Ayesha Curry says 'competing' with husband Steph Curry was holding her back on her health journey

Ayesha Curry says her husband Steph Curry held her back on her health journey — in a very unexpected way.

The Food Network star has been married to the Golden State Warriors guard since 2011, and the couple share kids Riley, Ryan and Canon. She told The Rachael Ray Show, "I feel like I've been on a [health] journey since the day I started having kids…Once we had Canon, [I said], 'Alright, now I can lean in and figure this out and figure out what works for me.'"

However, Ayesha explained that her spouse sometimes made it challenging for her to keep up.

“I was competing in my own weird, twisted way with my very athletic husband, [thinking] that I had to do all of the things that he was doing in order to find my balance and stay fit,” she explained.

Ayesha has long spoken about protecting her health, both physical and mental. In a 2021 interview with Yahoo Life’s The Unwind, she explained that her mental health “rituals” are vital for self-care, even though she didn’t “grow up that way.”

"I didn't know it was necessary to take time for yourself until after having kids, so I've been backtracking trying to understand that aspect and it is life-changing," she explained at the time. "For me, I try to prioritize waking up before the kids so then I have that hour for myself in the morning to meditate or do some yoga. Even a workout is a form of meditation for me, so I try to just have an hour by myself before the chaos of the morning and that, for me, is a game-changer."

In December, The Full Plate author spoke with Erin and Sara Foster on The World’s First Podcast about shifting her internal conversation around mental health, after it wasn't prioritized by her family growing up.

"What I had to start telling myself, through a lot of therapy and self-care, is that it's OK to have those days sometimes," she said. "Let the thoughts happen, let the feelings happen, let them flow out. For me, it was years of undoing of what I was taught as a child, which was to suppress, suppress, suppress. It was years of learning how to undo that, to let it flow through. Crying is not a bad thing, it's fine — and I cry a lot, you guys, and I'm proud of it."

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