The original "Bachelorette" Trista Sutter opened up about what made her decide to take control and get healthy.
In a revealing interview with Fox News Digital, she shared how the pandemic and being in lockdown affected her mental and physical health.
"I didn't get diagnosed with depression, but now it was a pandemic and kind of still is. So, I'm sure I am not alone in saying that it was just, you know, not the happiest of times," she said.
"I laid around and really was not active at all and ate whatever I wanted," she said. She also revealed that she had broken her ankle at the time, so physical activity was limited.
"You know, those two things combined with an almost 50-year-old body just don't bode well for staying fit. … I gained some weight, and not that I was overweight, if you will. I just did not feel healthy."
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With an impending trip to Sandals Royal Curaçao for her 50th birthday, alongside husband Ryan and several other couples, including fellow "Bachelorette" alums Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick, Trista knew she wanted to make a change.
"I know that there is this big trend, if you will, these days in loving your body, loving yourself, right? And [I] fully support that — I fully support everyone who accepts where they are in life and is grateful to be alive. You know, bottom line, and that's — I feel that way," she said before explaining that her education and degree in physical therapy made her think a certain way.
"I definitely believe in the benefits of fitness, you know, just living a healthy lifestyle. And I had lost track of that when we were home during the pandemic. I just kind of threw the towel in and said, 'You know what, I'm going to eat all the things, and I'm going to do none of the work.' And I thought that needed to change. I just for my own physical, mental, all the healths. … For myself, for my family, I want to be able to be around for a really long time."
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In 2017, Trista suffered a seizure during a family vacation to Croatia and also witnessed husband Ryan’s two-year battle with Lyme disease. Trista said she has become more health and wellness conscious as he continues his fight against the disease.
"You know, he's been very health conscious in the last year or two in terms of what he's eating. And so that is a little bit of a motivation for both of us … to just eat healthy. And so I definitely took that to heart," she said about what helped her get fit, along with diet and exercise.
In terms of Ryan's health, the former reality star and father of two is getting better.
"He's being guided by a company or an organization called the Heal Hive, and it essentially just means that he stings himself voluntarily with honey bees," she told Fox News Digital. "Honey bees and the bee venom is, we're hoping, going to cure him of his Lyme disease. … And it's actually helping."
Ryan and Trista have been married for 19 years, and their trip to the Sandals Royal Curaçao Resort was an opportunity to reconnect in their marriage.
"I think there are lots of things that go into what makes a successful marriage," she said. "The cliche things that you hear: communication and love and friendship and humor, forgiveness, really having the same kind of value system in terms of family and work ethic, and really just continuing to support each other and be there for each other," she said.
"He's my best friend. He is my biggest cheerleader. … Hopefully he feels that way about me, too. … There is not really a big secret. I feel like it's out there, and it's just a matter of staying committed to each other."
Trista and Ryan are the first couple from "The Bachelorette" franchise, the spinoff show from the wildly popular "The Bachelor." They remain one of the few successful relationships from the reality dating show.
In terms of "The Bachelorette" now, Trista said she'll always support the show but isn't sure she'd want to be a contestant.
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"They'll always be family. That said, I definitely don't know if I had been given the opportunity to do it now with social media and all of the pressures that are in the world these days. I don't know if I would have had the gumption to really even apply just knowing what people go through. But thankfully, you know, we were on the show when it was relatively innocent and we were still trying to kind of find our way and figure out what it actually was. So, I'm really grateful for that. I'm really grateful for the show. I will always be a fan."