What Gisele Bündchen's eliminated from her diet to 'feel better' in her 40s than in her 20s
Gisele Bündchen has opened up about ageing, revealing she feels better in her forties than she did in her twenties.
The Brazilian supermodel, 41, said she feels "like I'm just beginning" as she shared the healthy lifestyle she's adopted since her early modelling days in her early twenties.
“I think I feel better in my forties than I did in my twenties and not just physically, because we’re all told that life is over at 40 and I feel like I’m just beginning,” she told Vogue.
While she's reaping the benefits of a practiced wellness routine now she explains it was quite a different story when she was making headlines as a supermodel in the 90s and noughties.
Bündchen made her runway debut in 1998 and soon became one of the most recognisable faces on the catwalk, thanks in part to her dating superstar Leonardo DiCaprio and being plastered across billboards all over the world.
But while it may have seemed to the outside world, she was living the dream, the former Victoria's Secrets angel explains that appearances can be deceiving.
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“From the outside, it looked like I had everything and I was just 22 years old," she says. "On the inside, I felt as if I’d hit rock bottom."
Bündchen tells the publication she had been suffering from crippling anxiety and panic attacks for more than a year-and-a-half before she reached this breaking point.
“I was starting my day with a mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream and three cigarettes, then drinking a bottle of wine every night. Imagine what that was doing to my mind...”
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The turning point came when a friend suggested seeking help from a naturopath, who immediately recommended a diet overhaul, which involved removing sugar, grains, dairy, caffeine, alcohol and cigarettes.
But this switch-up of her lifestyle came with some pretty intense withdrawal symptoms.
"I think those were the worst migraines I've ever had in my life," she explains. "I remember him [the doctor] saying, 'Well, do you want to live?' It was that simple."
Watch: Gisele Bündchen to publish cookbook
Three months later, however, the catwalk star says her debilitating symptoms were almost gone and her wellness journey, which sees her rising at 5am daily to meditate and work out, has continued ever since.
She's now putting her practice of healthy living into a cookbook that will reveal details of her famous nutritional meals that she has perfected over the years.
Read more: Eva Longoria travels with her trampoline to stay in shape: 'Never miss a day!'
Later in the interview, the model, who is married to legendary American footballer, Tom Brady, 44, with whom she shares children, son, Benjamin Rein, 12, and daughter, Vivian Lake, nine and is step-mother to Brady's teenage children from a previous relationship, also opened up about family life.
Bündchen says believes her and Brady have "complementary" roles within their partnership.
“I don’t think relationships just happen; it’s never the fairy tale people want to believe it is. It takes work to be really in sync with someone, especially after you have kids,” she says.
“His focus is on his career, mine is mostly on the kids. And I’m very grateful that he lets me take the reins when it comes to our family. He trusts my decisions.”
