The model called the period "one of the worst times" in her life.
Being an international supermodel may sound glamorous, but the lifestyle can take a toll, as Gisele Bündchen recently revealed. In her latest appearance on The View on March 21, the supermodel opened up about the earlier years in her career and said that aside from walking the runways of major fashion shows and covering the front of magazines, her career fueled several habits that contributed to her struggling with her mental health.
"I wasn't really paying attention," she said. "I was just going, like, 100 miles an hour until I started having severe panic attacks in my early 20s and I didn't know what to do. It had been over a year and a half, and I was going to all the specialists. I wanted to feel better. I didn't know what to do."
Ultimately, Bündchen decided to seek consultation from a naturopath, who suggested she amend her diet in order to see some positive changes in her life.
"I told him about my day," she recalled, "'I drink, I smoke, I have coffee,' whatever. And he says, 'Listen, Adrenalina,'—he called me Adrenalina. He's like, 'Stop right there.' He says, ‘You're not sleeping. You're like in different time zones all the time. You're eating, like, terrible all day.' I mean, I was the type of person who was just, 'As long as it's in the supermarket, it's great for me to eat.' Anything. I was just like, 'Let me eat it.' With comfort food, you're traveling, you're tired."
In addition to incorporating better foods, the model also added more holistic practices into her routine. "After having a year and a half of, I would say, one of the worst times in my life, everything changed," Bündchen said. "Like, I became a different person. I started practicing meditation. I started practicing yoga. I started practicing breath work."
Such principles are the backbone of the model's forthcoming cookbook, Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul: "It's about having simple foods. I see my body as a temple. I don't want to feel sluggish after I eat. I don't want to have a stomach ache or be constipated. My whole goal is to live the longest I can living the best life that I can."
Nourish arrives on March 26.