Why TV Host Erin Andrews Stopped Eating ‘Like a Guy’
The life of a sports broadcaster can be difficult. It involves lots of travel and time away from friends and family. You can multiply that difficulty for women in the industry.
Erin Andrews has been succeeding as one of the most successful figures in sports broadcasting for around two decades. During that time, she’s no doubt had pressure to build unhealthy habits — failing to work out, having a less than optimal diet — as the pressure associated with her career and success began to mount.
But Andrews is able to maintain a healthy lifestyle in spite of all this. How did she do it?
Let’s take a closer look at how Erin Andrews stopped “eating like a guy.”
An overview of Erin Andrews career in broadcasting
Andrews has built quite the name for herself in the sports world. Andrews has been with Fox Sports since 2012. She’s covered the NFL and MLB, roaming the sideline and dugout for multiple Super Bowls, World Series, and All-Star games.
Before she was with Fox, Andrews spent eight years at ESPN where she first made her name in broadcasting. She was a features reporter for ESPN’s College GameDay along with hosting the first hour of the show on ESPNU. She was also a sideline reporter for college football, college basketball, and MLB games.
Prior to joining ESPN, Andrews was with Turner Sports covering the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Hawks as a studio host.
Over this time, Andrews has become one of the most recognizable personalities in sports broadcasting. After appearing on the show as a contestant, she later became a host of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which only raised her profile and prominence.
How Erin Andrews used to eat ‘like a guy’
There’s no question that Andrews has had to work extra hard in her field. Any way you look at it, the world of sports is a male-dominated profession: from the players on the field or court to the people covering the games for the media.
That means that Andrews has spent a disproportionate amount of time surrounded by men. For Andrews, this represented something of a challenge for keeping a healthy lifestyle.
According to an interview with Shape.com, she touched on the temptation to adopt some of the bad nutritional habits of her male coworkers:
“I try to stay in shape just to handle things like the stress of a job or everyday life. Working with men for the past 15 years, you end up eating and drinking like a guy!”
How Erin Andrews approaches her healthy lifestyle
Andrews said that while the men she was around (athletes and broadcasters) tended to eat well, they ate a lot. Her success came down to watching what she ate:
“Obviously as I’m getting older, I’m seeing changes in my body that I may not like… but I do love food, and I’m from the South. I’m not gonna lie, I eat fried chicken, I love macaroni and cheese, and I love grits. How could we not when we’re raised in the South?
Actually the men that I work with do eat really well, but they eat a lot…I just try to be really smart with it. I don’t need to finish my whole meal. But I’m not someone who starves herself, either.”
Andrews said that along with approaching her diet with moderation in mind, she also tries to work out every day. She doesn’t beat herself up if she misses a day but makes an honest attempt to do at least some sort of physical activity.
For working in two industries (athletics and entertainment) that places a premium on appearance, Andrews seems to have a sensible, realistic approach to nutrition and fitness: watch what you eat and stay active.