It’s 6:45 a.m. and actor/comedienne Cheryl Hines is awakened by the sound of her daughter, Catherine Rose, 8 months, laughing in her crib. She has a new noise that she likes to make – Hines describes it as a strained laugh-cough that Catherine is very excited about. Even though Hines is not a morning person, she smiles as she rolls out of bed to get the baby. It looks like Catherine has inherited her mother’s wacky sense of humor, and Hines and her husband, Paul Young, founding partner of Principato-Young Entertainment and Chairman of L.A.’s Groundlings Theater, couldn’t be more pleased.
After a quick diaper change, Hines brings Catherine back to the couple’s bed, where the family will spend the next hour hanging out until the nanny arrives. Depending on what day it is, Hines then could be off to the set of HBO’s Golden Globe Award-winning series Curb Your Enthusiasm, where she plays Larry David’s wife, Cheryl, or she might be recording an episode of NBC’s Father of the Pride or even shooting a scene in one of several upcoming films she stars in, such as Herbie the Love Bug.
Today, however, Hines, 39, is happy to spend time chatting about her daughter and how her life has changed since becoming a mom.
FE: On days like these when you’re at home, what’s your life as a mom like?
CH: I’ll get up and work out and run around a little bit. Then I’ll come back and hang out with Catherine for the rest of the day. She will take a few 20-minute naps during the day, and at around 6 p.m. I will feed her some baby food and give her a bath and put her pajamas. Around 7, I will give her a bottle and rock her in the rocking chair in her room and put on the music and then put her to bed.
FE: What type of workout do you do?
CH: I walk on the treadmill for at least a mile and then depending on how much time I have, I’ll do some sit ups, do some curls with 8-pound weights and some really lame pushups. And then there are some big bands that I do shoulder exercises with.
FE: Do you work out at home or do you go to a gym?
CH: I do both. We have a treadmill here that I find really handy, although I get on and off the wagon. My husband is great about getting up and getting on the treadmill every day. I am not as consistent. So, if I have time, I like to go work out at the gym and if I don’t, I try to workout here. At the gym I mostly work out with a trainer. We will do different machines that they have at the gym and sometimes the stair machine or the [elliptical trainer].
FE: How do you incorporate Catherine into your fitness routine?
CH: On the weekends we go on family hikes. We like to go to Runyan Canyon and carry her in the Baby Bjorn [infant carrier]. She really likes to get out, this Catherine! When I can, I take her to lunch with me or I take her to the grocery store and then walk her around the block in her stroller. I took her to the grocery store the other day and she sat in the grocery cart like a big girl.
Walking is how I went into labor. We live on a very steep hill. I walked up and down this hill so many times and it finally happened. I still have memories of that, of when I was pregnant walking up and down this hill. It’s hard to get that out of my mind. When walking Catherine, I’m afraid with the stroller that one false move and she’ll start flying down the hill and then we’re really in trouble!
Read the rest of this interview in the
current issue of Family Energy!
