Jenna Dewan knows a thing or two about moving her body. Having started as a dancer early in her career—remember Step Up?—she’s still into all things fitness and wellness today.
As an incredibly busy actress, producer, and mother of two, she’s learned how to fine-tune and manage her schedule between work and family time. And she’s grateful whenever she finds moments to get her workouts in and even be “woowoo and spiritual” with her wellness routines.
The biggest lesson she’s learned about motherhood? Balance is key. For instance, while she usually eats healthily, she likes to indulge during special occasions, despite not having too big of a sweet tooth. Exhibit A: “We do not go any Easter without the Lindt Gold Bunny,” Jenna tells me at the brand’s Easter celebration event in New York City. “It has been a staple for me, personally.”
Want to know what else Jenna has in her meal rotation? Read on as she shares all the deets of her go-to foods, products, and exercises with Women’s Health.
Jenna follows an 80-20 outlook on her diet and life.
She is “pretty healthy,” gravitating towards produce, eating “mostly vegetarian” and drinking green juices. “But then I also want nachos at times, and I want French fries,” she says. “I let myself splurge when I feel it.” Love that!
Right now, she’s on a self-described “health kick,” so she takes her probiotics and drinks either a green juice, straight celery juice, or a smoothie first thing in the morning. Only after then will she have a cup of coffee.
She loves snacking with her kids.
Lunch is usually a salad with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, sometimes fruit, and a protein—which has mostly been tempeh lately.
In between lunch and dinner, she usually ends up snacking with her kids, who love hummus with crackers or veggies. Another a classic Jenna snack is cut-up apples and other fruit that she can munch on during the day.
Dinner looks different depending on the day.
For dinner, Jenna’s family typically eats a lot of Mexican food like vegetable stir-fries, casseroles, and enchiladas. (Yum!) They also often chow down on quinoa or rice bowls with black beans, but it really depends on what her day looks like. “Sometimes, I’ll have a big lunch meeting and I eat more, and I eat a lighter dinner,” she says.
Her kids “eat everything,” but are vegetarian as well, which makes it easy for Jenna. But the one thing she cannot touch is raw fish—including oysters, caviar, and sushi.
After dinner, she’ll wind down with tea or a glass of wine to cap off the day.
Jenna works out when she has time.
“Two kids is definitely more than work than one kid…and a full-time career and partnership and all of that,” she says. “I feel like I’m constantly scheduling in my mind.” (Her production company, EverHeart Productions, recently inked a deal with Lifetime and other future projects with Disney and Nickelodeon, so there’s no doubt that she’s one busy mama.)
So the first thing that tends to go when she runs out of time is self-care and workouts—but Jenna realizes that when she’s able to fit in those me-time rituals, she’s “a better person for it,” she says. “I’ll be a better person at work, I’ll be a better actress, I’ll be a better mom.”
She likes to walk and do strength training, Pilates, and yoga.
Still, Jenna finds sneaky ways to get movement in by tracking her many steps a day through her Oura ring. (She loves walking.) To put it simply: “I’m happier when I’m moving,” she says.
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She also strength trains with a trainer, and it makes the biggest difference for her, mentally and physically. “I feel really grounded and I feel really strong,” she says of the practice. She’ll also toss Pilates and yoga into the mix to get in different kinds of movement.
While she used to meditate twice a day, she’s happy with one session a day for now, and she sometimes tackles breathwork too. She describes her wellness routines as “biohacking this and that,” she says. “It all kind of comes down to balance for me.”
One versatile tool helps Jenna move while on the go.
Two words: exercise bands. She takes them with her whenever she travels: in hotels or on location for work. And she uses them during her Pilates Zoom classes and for resistance training.
Using them has been a lifelong practice for her. As a kid, she remembers being in dance classes and warming up with bands or by doing crunches for the first four and a half minutes of class. “Growing up, that instilled some sort of discipline in me and it was just a way of being, so that stuff is very natural,” she says.
No wonder she makes being a mom and juggling workouts look so easy. Crushing it, Jenna!
Addison Aloian (she/her) is an editorial assistant at Women’s Health. When she’s not writing about all things pop culture, health, beauty, and fashion, she loves hitting leg day at the gym, shopping at Trader Joe’s, and watching whichever hockey game is on TV. Her work has also appeared in Allure, StyleCaster, L’Officiel USA, V Magazine, and Modern Luxury Media.
