Ms. Namita Nayyar:
How has your preparation been going while preparing for the character?
Ms. Marisol Nichols:
It’s been an interesting ride….I’ve researched different characters in forming Hermione. She’s a bit of a blend of Cate Blanchett in Carol in terms of her wealth and status, Claire from House of Cards for her ruthlessness in business, and my own instincts as a mother raising my little girl. She has had her twists and turns as the season goes on and changes that surprised even me as I read where my character was going and the choices she made. But I believe the core of her and what drives her stays true through all of it.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine that you may wish to share?
Ms. Marisol Nichols:
I have done almost everything so I know what works for my body. I know that HIIT, intensive training is the rage but for me, it doesn’t work. I respond to low weights, lots and lots of core exercises for strength as in Pilates and floor work, and then simple walking for 40 minutes with stretching, 3x a week. I love to work hard and I have to reel myself back from pushing too much, I’m strong. When I do too much I find I get the opposite effect. My body will be swollen and inflamed and won’t let go of anything. So for me, slow and steady while strengthening my core always has worked like nothing else and helped me to not only get to the size I wanted to be but also to stay there.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Do you take some special diet or have a strict menu that you follow to remain healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Marisol Nichols:
I do. Diet is always so important but I don’t like limiting myself either. Again, I’ve gone through so many different trials and errors till I found what worked for me about 10 years ago while I was filming 24, and I’ve stuck to it ever since. I did something called the 1st Personal Diet by this Dr. Cohen, a South African. He was an OB/GYN and he was researching how to regulate a woman’s hormones through food to help them get pregnant. He noticed that certain foods create hormonal signals in the body to either store or release fat. This intrigued me mainly because everything else I tried didn’t work, or I couldn’t stick to it and the hormonal side of things seemed interesting. So I did this and it worked amazingly for me. It worked so well that I can now loosely adhere to the guidelines about 80% of the time and the rest of the time I can enjoy myself. As long as I go back to what worked for 80% of the time then I’m good. It’s been a real relief for me because I struggled for so long yo yo’ing all the time. You can look at pictures me from 2007 and before and see the difference.
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