheese. “I love cheese. Mozzarella is a very low-fat cheese and I eat a lot of that which is a good protein as well.” Spicing up her foods is an everyday happening. “Cayenne pepper is one of my favourite spices – it’s good for digestion and helps you burn fat. I also love rosemary which I grow in my backyard garden.” Besides rosemary, Pressly’s garden grows chili peppers, tomatoes, lavender, peppermint and cilantro.
While her TV life thrives on chaos, and there are personal days that prove challenging, Pressly keeps the peace in her new home with earth tones and a big Zen backyard, with lots of Buddhas, fountains, a garden and tranquility. “I have a huge Japanese Zen garden,” she explains of her Los Angeles area home. “The whole thing has bamboo surrounding it, and I have Chinese oil
paintings all over the house.” The colour palette reveals different earth tones in every room – olive greens, khakis and rust. Wherever you turn, there’s a sense of peace. “Every home I’ve owned has had earth-tone colours because it’s more of a homey feeling. A house is all white and a home has warm colours.” It’s
not just the Buddha statues in her home giving off a peaceful serenity – Pressly has an Om symbol tattoo. “It’s what Buddhists chant and how they meditate.” And she believes in their philosophy of various contemplative and meditative practices. “Instead of thinking of tomorrow, I think about right now and encourage positive actions,” she says. “And I think that’s more evident when you have a child. I like to take one day at a time. I don’t have fears of running out of time. Fear makes people do stupid things and act in stupid ways. Working hard for what you have, appreciating it and knowing it’s not going to fall in your lap – those are values I hope to instill in Dezi as he grows up.”
Though she lives every day to the fullest and always looks ahead, there is one thing that she has had to look back to and learn over and over again. “You can’t change people,” says the Hollywood veteran. “I guess it sounds like I haven’t learned it if I have to keep going through it. People are who they are; they might grow, learn, get better and wiser, yet the core of who they are is never going to change.” She pauses and then quickly adds, “Oh yeah, another lesson I’ve learned is looks can be deceiving; things aren’t always the way they appear. Don’t judge a book by its cover – especially people.”
