First Lady Michelle Obama tells Rachael Ray why she works out at 4 a.m. and why she passes off her daughters’ math homework to their dad.
In an episode of Rachael Ray airing on Monday, September 17th, the First Lady dishes on health, fitness and motherhood. She also participated in a little fitness challenge against Rachael (photo above).
Some of the tidbits she shared:
–She gives a peek at what her first date with President Obama was like: “You know it was just how sweet he was on the first date, I mean our first date was just, I don’t want to say magical because that seems corny, but we did a little bit of everything. He took me to the art institute; we had lunch at the café, so he showed his little cultural side. We walked hand in hand down Michigan Avenue , we were in Chicago at the time, we had dinner and a movie. It was like a whole day. So I thought this guy, he’s kind of got it going on. I was quite impressed.”
How she gets her daughters, Sasha and Malia, to eat their vegetables: “They’ll let their opinions be known, but they have to eat what’s on their plates. If they’re not hungry I always say ‘finish your vegetables, and then don’t come back for desert’, and that usually gets them to finish everything.”
How the First Lady stays fit while traveling: “It’s definitely not easy, because first of all food is comfort, and when your traveling for the campaign, you’re like ‘oh I just want a hamburger and French fries,’ so yeah this is the tough time, but I try to bring a jump rope. I’ll go to the gym, but sometimes being the first lady being in a gym in a hotel kind of messes up the gym experience for everybody else in the hotel so I try to stay in my room.”
The First Lady passes the girls’ math homework off to President Obama: “Well there are subjects they excel in more than, and you know I just try to make them feel good about themselves. I think it starts with the day to day kind of stuff, I try to give them support so like math, and I’m not great at math. I try to pass the math on to Barack, but he sometimes he’s busy.”
The First Lady is up at 4am, to work out: “Early riser. I’m not a night owl, because I’m up at four o’clock, so I’m asleep at nine. To workout, got to get the workout in before you get on the plane.”
The First Lady says there was “no dreaming in the grocery store” as a child: “Well, she [the First Lady’s mother] always had her lists ahead of time, and coupons, and all that good stuff. My mom was very organized, I mean you didn’t just go into the store; we didn’t have that much money so you couldn’t dream in the grocery store. You went in there and got what you were going to get, no dreaming in the grocery store.”
Photo Credit: Rachael Ray Show