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" What is a life &amp;quot;rule&amp;quot; you used to follow, but feel like you can now break without judgment? You would think I would say, &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t do this because I have to cover such and such a story,&amp;quot; but more often than not I make whatever&amp;#039;s happening in my daughters&amp;#039; lives a higher priority than my work obligations. I would always say to Matt [Lauer, her former Today cohost], &amp;quot;Tell them I left early to go to my daughter&amp;#039;s recital.&amp;quot; I thought that was an important message for employers\u2014to see that having some flexibility for working mothers makes for a happier, more fulfilled, and less stressed-out employee. Women can be so unkind to themselves as they age. How have you made peace with the aging process? Women are so hard on themselves and so hard on each other. I used to be crushed by critical comments in the paper\u2014or later online\u2014or if someone wrote a mean article about me. I remember I did something at the Met with Tom Brokaw at some night at the opera for PBS, and someone wrote that I had chipmunk cheeks. I was like, &amp;quot;Aahhh!&amp;quot; I obsessed about it for two days. Now I&amp;#039;m like, &amp;quot;Ugh, whatever.&amp;quot; Sometimes when I start being judgmental or critical\u2014which is so second nature to so many of us today, especially given the way modern media is, it&amp;#039;s sort of a blood sport\u2014this what I say to myself: &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s doing the best she can.&amp;quot; I feel like that gives everybody permission to not be judged. Though, when people are critical and say critical things about my appearance, I&amp;#039;m always tempted to say, &amp;quot;Could you please send me an 8x10 photo so I can analyze your appearance?&amp;quot; Really! We have to ask\u2014as someone who seems to know a lot about leaning in, how do you manage to find work-life balance? I dislike that question so much, because I&amp;#039;m in such a different situation [than most women.] I think it&amp;#039;s so unfair for one woman to give advice to other women when financial situations are so different. I&amp;#039;ve been very fortunate that I have been very well-compensated for many years, and that has afforded me to have a live-in nanny when I&amp;#039;m at work and to have someone who helps me with shopping and helps keep my house in order\u2014the same can&amp;#039;t be said for a lot of working women who are sometimes doing two jobs and can&amp;#039;t afford great child-care or people to support her. I&amp;#039;ve been able to do it because I&amp;#039;ve had these people in my life, whom I feel incredibly grateful for and incredibly grateful to. So to discuss it is just kind of unfair and unrealistic. It puts pressure on women\u2014even more than they are feeling already\u2014and I never want to do that. There&amp;#039;s no one-size-fits-all philosophy or way of doing things, and I think that&amp;#039;s why that question is so difficult. Men are never asked that question. Brian Williams is never asked, &amp;quot;How do you do it all?&amp;quot;, right? I think that&amp;#039;s interesting, because as fathers take an increasingly bigger role in the lives of their children, they should be asked that. How did you deal with breaking the news to your kids that you were going to start dating? I waited a couple of years, just because emotionally it was incredibly devastating for me to lose my husband. I wanted to obviously do the right thing, and helping my girls get through their dad&amp;#039;s death was really incredibly important to me\u2014making sure they were as healthy and whole as possible after experiencing that kind of loss so early in their lives\u2014but you know I also try to not overthink things too much. I wanted to have a social life and to enjoy myself in the company of other adults. I wanted to possibly find someone who would be a good partner to me and a good father figure to my girls. And I also wanted them to see me have healthy relationships with men. We&amp;#039;re such a women-centric household that even if the relationship didn&amp;#039;t work out, I wanted them to know that men have a lot to offer. They are interesting people, and they could enhance our lives. Now having said that, I didn&amp;#039;t bring all these guys into my house and have them stay there unless it was an extremely serious relationship or one that I thought was going to be long-term. We didn&amp;#039;t have a family meeting and discuss my dating life\u2014it just kind of happened naturally. I think we all have certain needs, desires, and wishes, and we want to have a healthy, happy social and romantic life, and sometimes we can&amp;#039;t let our kids dictate that for us. We have to set the tone and explain it to our kids, and let them do the adjusting. What&amp;#039;s your attitude toward healthy eating and how has it changed over the years? I think so many women go about what they eat every day in such a neurotic way, and I try to impart in my daughters the value of good nutrition and healthy eating. I think the whole notion of deprivation was sort of in vogue for a while, and our body images [have suffered for it]. We&amp;#039;re always depriving ourselves of good, healthy, nutritious foods, and so as a result, you starve yourself, then overeat, then make bad choices in terms of what food you&amp;#039;re consuming. So about 10 or 15 years ago, I really made it my business to eat a good, healthy breakfast\u2014this is not just because of the campaign\u2014of protein-rich foods, like milk, that people don&amp;#039;t realize are high in protein. I see food and things like milk as fuel that helps get you through the day in a way that keeps your blood sugar stable, your cravings at bay, and just makes you better equipped to make healthy choices throughout the day. But otherwise, I try not to get crazy about food. There are so many different theories out there about what&amp;#039;s healthy, and I just kind of prescribe to what I like\u2014you know good, healthy, natural, and as unprocessed as possible foods. It&amp;#039;s very hard not to eat processed foods. Have you ever tried it? Even cereal is processed! I try to stick with the basics: whole foods and unprocessed foods and sausages [a joke, since there are delicious sausages from Sarabeth&amp;#039;s sitting on the table] when they are available. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/interviews/a15739/katie-couric-interview/?click=main_sr>