Angie Harmon called herself a liberal republican in 2013 so I’ve side eyed her for some time. She’s also spoken, at length, about how she’s discriminated against in Hollywood for being a republican. She has made some progress recently, so maybe she’s changed. In a recent interview with People Magazine Angie was spitting truths which were timely for me to read. Angie is 51 and she’s going through menopause. She told People magazine that exercise isn’t working like it used to, that she gets so bloated all the time, and that she’s basically struggling. OMG same.
Angie Harmon, 51, opened up to PEOPLE about how her body hasn’t been feeling like her own since hitting her 50s and going through menopause.
“The thing that I hate the most is when you’re going through menopause, your body just isn’t yours anymore,” she tells PEOPLE while explaining the changes and symptoms she’s experienced.
“The workouts that you used to do, they don’t work anymore. And I love salt so much, and I swear to God, if I even smell it, I wake up the next morning and my eyes are almost swollen, closed. My face is four times its size,” she said. “I mean, I have to think about all of these things now that I didn’t used to have to think about.”
Harmon says there are even times her face gets so “puffy” and “gross” that she doesn’t recognize herself in the mirror.
In addition to the changes in her body, Harmon admits that her energy levels have started to decrease and she’s just been accepting it.
“I think the beauty of being in my fifties is that I definitely have those days where I don’t feel like getting out of bed,” she says. “I’m exhausted. I just want to lay there and read a magazine about fashion or decorating and that’s it.”
“I’ll get up and make my daughter’s lunch and get her to school and do the whole thing and blah, blah, blah,” she adds. “But I feel like I’m coming back home and it’s one or two things, either laying down or working out. Whichever way the scale tips that day, that’s where I go and I don’t feel bad about it.”
As she tries to adjust, Harmon said that she’s turned to hot yoga to regulate the bodily changes that have come with menopause.
“I started hot yoga… and I mean you literally sweat out of your eyeballs and it is awesome,” said the Baywatch Nights star. “Hot yoga. I’m telling you, you get in there and you just sweat. I used to be a runner. I used to do all that stuff and I do still, but it just doesn’t do what it used to do to my body.”
“It’s just a StairMaster and hot yoga and three to five pound weights if I’m feeling really good that day,” Harmon continued.
As I go through this annoying sh-t, I think back to Viola Davis’s interview on Fallon where she said she’s angry and hungry all the time. (She’s talked about menopause in other interviews.) I can relate so much to that. Also, I have noticed that my face and hands are swollen frequently and that my joints hurt way more than they used to. I didn’t make the connection that the puffiness was due to menopause so it helped me a lot to read this. I can’t take hormones because I get high blood pressure from even the lowest dose birth control. I may sound exceptionally negative here but I blame that on menopause it is an absolute bitch. My only advice, and I’m saying this mostly for myself, is to just force yourself to exercise if you can because it helps. I have to drag my ass to the gym but once I do a workout I never regret it. Or just stay home and say screw it, like Angie mentioned. That’s better advice, to do whatever you need and not stress about it.
I forgot that she has a pet squirrel!
Photos credit: Darla Khazei / Avalon, Janet Mayer/Startraksphoto.com
