Teri Hatcher is explaining just why she decided to snap and share an untouched picture of herself in a bikini.
The former “Desperate Housewives” star posted the photo on her Instagram page last week to celebrate what her body looks like at the age of 55.
“I took the picture because it was at the end of an 8-week gym challenge that I had been doing that involved me being on an anti-inflammatory diet and not to lose weight,” she said Tuesday on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna.
The actress explained the focuses of the challenge were being healthy and feeling better while incorporating weights to get stronger.
“That’s what I was trying to pay attention to,” Hatcher said. “And just be happier — be in a better mental place.”
Hatcher, who took the photo in the bedroom of her Los Angeles home, says she learned a valuable lesson about the point of the workouts.
“And so you had to turn in a photo of yourself at the end, that’s part of the challenge, but when I saw it, it wasn’t that I thought, ‘Oh, wow, look how great I look’ or anything,” she said. “I just felt like I wanted to be vulnerable. I wanted to say to women, to everybody, you know, ‘Here’s who I am at 55. This is it. I’m not lying. I’m a strong woman. I’m a strong person.’
“I think an important thing to me that I learned in the challenge was that exercise was not about looking good naked. Exercise was about mental well-being. So it kind of trickled out from there.”
At 55, Hatcher feels like she’s really come into her own.
“It’s an amazing stage of life. It’s a liberating stage because you spend, as a mom, 20 years taking care of your children, and it’s a time you get to reflect on yourself and what are you passionate about and how do you want to spend your time,” she said.
“And, so, that’s a fun place to be in that place. You know, when I say like I feel the best, you can’t kid yourself, like after menopause when you don’t have estrogen coursing through your body. You know, it’s no joke, the things that change. And I think more women need to be talking about that, so that we understand this sort of seven-year mysteriousness of hell that your body goes through.”
The actress knows there are positive ways to deal with getting older.
“There are things you can do. The anti-inflammatory diet, I think, is empowering — cutting out alcohol, or at least not making it your go-to reward at the end of every day, and finding something different. It makes you not as depressed, not as lethargic, not as achy, all those things. I think finding a community of support is really important as you age.”