Lorraine Bracco is looking seriously great these days, and it's all because she decided to take charge of her body — and her life — a few short years ago. Moved to action by her parents' deaths in 2010, the former Sopranos star, 59, started eating better and exercising, eventually dropping 35 pounds from her 183-pound frame. Now, as she prepares to impart her wisdom to others through a new book, To the Fullest, she's opening up about how she transformed both her body and her mind.
"We were sitting there, dividing these medications, who gets what when," Bracco tells ABC News of looking after her aging parents before they passed. Watching them, she says, made her realize she didn't want to live like that — so she made up her mind to start taking better care of herself.
With that in mind, the Rizzoli & Isles actress sought the help of a life coach, who helped her cut out sugar, dairy, and most grains. These days, she doesn't even crave the stuff.
Case in point? Prior to losing the weight, Bracco was a "huge Twizzler eater." Recently, however, she decided to treat herself to a small piece of the candy and found she couldn't even swallow it. "I ended up spitting it out because I no longer have a taste for it," she says. "It was so sugary, it was almost like poison to me."
Her treat of choice now? Fruit, gluten-free cookies, and Kind bars, which keep her fueled between Pilates classes. Bracco tells ABC she started off slow with her fitness goals but now goes to class three times a week.
"I am still a vibrant, contributing human being, and I am not dead yet," she says. "I laugh because I used to wake up and everything ached before I got out of bed. Now I jump out of bed! I'm doing something right."
