Time comes for us all, but wine doesn’t have to. In an interview with People, Gisele Bündchen discussed quitting drinking, and what happened when she went dry.
“Right after I turned 40, actually, I felt a huge difference between when I had the glass of wine and when I didn’t have the glass of wine,” she said. “It’s socially accepted to have a glass of wine. And people even say, ‘Oh, it’s healthy for you.’ Well, it is not healthy for me. If you want to ask of your body what I ask of my body, which is a lot, I can’t be having all these things (alcohol, caffeine) because they add up.”
Some of what she asks of her body includes parenting two kids (13-year-old Ben and 10-year-old Vivian), working out “every single day,” in her words (walking, yoga, weights, meditation), and the strains of work and travel as she co-parents with ex-husband Tom Brady, from whom she filed for divorce last October. She also, she said, was helping both of her parents through health problems.
“I feel like whenever it rains, it pours. With all the different twists and turns that life takes, all we can do is the best we can given what happens in our surroundings.”
She said she “immediately” felt the difference when she decided to quit drinking.
“I became more clear,” she said. “I felt a bit more foggy before. Now I’m very sharp and very present and I notice things that I didn’t notice before. When I’m not drinking, I’m sleeping much better. You have to be loving to yourself. You ask a lot of your body, you’ve got to do a reset. You have got to take care of this only vehicle you got, right?”
Bündchen defended self-care against those who might characterize it as selfish.
“No one is going to do it for you,” she said. “When you feel good, you’re a better mom, you’re a better friend, you’re calmer, you’re more patient, you’re more loving, you’re more grounded. So you can’t feel guilty about prioritizing yourself. Because that’s loving you and loving the people you love the most, which are going to be impacted by how well you are. Because if you’re sick, everyone’s hurts.”
It may also be considered self-care (in a financial sense, at least) that Bündchen is supporting her daughter’s passion for horse jumping while still not allowing her to get a second horse. “She’s obsessed,” she said of her daughter, who, as a certified Horse Girl, claims that she wants to be a professional equestrian.
“Now she’s already trying to get other horses,” she said. “She’s already like, ‘Mom. They told me I have to have a new horse to jump higher.’ I’m like, ‘You’re 10, calm down.’ Her horse jumps like a meter 20. ‘You’re going to be fine.’ I think it’s fine where you’re jumping right now.’ But she’s so courageous.”
She did, however, recently purchase a horse farm so Vivian can ride her horse, Item, in private. But that’s a no to a second horse, you hear? She has her limits.