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" Who&amp;#039;d-a thunk that the movie world&amp;#039;s most iconic, and endearing, superficialite would grow up to be a one-woman vegan ambassador for the planet? What started out as a passion for animals has led Alicia Silverstone, the teenage Clueless superstar, to spend the last several years remaking herself into a champion of the reduce-reuse-recycle lifestyle. Both Alicia and her husband of four years, musician Christopher Jarecki, are big believers that simple green choices can have significant personal and environmental impacts. She&amp;#039;s a cheerleader rather than a taskmaster, hoping to guide people to, in her words, &amp;quot;their deepest, bestest selves.&amp;quot; This month, as Alicia turns 33, she amps up the effort with publication of The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet, which she coauthored with Neal Barnard, M.D. The book offers vegan recipes, medical info about the pros and cons of different foods, and handy tips for eco-conscientious living. She&amp;#039;s also introducing a line of environmentally friendly cosmetics bags and makeup brushes in December called ecoTools by Alicia Silverstone; they&amp;#039;ll be available at Walgreens and Target stores. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m always looking for inspiration,&amp;quot; Alicia says over a plate of vegan nachos at the Los Angeles caf\u00E9 Real Food Daily. &amp;quot;Like, Can I learn from you? Can you teach me stuff about this life? I always want to be inspired by people and keep growing. I feel more vibrant today than when I was 19!&amp;quot;  Looking back over your life so far, which birthdays have felt biggest? When I was little, every birthday was big \u2014 you just couldn&amp;#039;t wait to get older. But a lot of great things happened around 30. From 28 to now has been a time of incredible change and growth, deepening and ripening, good stuff. It&amp;#039;s been hard too, because when you&amp;#039;re going through that stuff you have to go down into the mud. They&amp;#039;ve been really interesting years. What was the worst part of your 20s? Anxiety. I had a lot of anxiety. I remember saying, &amp;quot;I want to get rid of this anxiety.&amp;quot; Just feeling uncomfortable. And now it&amp;#039;s all gone. It&amp;#039;s like, What? I don&amp;#039;t know what anxiety is like anymore.  The huge success of Clueless must also have been overwhelming. It was overwhelming. And I was really isolated. From 19 to 28 there was a lot of turmoil in my life, but in a stuck way. Then, around 28, my life started to get shaken up. I realized I wanted to grow more and that anything that wasn&amp;#039;t working in my life, I could fix it. I feel like I came into my womanhood. And that was when I got married. I wasn&amp;#039;t attached to the idea of marriage, but something about Christopher and me \u2014 when we got married, things got more clear. My life and my decisions. Maybe knowing you&amp;#039;d found &amp;quot;the guy&amp;quot; gave you the time and confidence to do what you really wanted to do. Maybe. I think what Christopher did for me was to free up my head. Sometimes I think being single is fantastic. How exciting! But I can underestimate how being so happy in my relationship frees me to grow as a woman. When I hear my girlfriends stressing out about guys, I think, Wow, I&amp;#039;m so lucky, because I don&amp;#039;t even think about those things. Check out the October cover gallery for exclusive pictures of Ashlee Simpson, Alicia Silverstone, and Connie Britton! Plus, you share the same passions. He&amp;#039;s an amazing guy, my best friend. One of the things about him that inspires me continuously is how willing he is to grow. When people aren&amp;#039;t willing to do that, it&amp;#039;s really hard. When you see the potential and joy that comes from growth.... Yeah, it&amp;#039;s hard when you have to step into the fire \u2014 but if you can get through it, it&amp;#039;s beautiful. Christopher and I, we encourage each other to grow. He might nudge me: &amp;quot;Hey, lady, you&amp;#039;re slacking.&amp;quot; And I can nudge back: &amp;quot;Hey, dude, what&amp;#039;s up?&amp;quot; What else do you love about your 30s? I have these tools that allow me to feel so good. Most people are getting older and older because they&amp;#039;re just doing more damage. But when you&amp;#039;re not doing damage, your body is healing and nourishing itself. I don&amp;#039;t take any of the medications I took when I was younger: antibiotics, antacids, aspirin, asthma inhalers, ulcer medication, allergy shots. That inspired your book? I want people to realize that you don&amp;#039;t have to be sick. A lot of girls can&amp;#039;t poo! That is really bad. You can fix that. A lot of people have cholesterol or heart issues. I believe none of it&amp;#039;s necessary if you just eat well. Every step of the book has been heart-opening. It&amp;#039;s so great to get all my thoughts into one organized space. It&amp;#039;s really how I want to say it. What&amp;#039;s less than great about the 30s? This thing on my head&amp;#039;s growing [points to the mole on her forehead]. It&amp;#039;s got a life of its own. It&amp;#039;s like a wart I&amp;#039;ve had my whole life, a beauty mark turning into a full-blown witch wart. A doctor&amp;#039;s looked at it, and it&amp;#039;s nothing. And I don&amp;#039;t want to have it removed because \u2014 like, if my leg falls off, I&amp;#039;ll go to a doctor. But until then, I&amp;#039;m okay. Do you have any role models? Women you especially admire?  So many. I love Susan Sarandon. She&amp;#039;s such a sexy, sassy, sophisticated woman \u2014 and playful. She&amp;#039;s such a great example of what a hot woman is. Check out the October cover gallery for exclusive pictures of Ashlee Simpson, Alicia Silverstone, and Connie Britton! Someone else you admire, your friend and cover mate Connie Britton, told me a funny story about how you met. Oh, that I pulled over the car and attacked her? I just love her. She is so amazing. [Here&amp;#039;s how Connie remembers it: &amp;quot;I was walking down the street in L.A., and suddenly this hybrid \u2014 Alicia would want me to clarify that it was a hybrid \u2014 swerves over to the side of the road. The window rolls down and out pops Alicia&amp;#039;s head. She was with her husband, and they said, &amp;#039;We love your show!&amp;#039; It was such a hilarious and flattering moment.&amp;quot;]  Can you see yourself at 80? I hope I&amp;#039;m dancing a lot and doing yoga and taking long walks. I hope I live on the beach somewhere and have beautiful children and beautiful grandchildren and a really deep loving family. So you want to have kids? This decade? Yeah. This decade. Do you think there&amp;#039;s a sexiest decade? I would think that every day that you&amp;#039;re carving out the life you want to live, nourishing your body, and limiting the damage, that you keep getting sexier and sexier. What&amp;#039;s an ideal age in your mind? Right now. And whatever &amp;quot;now&amp;quot; is until forever. Check out the October cover gallery for exclusive pictures of Ashlee Simpson, Alicia Silverstone, and Connie Britton! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/interviews/a5229/alicia-silverstone-interview/>