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Kelsea Ballerini opened up about her health and fitness journey over the years, including why she was on a “rocky road,” and how she overcame it.
Ballerini, 31, appears on the November/December Women’s Health cover story. She spoke about it with powerhouse artist Kelly Clarkson in an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Monday (November 4). Clarkson shared photos from Ballerini’s Women’s Health photoshoot, and asked how important fitness is to the “First Rodeo” singer-songwriter.
“I think for me, it starts with the mental, you know?” Ballerini responded. “For a long time, I’ve had a kind of rocky road with the relationship with my body. And I think for a long time, I was working out for the wrong reasons, and overdoing it. And I think I just had to get to a point where, in my head, I knew that I was — I wanted to move my body so I could feel good about myself, not for any other reason. I wanted to feel strong. I wanted to feel confident and healthy, and to be able to do shows and have the breath support, and not do it to look a certain way, but do it to feel a certain way. And I think I really had to reevaluate that relationship.”
Ballerini also shared her go-to workout in her Women’s Health interview. She uses a Megaformer, similar to a Pilates reformer, because “I love how it makes me feel doing it—I feel strong. Having a good relationship with how I’m moving my body has changed everything for me.”
The interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show arrives shortly after Ballerini released her fifth full-length album, Patterns. The 15-track record includes “Sorry Mom,” “Two Things,” “Cowboys Cry Too” with Noah Kahan, and more. Ballerini teamed up with an all-female team of songwriters and producers to create the album ahead of her first-ever headlining arena tour: Jessie Jo Dillion, Alysa Vanderheym, Hillary Lindsey, and Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town. Ballerini told Clarkson, “they walked life with me for a year and a half, and we made a record that I’m so proud of.”
Ballerini also offered two bonus tracks exclusively via digital download on her website for a limited time. One of those bonus tracks was “To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak,” a love song that fans have widely requested since Ballerini teased it on TikTok and performed it with Lindsey and Fairchild at the Grand Ole Opry. Ballerini and Clarkson performed it as a duet together on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Clarkson said it’s “a really beautiful song. it’s so beautiful. And it’s meaningful because a lot of people feel like (they’re) damaged or discarded or whatever in relationships and afterwards. And so, to find someone that can see the beauty in that, and the shine instead of the dull, it’s pretty magical.”