Alicia Silverstone Says This Is Why You Should Stop Eating by 5 P.M.
After nearly 30 years in Hollywood, Alicia Silverstone has finally accepted the inevitable: Getting up for 4 a.m. call times will never get easier. “There’s no good way I can get to sleep early enough to get up at that time and have that feel good,” she says from her home in Los Angeles. “It just doesn’t feel right. Who doesn’t like sleeping?!”
It’s because of her crazy schedule that sleep is such a sacred part of the 44-year-old’s self-care routine. “Sleep used to be a problem for me before I was vegan, but now it’s not,” she says. “I think when you eat well, when your body feels good, and your life is in order, sleeping isn’t complicated. For me, diet is everything.”
That should come as no surprise for anyone who’s followed the actor and producer since she became a household name in the mid ’90s. She cultivated her passion for the environment into an eco-friendly, healthy-living brand, starting with her 2009 best-selling book, The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet. From there, she launched The Kind Life website, aimed at diving deeper into the world of healthy, eco-friendly living. And she also wrote a second book following the birth of her son, Bear—now nine—titled The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful Beginning.
As if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Silverstone’s been in demand more than ever on the acting front. She stars in the hit Netflix Y.A. series The Baby-Sitters Club and has a new movie, Sister of the Groom, about a destination wedding weekend gone off the rails. (She also executive-produces the film, which is out on digital and on demand Friday, December 18.)
“I thought the character of Audrey would be so fun to play,” she says. “I really enjoyed that she’s unraveling. She doesn’t feel that great in her skin, she hasn’t been sleeping with her husband, and she’s unsatisfied with life.”
IRL, Silverstone is almost preternaturally chill. In our latest installment of Bedtime Stories, she fills us in on the sleep mask, cozy tea, and 4:30 p.m. dinnertime that get her there.
My nighttime goals
I have to pop the dogs outside to make sure they go to the bathroom. Then my son and I brush our teeth together. We’ve been flossing, which is very monumental! And we snuggle together. And then usually I try to catch up on things for the next day. In a fantasy planet, I turn everything off by 9 p.m. That’s the goal, so I’m not touching the computer or looking at anything. That way I just can just be quiet or read or snuggle.
The 900-page book I love to read
There was one time when I read Gregory David Roberts’s Shantaram, and that was like the greatest gift. To get to read this 900-page book, I felt like I was getting away with murder. But now I had to put all the books away from my room because they were taunting me. [Laughs.] I’m working back-to-back movies, so there’s not time for that right now.
The reason I eat dinner super early
My body’s hungry at the same time every day, so I really try to make a routine out of that. I’m pretty hungry for dinner around 4:30 p.m., which is ridiculous, but it’s true. So I usually eat somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., and then I don’t eat again because I’m fully satisfied.
What I eat for an amazing night’s sleep
My sleep changed so drastically when I changed my diet. When you get great sleep, you just feel so good. When you’re eating foods that aren’t helping your body—which most of us eat all the time—then your body’s never resting. It just spends all night processing junk, and going, “Ahhh!” It’s like trauma for the body. If I eat chocolate that day, I’m not gonna sleep well.
The most soothing nighttime beverage
If I want to have something really soothing at night, I’ll have my golden milk tea. I use MyKind Organics to make it, and it’s like having a treat because it’s turmeric, so it’s good for inflammation and boosting your immune system. Plus, it just feels cozy, so that’s a nice nighttime thing.
Where I buy thrifted bedding and clothes
I like buying certified organic or used. There’s too much clothes in the world, so I really try to not buy new things, and if I buy new things, I’m buying organic materials or eco-friendly materials. I like The Real Real or Crossroads. The Real Real is expensive, but I find such beautiful things on there that I use forever. And then you’re just giving something another life, which I feel so good about.
My bath-time staples
I love to take a bath. I don’t do it every night, but it feels good to get in hot water and put lavender oil or other essential oils in there.
The sleep mask that works like a charm
I used to be so freaked out by a sleep mask. I hated it for most of my life, but I just finally had to. I was working nights and I had to sleep in the daytime, so I got a mask and I love it. It’s called Sleep Master and it’s big and soft and my dog tries to chew on it a lot.
My go-to nighttime skin-care routine
I really like Body Deli’s melon cleanser. It’s organic and pretty. And I like their blueberry fusion scrub. I have two favorite serums: One is by Garden Apothecary, and the other is called The Everything Oil. That one takes a minute to get used to because when you first try it, it smells awful. They told me I was going to hate the smell, and I did. I hated it. But after I got past it—like two weeks later—I fell in love with it.
But I actually don’t believe that products do things to your skin—your diet does something to your skin. So, if I want my skin to look good, I eat well. Period. End of story. Eat well, sleep well, all your problems are solved.
Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. You can follow her on Instagram @jessicaradloff14.
