Empire's Serayah McNeill Talks Food, Fitness and Her 'Weird Obsession with Fries'

From nailing her breakout role in Empire to joining Taylor Swift on extravagant squad vacations, 2015 has been Serayah McNeill‘s year.

The singer-actress has managed to stay grounded and sane thanks to her, well, grounded and sane approach to fitness and eating.

“I’ve been doing hot yoga and go to this place called CorePower Yoga; they have a lot of different locations, and I’m actually loving it more than the gym,” she said in a new interview with The Cut. “I’m usually a gym freak, but yoga gives me a good workout, along with clearing my mind. I try to go a few times a week at least.”

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A “morning bird type of girl,” Serayah starts her day around 8 a.m. with bananas, oatmeal and coffee, but admits she isn’t obsessive about sticking to a regimented eating plan.

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“It’s harder for me to stick to a diet because I love food,” she said. “I usually have a hard time saying no. I’m like, ‘Oh, this piece of bread won’t hurt.’ Burger and fries are my favorite.”

Her can’t-live-without snacks? Chocolate. Rocky road ice cream. In-N-Out fries. Chickfil-A waffle fries. (Basically, any type of fries.)

“I have a weird obsession with fries. I’ll order a meal and ask for fries with it, even if it doesn’t go with my meal.”

As for her general ethos towards health and wellness, she tries to keep it simple: “I think it’s having a clear state of mind. Not only staying healthy, but working out, eating healthy, and having a sense of spirituality.”

With, of course, the occasional order of French fries.

— Maria Yagoda, @mariayagoda