Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images(NEW YORK) — Danica Patrick is readying for retirement after she races the Indy 500 in May. Along with traveling, publicizing her wine brand and clothing line, and maybe even starting her own cooking show after retiring, Patrick plans to continue promoting her new book, Pretty Intense, a “90-day mind, body and food plan.”
The 35-year-old racing star spoke to ABC News about her book and what inspired her to write it.
Patrick says she was approached by her agent two years ago about writing a health and fitness book and loved the idea, having just completed a workout program that was “the most effective thing I had ever done.”
However, the racing star did not want to make it just “about Danica Patrick.” Instead, she wanted the book to challenge readers to lose weight and, more importantly, turn the 90-day program into a lifestyle.
“I knew it had to be three months,” she tells ABC News. “If your goal is to lose weight, you’re going to… but what will you going to do at the end of the end months? After you lose twenty pounds, thirty pounds… what are you going to do? That’s why I want people to fully immerse themselves into the program.”
The first part of turning Pretty Intense into a lifestyle: developing healthy mental habits.
“The mind is so powerful. We underestimate how powerful our thoughts are even that we have to ourselves,” Patrick tells ABC News. She says positive thoughts are an integral part of staying disciplined and focused during times when people may not feel like exercising.
She says, “I have that kind of hippie, mindfulness, spiritual awareness to me… so I wanted to incorporate part of that into the book… Happy thoughts lead to a happy life. You can’t be happy without happy thoughts.”
The second part of the book focuses on various workouts, and part three features 50 recipes, all of which Patrick wrote.
“Eating shouldn’t be a punishment,” she tells ABC News, adding, “If you think of it as a way to take care of yourself and treat yourself well and be a better version of yourself… it will become longstanding.”
Patrick did not mention anything about publishing more books just yet. For now, she is focused on introducing her 90-day program to readers to help them lose weight, get fit, and change their everyday lives:
“It will absolutely change your life–and I included ‘absolutely’ on the cover because it will. You will stop viewing these things as punishments and you will start having new patterns in your life.”
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