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Women of the '90s -- Then & Now
Alison Sweeney is back on "Days of Our Lives" -- and she's ready to really stir things up.
After a 21-year run on the soap, Sweeney left the series in October 2014, only to return a year later to have her character mourn the tragic loss of her son.
"It was heartbreaking," Sweeney tells us. "It was really really an emotional roller coaster. I was so happy to be there and see all of my friends and the crew that I’ve worked with since I was 16 years old, but it was all out on the surface playing out Will’s death… that was really hard for me."
The 39-year-old actress admits she truly missed her DOOL friends and coworkers.
"I missed my friends. I’ve known these people that work on the show since I was a kid. It was hard to be away because once you have a different plan, you have different schedules, but it was really fun to be together again," she says.
While Sami hasn't bared her teeth on the show yet, Sweeney teased that the feisty side her fans know and love will pop up soon.
"Don’t worry… Sami’s coming," she says. "I saw that someone had on twitter ‘#HurricaneSami,’ and that is not an understatement."
The former "Biggest Loser" also opened up about maintaining her 30-pound weight loss, crediting a shift in her lifestyle.
“I changed my mind about how I felt about fitness," she confesses. "Instead of looking at it as the torture of my day, or 'Oh I have to force myself to go to the gym,' all of a sudden, there was a moment where I realized how lucky I was to be fit and how lucky I was to go out there and find a workout I actually enjoy doing."
Sweeney says she says its key to mix up her workout schedule and stay engaged.
"I like to workout outdoors, and I didn’t used to. I was definitely more focused on gym classes. And I have found that working out outdoors is really tremendously fun for me," she says. "Now I run outside. I like to bike outside. I love going hiking."
However, Sweeney's healthy lifestyle doesn’t stop there. She explains that healthy living is part of her everyday life at home, and it's important to her family as well.
"Home cooking is the number one thing you can do to help have your family eat healthy," she continues. "When you’re ordering out or find yourself relying on frozen dinners or fast food, you’re already really making it an uphill battle."
Alison has also partnered with Arm & Hammer Truly Radiant for a social media initiative to raise funds for City of Hope Cancer Research Center. They're donating $1 to City of Hope every time someone uses the hashtag #TrulyRadiantFinish.
"City of Hope is an amazing organization that is trying to shed light on the fact that taking care of your body and taking care of your health isn’t just important superficially, it’s also important for long term issues with disease," she says of the cause. "There are all sorts of diseases that you can really lower your risk of contracting if you take better care of your body and have some movement in your day."
Up next for Sweeney?
"I’m really enjoying this process and getting to be home with my kids more and challenging myself in new directions with making these movies and writing my novel which will be out next May," she gushes. "It’s been really fun for me to explore these new things."
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