Lisa Ann Walter Shares Her Favorite Easy On-Set Snack

Lisa Ann Walter Shares Her Favorite Easy On-Set Snack

A Conversation About Menopause and Self-Care

As an actress, Lisa Ann Walter has had to navigate the challenges of menopause while balancing her career. In this exclusive interview, she opens up about her experiences and shares her favorite easy on-set snack.

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A Reality Check

For many women in their 40s and 50s, experiencing the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause is an unavoidable reality, no matter how you prepare yourself for it. Symptoms like hot flashes, dry skin, and insomnia are uncomfortable, and the fact that the topic is not often talked about does not do folks any favors.

A Partnership for Change

Lisa Ann Walter, star of TV shows like "Abbott Elementary" and "The Parent Trap," has been prioritizing healthy habits and wants more people who are going through menopause to receive the information they deserve. That’s why she teamed up with Centrum Menopause Support on their new Hot Conversations campaign.

Destigmatizing Menopause

"We want to really destigmatize and normalize the conversation around menopause and setting up support in the workplace," she tells EatingWell. "Only a quarter of women report having any kind of menopause support in the workplace—I know how that feels."

Taking Care of Herself

At 18, Walter started selling cosmetics at a fancy department store, and she learned a lot about the ingredients that are necessary to keep your skin looking good. She is very lucky in that now she gets lots of compliments from people that do her makeup, saying, "You’ve got great skin." But she wishes she had taken care of the skin on her body. The skin on her body is dry, and it’s almost, she doesn’t want to say scaly because that sounds horrifying, but it’s not nice. The women she works with on "Abbott," she’s constantly looking at their skin and asking, "What do you use?" And they told her that they put her lotion on in the shower so it keeps the moisture in—that’s genius. It never occurred to her. She wishes she had done that sooner.

On-Set Snacks

I’m sitting in a makeup chair at 4:30 in the morning, and we don’t take lunch until the crew has gone through their morning hours. So I’m working almost eight hours before we break for a meal. I start my day with oatmeal or sometimes it’s Greek yogurt and berries. Egg whites are also amazing for me. That is the perfect snack because it actually will fuel me because of the protein. The other thing that the crew makes on our set that I like a lot: I love almond butter, and it’ll get messy to eat if you just try to eat it on an apple, so they’ll take a round apple slice and put on some almond butter mixed with whole rolled oats. That really helps fill me until lunchtime.

Common Misconceptions

The fact that it’s different for everybody. When you reach the age when menopause happens, you hear, "Oh, you’re in menopause. You’re dry, you’re done, you’ve lost energy, you don’t have the stamina, you don’t have the optimism, you’re not the same as a fresh young person." And all I have to say is, look at me and Sheryl Lee Ralph. With the success and the work that I do now, it’s not just my job on top of it and it’s not just when I’m lucky enough to have a great partner like Centrum. I have more energy, more drive, more stamina at this stage of my life than I’ve ever had before. I think it’s the idea of women becoming useless after a certain age.

Partnering with Centrum

Centrum was a brand that I trusted anyway because it was my grandmother’s favorite. Every time I went to Costco, I had to pick Nana up her package of Centrum Silver. That was her medicine, and she was the most well-read person about medicine and health that I knew, so I trusted that she knew that this brand was reliable and trustworthy. I looked at the ingredients on the Centrum Menopause Support bottle and I said, "Oh, it’s not just the clinical stuff but the herbal medications that I’ve read about, it’s right there in the formulation." So I was into it, and especially the fact that their approach was to make it easier for women to be in a job. It lasts different lengths of time for every woman. Something that people don’t realize is that my symptoms are not going to be your symptoms.

Philly Foodie

All of it. This year, I asked for people to send me any local food recommendations besides a cheesesteak: "Where do I need to go?" There was a big battle on my Instagram post about it between Rita’s and John’s for water ice in South Philly. Somebody also told me about a panzarotti. It’s like a calzone, but it’s fried. Sounds great to me; don’t threaten me with a good time!

Conclusion

In this interview, Lisa Ann Walter opens up about her experiences with menopause and shares her favorite easy on-set snack. She emphasizes the importance of taking care of oneself and destigmatizing the conversation around menopause. With her partnership with Centrum Menopause Support, she hopes to make a positive impact on the lives of women going through menopause.

FAQs

Q: What’s one habit you started doing to take care of yourself that you wish you started earlier?
A: I wish I had taken care of the skin on my body. The skin on my body is dry, and it’s almost, I don’t wanna say scaly because that sounds horrifying, but it’s not nice.

Q: Do you have any on-set meals or snacks that you swear by to keep you fueled?
A: I start my day with oatmeal or sometimes it’s Greek yogurt and berries. Egg whites are also amazing for me. That is the perfect snack because it actually will fuel me because of the protein.

Q: What’s a common misconception about menopause that you wish more people knew about?
A: The fact that it’s different for everybody. When you reach the age when menopause happens, you hear, "Oh, you’re in menopause. You’re dry, you’re done, you’ve lost energy, you don’t have the stamina, you don’t have the optimism, you’re not the same as a fresh young person."