Story highlights
"I've inadvertently lost 10 lbs. on the I'm-too-tired-to-eat diet," Grace said
The HLN legal analyst is partnered with "DWTS" pro Tristan MacManus
Grace says she's unexpectedly enjoying the grueling practice schedule
Nancy Grace has welcomed a common side effect of being a “Dancing With the Stars” contestant – weight loss.
“I’ve inadvertently lost 10 lbs. on the I’m-too-tired-to-eat diet,” Grace told PEOPLE at Variety’s Power of Women Event at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on Friday. “By the time I get the children [3-year-old twins Lucy and John David] ready for school, then practice and then come home, I’m like exhausted.”
The HLN legal analyst, who is partnered with “DWTS” pro Tristan MacManus, is unexpectedly enjoying the grueling practice schedule. “If you would have told me five to seven hours of dance practice was fun, I would have never believed you,” she said, “but it is.”
But it’s not all fun for Grace, who says surviving the show’s first elimination has done nothing to calm her down. “My nerves are much, much worse,” she said. “I’m a fish out of water on the dance floor. It’s a lot more nerve wracking than trying a murder case.”
Nerves aside, Grace is doing her best to achieve the goals she set for herself at show’s beginning. “Number one, I wanted there to be many, many nights of me dancing onstage for the twins to one day look back and go, ‘Look at Mommy,’ not ‘Mommy got thrown off,’ ” she said.
Grace’s other goal is to inspire others. “There are a lot of women out there who are like me – they work all day and take care of their children. And if they are like me, you don’t always have the best self image or are in work mode all the time,” she said. “I would like to send the message to them that they can follow their dream and believe, which is hard sometimes.”