LeAnn Rimes: How Fitness Changed My Life

Her New Healthy Image

LR: I think it's a huge compliment when mothers say their daughters look up to me. A woman came up to me in the gym this morning and said, "It's so nice to see you working out. I didn't know you really exercised, I just thought they put that on the magazine covers!" I was like, "Surprise!" My goal is to be a classy, healthy woman. I don't want to be skinny, I want to be strong. For so long I tried to be sexier, or whatever, but I've finally found who I really am.

LR: I think the honesty is what's different with this album. I've written or cowritten every single song on it -- that's a first. It's liberating to sing about emotions that a lot of people hide.

LR: Probably that I'm cold. I think my professionalism is sometimes misinterpreted as standoffishness. I am very focused on my work, and people can be intimidated by that. But I swear, outside of my job, I really do like to relax and have a good time.

LR: I do fund-raising and outreach for an organization called the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that helps reintegrate wounded soldiers into society when they return home. You see these 19-year-old kids coming back from war, some with missing limbs, and all they want is a normal life. As part of my involvement with the coalition, I visited a burn unit in San Antonio, and the hardest thing was watching the families of the injured soldiers try to deal with what happened to the person they love.