As the chief medical correspondent for ABC News, Dr. Jennifer Ashton has been at the forefront of reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic for the past two years. Whether she’s co-hosting “Good Morning America (GMA3): What You Need To Know,” alongside Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, or appearing on “ABC World News Tonight with David Muir,” Ashton delivers breaking medical news in a knowledgeable and calm manner.
Between her work with ABC News and operating a private obstetrics and gynecology practice in New Jersey, Ashton, 52, admits it’s not unusual for her to work between 12 to 14 hours each day. Yet Ashton is also a firm believer in carving out time for self-care. In addition to exercising for an hour at least five days a week, she also makes it a priority to nurture both her mind and spirit.
“I schedule my workouts the same way I do work assignments or appointments with patients,” Ashton says. “I try to do some form of cardio, strength training, meditation and stretching each day, even if that means waking up extra early.”
Jennifer Ashton on “GMA3: What You Need To Know”
Photo by ABC/Paula Lobo
For Ashton, exercise and meditation aren’t just ways to maintain good health, she says they also reduce stress and leave her feeling energized.
In her book, “The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier and Fitter: One Month at a Time” (the paperback version was published in December), Ashton shares a blueprint for making self-care a priority. Rather than making vague, unrealistic New Year’s resolutions, Ashton encourages readers to engage in month-long mini challenges such as practicing meditation, taking a digital detox and consuming less sugar. She also explains how each challenge can lead to better health.
“If someone had asked me several years ago to make twelve changes to my daily routine, I would have balked,” Ashton says. “But I know now that self-care isn’t a matter of making time for yourself, it’s also what you do with that time.”
Her own renewed commitment to self-care began after her ex-husband, Rob, the father of her two children, committed suicide in 2017. Ashton explains that while she did everything possible to support her children’s healing after the death of their father, she didn’t make time for self-care because she thought it would be selfish to make herself a priority.
Photo by ABC/Heidi Gutman
“Rob’s death was an enormous mental, emotional and physical blow,” says Ashton, who wrote “Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort & Community After Unthinkable Loss” to help other families cope with the healing process after a loved one’s suicide.
As Ashton worked through her grief, she also found solace in meditation, a practice she had started six years ago that had briefly fallen by the wayside.
“As I was immersed in grief, I found that’s when I needed to meditate the most,” she says.
As a busy OB/GYN, author and television medical correspondent, Ashton found meditation offered her a sense of peace and balance. Challenging herself to meditate twenty minutes each day, seven days a week, for an entire month, Ashton soon felt calmer, more focused and positive. It didn’t take long for her to make it a permanent, non-negotiable daily ritual.
“Meditating regularly has a host of health benefits,” Ashton says. “It can be just as effective as antidepressants, help treat high blood pressure and chronic pain, and help with insomnia.”
Even the monthly challenges she didn’t successfully complete served to improve Ashton’s health.
While she always advises her patients to up their water intake, Ashton realized she wasn’t taking her own advice and as a result, experienced three kidney stones caused by dehydration.
“I decided to drink 81 ounces of only water and seltzer to meet my daily hydration goal, making up the rest with coffee and food,” Ashton says. “I filled three 800-milliliter bottles with filtered water and put them in the fridge overnight so I could take them with me the next day.”
Although Ashton admits she fell short of her daily target, she did consume nearly triple the amount of water she had before the challenge. She also felt more energetic, had better digestion and found water curbed her appetite, allowing her to make healthier food choices.
For Ashton, who has a Master’s in Human Nutrition, eating healthier meant adopting a plant-based diet this past year.
“After being exposed to the coronavirus three times this past year, I decided to try making some plant-based vegan recipes while quarantining for ten days with my children Chloe and Alex,” Ashton says. “I didn’t think I could do it at first, but it was fun cooking with my children and I was able to lower my bad LDL cholesterol 30 points in two weeks.”
Photo by ABC/Paula Lobo
Ashton explains that a recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association showed a plant-based diet reduces the risk of dementia and heart disease.
“I encourage people to try and incorporate more vegetables, grains, nuts and fruits into their diet,” Ashton says. “Start with one meal or one day of plant-based eating and go from there.”
Adapting to a new normal Ashton joined ABC News in 2012, coming to the network after serving as a co-host on the syndicated daytime talk show, “The Doctors.” Previously, Ashton worked as a medical correspondent for “CBS News” and the FOX News channel and contributed to “The Early Show,” “The Dr. Oz Show,” and “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”
In addition to extensively reporting on the pandemic, Ashton understands how worrisome it can be when a loved one is diagnosed with the virus.
In September, Ashton announced on-air that her daughter, a student at Harvard University, had contracted a breakthrough case of COVID-19 despite being vaccinated and was experiencing mild symptoms.
Ashton says much of her work over the past two years has been helping viewers separate coronavirus facts from fiction.
In her book, “The New Normal: A Roadmap to Resilience in the Pandemic Era,” published last February, Ashton offers readers insight on how to not just survive, but also stay safe and sane in a world we never imagined.
“I wrote this book to help readers ‘think like a doctor’ and to make informed health decisions,” Ashton says. “I discuss ways to minimize your risk of exposure to the virus and how to cope with the persistence of the pandemic.”
Ashton says one lesson she learned firsthand was how hard it is to self-isolate and why it’s more important than ever to practice self-care to combat stress.
To combat these feelings, Ashton covers topics in her book such as how to “pandemic proof” your body now to prevent illness later, how to get a better night’s sleep if you’re feeling anxious and how to continue enjoying life to the fullest, while also mitigating the risk of COVID-19.
Photo by ABC/Heidi Gutman
“Before the pandemic, I used to go to a gym to exercise,” Ashton says. “Now I work out at the gym in my building because it offers a safer alternative during the pandemic and is also more convenient.”
As we ring in 2022, Ashton is looking forward to continuing her work with “GMA3” and the ABC news staff.
“I find my work to be incredibly rewarding and I work with the absolute best team of people,” she says.
Ashton admits she also loves to write and hopes to pen more books in the future.
“I currently have an idea percolating for book number seven,” she says with a laugh. “Now I just have to find the time to write it.”
She also wants to continue her work as a women’s health advocate. In the past, she’s reported on important topics including the rising United States maternal mortality crisis and the increase in suicide and mental illness.
In October, as part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Ashton spoke about her own experiences with anxiety attacks on “GMA3.” The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) estimates that an estimated 264 million people worldwide have an anxiety disorder and that women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop an anxiety disorder. Despite this, many anxiety disorders are under-diagnosed and insufficiently treated.
“What I learned with my own experiences with anxiety attacks, is a stigma occurs in a lot of society with people thinking it’s not real, or it’s not serious, or it’s insignificant because there no actual situation occurring,” she says.
“But none of that matters, the physical manifestations, the symptoms I felt when I experienced these anxiety attacks were absolutely real.”
As she writes in her book, “The New Normal,” choosing facts over fear was the mantra that helped her to overcome her own fears and anxiety.
“While raw emotions like sorrow, loneliness and anxiety may feel real, they aren’t based in facts, they’re your reactions to a situation or set of circumstances,” Ashton says in her book. “Identifying and focusing on what you know to be true, instead of letting what you think or feel might be true, can help change how you respond.” O