How Petite ‘Carol’s Second Act’ Star Patricia Heaton Keeps the Pounds Off
Patricia Heaton, former star of Everybody Loves Raymond has a physique, and the energy to match it, that many people half her age envy. She hasn’t been shy in expressing her feelings about plastic surgery, either.
The Emmy-winning actress recently took on a new role in the CBS comedy, Carol’s Second Act. Heaton is in the lead role of Carol, a woman who decides to make a fresh start as a 50+-year-old and takes on an internship with much younger med school students.
The busy actress recently shared how she keeps herself in shape for her demanding schedule. Find out how she does it and about other endeavors she’s been involved in.
Heaton has been working with World Vision
The actress recently teamed up with World Vision, a charity focused on helping to feed four million children in nearly 100 countries. She spoke with Entertainment Weekly last year about her decision to partner with the charity.
“I love that 85 percent of donations go directly to helping people,” she says. “We want to know that our dollars are really making a difference and not just going to run an office. These funds are actually going to help build schools and clean-water pumps.”
Heaton has made numerous visits to various communities, including a Syrian refugee camp, and sponsors several children. She also appreciated that World Vision doesn’t just drop off supplies and leave, instead staying for extended periods in areas requiring their assistance.
“Because they go into these areas for 12-15 years, when a crisis happens, they are most likely already there on the ground able to immediately start impacting and affecting any crisis that comes along,” she shared.
‘Carol’s Second Act’ has been keeping Heaton on her toes
Heaton just ended her role as Frankie Heck on ABC’s The Middle, portraying the over-worked, underappreciated middle-aged mom at the beginning of the series and ending the show as a 50ish, empty-nesting mom.
Carol’s Second Act came at just the right time for Heaton, going through similar changes in her own in her life, she told Entertainment Tonight.
“What was perfect about it was my kids are pretty much out of the house and my second run in a long-running show was done and I was feeling a bit at sea not knowing what I was doing, not having a job and [wondering], who am I without these things?” she said. “This idea was so perfect. It was a while after The Middle had finished, maybe a year, so I had time to field those feelings that Carol was feeling. And, it’s been interesting to go on this journey with everyone and with Carol and explore that.”
How Heaton stays in such great shape
Heaton’s mother sadly passed away when the actress was 12 years old, so she takes her health seriously. She opened up to vivamagonline in 2014.
“I have to watch out for anxiety and depression,” she says. “I struggled with that when I was around 16 and then again in my 20s. Some was genetic, and some was situational—a delayed response to my mother’s death. So I know how very real those feelings of depression and anxiety are.”
“Being an actress helps me maintain my health, she told Parade also in 2014. It’s because I fear never working again if I don’t look good, so there’s motivation, and a very real pressure to be disciplined because I have to be on TV.”
“I’m always looking for new ways to try and torture myself. I’ve been doing a sort of Paleo thing, cutting out all sugar and “bad carbs” and eating low-fat foods.”
As for exercise, the 61-year-old shares that she gets “on my stationary bike, use my skiing machine…I’m also using an app I downloaded that gives me an intense workout in just seven minutes.”
Read more: Will There Be An ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Reboot?
