Interview With Celebrity Trainer Nicole Stuart

I had an opportunity to interview Nicole Stuart, actress and celebrity trainer a couple weeks ago. She was in Minneapolis for the Fabletics store opening at the Mall of America that I blogged about here. It was so much fun to talk to her, learn a few new things about fitness, and of course hear about Kate Hudson’s fitness approach. Nicole has been training celebrities since 1997, and prefers pilates to all other techniques.

And while I realize that I am far from being a good interviewer/journalist, here are a few highlights from our conversation.

A lot of my friends wanted to know specifically about Kate Hudson’s fitness routine.

Nicole: I mostly do pilates with her, but it’s a mish mosh of everything, including TRX (which stands for Total body Resistance eXercise). We also used to run a lot, but I don’t run outside anymore. Kate also does hot yoga. She is open to trying anything, which makes training her a lot of fun and really easy, because you can give her a task and then she does it really well.

I also wanted to ask a few questions about my personal training routine, which mostly consists of running and yoga.

Nicole: Are you happy? Then I wouldn’t change a thing!

There are new workouts popping up almost every day, which is definitely overwhelming. How do you find the right one?

Nicole: I think if you are doing something for a while, and then start thinking “Ugh, I don’t want to go”, start dragging your heels, then you should find something different. But if you are excited to go, and are feeling good after, you like your teacher or you enjoy running with your friends, or whatever it is… I think we know what works and what doesn’t work for our own bodies. And I think we should listen to that inner intuition more.

With all the workouts popping up, there are probably twice as many new diets. Do you have any advice on what to eat before and after the workouts, or on meals in general?

Nicole: I always say – clean eating is very good, simple, nothing processed. If you really want to be strict – no meat, no dairy. Greens, greens, greens, vegetables, vegetables, vegetables. And you can get creative with that. I am getting back more into it after having a baby, so I’ve been a little relaxed on everything. However, I just did this amazing soup cleanse by Elissa Goodman, and I love it. I am doing it again! It’s a 5 day cleanse.

Of course I had to ask about living in LA.

Nicole: I love living in LA, Minnesota is beautiful, but we don’t have the weather element. I love the snow, but I wouldn’t want to live in it (Me neither, Nicole, me neither!). The cool thing about Fabletics though is that they not only have clothes for every type of exercise, but also the weather (freezing, or hot and sunny, you name it).

I was also curious to know if Nicole helped out with any of the product development or design aspect of the creative process.

Nicole: Unfortunately I don’t. It’s a Kate thing. But she asks me if I like certain things

Do you have any favorite Fabletics pieces?

Nicole: I love the Solar legging and capri, I think they are very basic, plus a new print is launched every month, so that’s the fun thing that changes constantly. As soon as I find an outfit that I’ll wear and wear and wear, a new month comes and a whole new set of clothes comes out. The bright colors motivate me to work out, I want to go run and jump, and be happy. The print also makes your butt look good!

Fabletics is opening 11 more stores this year, so I told them to make sure to invite me to the next store opening