Jennifer Aniston Was Into Self-Care Before It Was a Thing

The actress and Aveeno global ambassador is all about prioritizing "me time," which makes her the perfect girl to lead the beauty brand's latest campaign #MomentForMe (which you may recognize from that "got a minute?" commercial). So naturally, we asked for her take on the recent 'self-care' craze. Her response? "Is that just happening currently? Because I feel like I've been conscious of self-care for many many years." There you have it, people! Jen was going braless (at least in basically every episode of Friends) and practicing self-care way before it was even cool. 

Here, Jen shares all of her self-care secrets-including her current fitness, beauty, and wellness obsessions. (So go ahead and treat yo' self-Jen says so!)

What "self-care" means to her: "I think it's important. I think you have to have a nice amount of "me" time-whatever it is. Even back [at the start of my career], I'd come home from work and-as corny as it sounds–I would always sit and watch the sunsets because they're so beautiful and it would just be a nice little time to chill out. Now, the morning is my self-care time because it gears me up for the day ahead. For me, that's meditation, which I do first thing when I wake up before I have my coffee, because if I get out of the room I won't sit back down. So I'll start with that to just kind of calm myself before I head out to exercise."

Her current workout obsessions: "I still love yoga and cardio, but these days it's been interval training. I think muscle confusion and switching it up is important. I work out at Rise Nation [a 30-minute total-body climbing workout] and with my trainer [Rise Nation founder] Jason who just has me carrying really heavy ropes around and throwing medicine balls against walls and stuff. I'd never really done anything like that before, but I love it. My girlfriend Emily Blunt was training for that Tom Cruise movie where she had to look like a ripped rock star and she recommended it to me. And then I take the class Taryn Toomey Class which I am in love with because it's sort of a fantastic moving meditation. You get your emotions out, you get your psyche cleaned, you get your body sweating-it checks a lot of boxes. So that's one I'm very into right now. You feel the power of the group energy-it's kind of an extraordinary experience. Not to expose too much, but the first time I did it I was in tears!"

Her one can't-miss wellness ritual: "I have a Jacuzzi® infrared sauna that I fell in love with. My friend Courteney Cox-you may know her-had a infrared sauna that she loved, It's such a game changer in terms of your skin detoxification and cell rejuvenation. So that I do a couple times a week right after I do the gym. I've noticed a real change in my energy, and my sleep, and my skin."

Her weekly self-care beauty routine: "Sunday is my spa day. I usually do a little mini facial time where I just give myself a good scrub, use a mask, and then the new Aveeno hydrating facial I leave it on overnight and when I wake up I have that dewy, glowing, twinkling skin."

Her injury recovery secret: "I just tried cryotherapy recently when I was having some injuries and I was amazed. First of all, that three minutes feels like four years, but it did really help I have to say! I've had every injury you can imagine. When you beat your body as much as I have with all the running and down dogging, eventually it tells you to bug off!"

Her go-to energizing breakfast (and forcing herself to become a breakfast person): "I make a quick shake with protein powder, spinach, maca powder, berries, and vitamin C powder I put in there that's pretty good. I'm not a big breakfast person, but I made myself become a breakfast person. I was always one of those people that just didn't eat in the morning but, of course, you're always hearing it's the most important meal of the day so I find that the shake is really good. Sometimes I do a fasted workout and just have a cup of coffee and then go and work out. You actually have more energy than you expect and [burn more calories] because you're dipping into the reserves as opposed to using the food you've just processed and ingested."

By Kylie Gilbert