American professional racing driver Jennifer Jo Cobb enjoyed time on the lake with her friends in North Carolina earlier this year. Cobb, 50, shared a picture of herself wearing a swimsuit and posing with three friends on Lake Badin, smiling in the sunshine. “Different kind of happy hour! Got to test out my new lake toy with friends at sunset đâď¸đśď¸ #badinlake,” she captioned the post. Cobb works hard to maintain her strong physique through training and a healthy dietâhere’s how she does it.
Cobb has a balanced diet without too many restrictions. “I do not have a strict diet but I take things in moderation,” she says. “I try to limit pasta to once per week and I try to eat fish at least once a week. I really limit sweets and I am not a big snacker as I would rather have small meals. I don’t think that what you eat gets you in trouble but what you do not eat. If I am eating enough fruits and vegetables then my body does not crave carbs and I tend to be overall healthier and clearer mentally. I will often blend spinach, water, banana, mixed berries and a splash of orange juice into a smoothie to get many nutrients at once.”
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Cobb builds strength through weight training, and does plenty of cardio. “I love to lift free weights,” she says. “I do reps to absolutely exertion and I think because I was a dancer and in gymnastics as a child, my muscles have great memory.I tend to get bored easily so I really mix up my workouts between cardio and strength classes, yoga, Pilates and some days I do 30 minutes cardio on the gym machines (usually treadmill or elliptical) and then 30 minutes of free weights.”
Cobb says the feeling of racing a car is indescribable. “It takes a lot of focus, but it takes a lot of calculatingâwhat you’re feeling in your hands, in the steering wheel, what you’re feeling in the seat that the car is doingâis there a slight vibration?” she says. “Is there a wiggle? You’re trying to diagnose so many different things while maintaining focus, while maintaining courage and praying for that wisdom that you’re conveying the right message back to your team⌠It’s like being on a roller coaster that you control. It’s this really amazing relationship with the racecar, with the speed, with the potential danger, with the focus, with constantly trying to improve.”
Cobb has learned from every defeat and grown as a result. “I’ve been knocked on my butt more than a few times, to the point where it would’ve made total sense just to give in and to give up,” she says. “But every time I made the concrete decision not to give up and to forge forwardâno matter how tough the circumstances were, whether it be financially or from a defeated standpoint of not quite being where you want to beâevery time I decided to forge forward, some sort of a breakthrough happened.”
Cobb is proud to lend her voice to an important organization. “A healthy and active lifestyle is the key for success and happiness,” she says. “It is truly amazing how being physically fit affects your mental state and once you believe you can achieve something â with enough work and determination â you will accomplish things you once never thought possible. Somewhere along my journey I realized that this was not ‘all about me’ and I wanted to take the platform that I had being unique in the world of NASCAR and deflect the glory to other worthy women so I started an organization called Driven2Honor to honor female military members. I have met so many wonderful and strong women since the program began and I hope to continue to honor and empower these wonderful women.”