Kathy Bates Lost 60 Pounds Using Mindfulness Techniques

“American Horror Story” star Kathy Bates recently lost nearly 60 pounds, and she feels fantastic. The legendary actor spoke exclusively with Us Weekly at WedMD’s Health Heroes event in New York City on Jan. 15 about exactly how she shed the weight. If you’re sick of restrictive fad diets that never seem to result in lasting weight loss, Bates’ method might appeal to you. Instead of cutting carbs via the keto diet or counting calories, Bates tried something much simpler: mindful eating.

“Mindfulness, just knowing when to push my plate away,” she told the magazine. “It’s no secret, it’s a biological thing, that at some point when you’re eating, you have this involuntary sigh and that’s really your brain and your stomach communicating that you’ve had enough. The trick is to pay attention to that and push your plate away.”

Although this seemingly simple approach was effective, Bates warns that it was no quick fix and took “years” to really pay off. While she didn’t experience an instant transformation, she’s grateful that she stuck with it—which she credits to “determination,” admitting she doesn’t like the word “willpower.”

Her only regret is that she didn’t try it sooner.

“I have never been in such good health,” she said. “I just had a physical. I’m doing great … I feel like a completely different person. I can move, I can walk. I just wish I had done it years ago.”

Mindfulness is a practice that is growing in popularity to help people in a variety of areas of life, from making chores like doing the dishes more pleasant to helping children learn to cope with anxiety.

When it comes to weight loss, mindfulness is a key component of intuitive eating, a method that seeks to end the cycle of yo-yo diets and help people eat in a more natural way guided by their hunger. Proponents say it results in a healthier relationship with food and your body.

Would you give intuitive eating and mindfulness a try?