I was 21, and I was in college, and I'd eat real healthy during the week, and then on the weekends I would reward myself, and I'd just go to town on whatever my parents had in the fridge. And my little brother would be like, 'Hey.' And so it was actually him that begged me to do my first contest.
My whole thing is I try to balance it as much as possible. I love to enjoy food. I've always said that if I eat healthy during the week, then I give myself more leeway to have some fun on the weekends. And I stick to the gym. I try to go five to six days a week.
We never had the most money, but my parents always did their best to take care of me and my brother. I had a real small but tight group of friends, and we would just ride our bikes all day after school and play video games, or we would actually wrestle out in the backyard.
I mean there's a college kid left in everyone. I bet you, too, if you could go back you would for a night or two, so why not? My brother's still in college, my little brother, so it's always good to go back and get a little glimpse of it and to hang out with him for a weekend or two.
If a man were poor or hungry, [some] would say, let us pray for him. I would suggest a little different regimen for a person in this condition: rather take him a bag of flour and a little beef or pork, and a little sugar and butter. A few such comforts will do him more good than your prayers. And I would be ashamed to ask the Lord to do something that I would not do myself. Then go to work and help the poor yourselves first, and do all you can for them, and then call upon God to do the balance.
I'm actually working on with Autism Speaks. Since my brother's 18, I wanted to work on a program for these older kids. A lot of the schools' special education programs end when the kids are 21, like my brother's school. What is next for these kids? I want him to be constantly active, and not just sitting at home. I want him to be constantly growing and it would be amazing if the funds could go to something like jobs for these kids, or a home where they can be together.
God was always important to me. I always believed. I just never knew Him until I had to know Him. He was my best friend I never hung out with. Then my life took the crazy, tragic, turn and I got on my knees and begged Him to show me Himself so I would know not only Him but myself.
Whatever your parents do, you get conditioned to that. I remember my dad would put gramophone record, and would sit and read a book. And then once a week, we would go and watch a movie.
My first attempt at real music was when I was 13. My first signed band was when I was 21; that failed. I got another deal at 26; that failed, and then I was broke. I imagine trying to handle this head-trip of an experience when I was younger - it would have just turned into too much, probably.We all go through ups and downs with drinking, and In think it would have probably been a lot worse had I experienced that before.
I've always had a fascination with interior design. As a kid, I used to go to real estate open houses with my parents on the weekends. Like a nerd! I would think of how I would piece rooms together at those open houses.
I never deprive myself. If I'm craving something once a week, then Ill go have it Ice cream or whatever, I just eat the foods I like.
I grew up having the library as the best place ever. I spent a lot of weekends there as a kid - my parents would drop me off and leave me there all day. I would just sit in the back and read whatever I could find.
Every Sunday after church we would go over to my grandparents' house and spend time with them and they had a pool in their backyard, and I would like eat as fast as I could just so I could be the first one in the pool. And then I would be the last one out.
Tennis was always there for me, which was lucky. I would go play baseball, basketball, football, hang with my brother, do whatever, and at the end of the day I'd come back and say, 'Hey, Mom, would you hit 15 minutes worth of balls with me?'
'Anna Karenina.' I read it in college. I was so engrossed that I couldn't stop reading it and neglected all my other studies. I would go to the library even on nice warm weekends and just lock myself up. I think that was the first time that I felt transformed by a book.
I anticipated we would go to college, and then we would fade out - that was kind of what we wanted at the time - but social media hung onto my brother and I, and thankfully, fans hung onto my brother and I, and I think it's one of the reasons that this reemergence can come back with a little more strength, and I'm very thankful for that.
If you think of the ice caps as the fridge of our planet, if your fridge at home died, the food you eat would go rotten, and you'd starve.