If there’s one thing that’s constant in life, it’s change – and Liam Hemsworth is learning how to roll with it.
One of those changes was his diet. After four years of being vegan, Liam revealed that a health scare had him rethinking his diet.
“[In] February of last year I was feeling lethargic. Then I got a kidney stone. It was one of the most painful weeks of my life,” he shared in his recent interview for Men’s Health. “I was doing press for Isn’t It Romantic. But I had to go to the hospital and get surgery.”
Don’t worry, he says, “it’s all good now,” but he did have to make some changes.
“Once you get one kidney stone, you have a 50 percent chance of getting another one if you continue eating the way you were eating,” he explained. “Well, my particular kidney stone was a calcium-oxalate kidney stone. It forms from having too much oxalate in your diet. Oxalates are really high in a lot of vegetables, specifically spinach, almonds, beetroot, potatoes.”
“Every morning, I was having five handfuls of spinach and then almond milk, almond butter, and also some vegan protein in a smoothie,” Liam continued. “And that was what I considered super healthy. So I had to completely rethink what I was putting in my body.”
He actually decided to become vegan for health reasons – he “felt great” the first couple of years. He recounts that his “body was strong” and his “cardio was high” at the time. But he’s not against changing things up when something isn’t working.
“What I say to everyone is, ‘Look, you can read whatever you want to read. But you have to experience it for yourself. You have to figure out what works best for your body,'” he said. “If something works well for a period, great, keep doing it. If something changes and you’re not feeling great, you’ve got to reassess it and then figure it out.”
The last couple of years has been a rollercoaster ride for the 30-year-old actor – he lost his home in the 2018 California wildfires; he and long-time on-and-off girlfriend Miley Cyrus got married, but ended up divorcing less than a year later. And what he learned from all the ups and downs is to appreciate “the little things.”
“It’s something I always try to remind myself to do, especially in times that maybe things aren’t going the way I planned or the way I wanted things to go,” he says. “Appreciating what I do have and searching for things that make me happy and things that make me a better person.”
Although the fire was a “a s–tty thing to live through,” he still found a lot of things to be grateful for.
“I was able to appreciate the fact that I got all my animals out, and pretty much everything that I had in my house that burned down is replaceable to a point. There’s a select few things that hold a little bit more sentiment that I’ll never get back,” he said. “And I also acknowledge that a lot of people didn’t have insurance, and they don’t have anything else to fall back on. I have insurance and it’s a frustrating process, but I’ll get taken care of, so I’m thankful.”
“Life is the most important thing, and hopefully your animals and the people that you’re with got out safely,” Liam added. “I’m more conscious these days of how short life is and how things can change so quickly.”
He doesn’t talk about his past relationship, but did say that the media didn’t exactly make things easier at the time. He’s since taken on a new perspective and doesn’t let it get to him anymore, focusing instead on staying positive.
“For a long period of time, it was very stressful, and it really got to me. Yeah, look, there are times when you want to lash out and say something… because from my point of view, the majority of the time things that are written about me are completely false,” he said. “There are times when you want to speak up and there are other times when it’s not worth it, because you’re just going to draw more attention to it, and then it’s better to just not think about it and let it all wash away.”
“These days I don’t want to invest any more time in worrying about that sort of stuff,” he continued. “I remind myself of what to appreciate now and to enjoy every moment as much as possible, whether that be working or with my family or whatever I’m doing. Just trying to find a positive in it all and enjoy life as much as possible.”
