How Hallmark Christmas Movie Star Nikki DeLoach Protects Her Brain and Heart Health

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Nikki DeLoach, 46, has been a familiar face on television for years—from her early days on The All New Mickey Mouse Club alongside Britney Spears and Ryan Gosling and her role as the lovable mom in MTV’s teen comedy Awkward, to her more than 20 appearances in Hallmark Channel movies.

The actress and producer’s latest project—A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, which premiered November 29 on Hallmark Channel—was filmed on location at the Grand Ole Opry itself and includes appearances and songs by country stars like Brad Paisley, Pam Tillis and Bill Anderson. DeLoach plays a woman who rekindles her dream of being a country singer, which she had put on pause after the death of her country-star father.

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“Between the magic of the Opry and the magic of Christmas, she’s sent back to 1995 and reunited with her father,” DeLoach told Flow Space. “She gets so much of that time back, and he helps her to find faith, hope and belief in herself.”

DeLoach shared with Flow Space how making this movie was especially nostalgic and healing. Growing up in Waycross, Ga., DeLoach and her father loved watching Grand Ole Opry performances on TV and dreamed of one day seeing the famous stage for themselves. They’d hoped to visit together, but it didn’t happen before her dad died in 2021 after a multi-year battle with a rare form of dementia called Pick’s disease.

Making the film helped DeLoach feel connected to her own late father, who would’ve been 70 this year, and rediscover her love of performing music.

“The story meant so much to me, and I think for anyone who has lost someone, it will touch their heart in a real deep way,” she said. “You can imagine as a daughter who lost her father what that would feel like to be able to go back in time and have more time.”

Picking projects that elicit joy and excitement is just one way DeLoach stays well. Offscreen, she is a dedicated philanthropist and maintains a routine packed with healthy habits. DeLoach is on the board of Mind What Matters, an organization dedicated to supporting people caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s, and co-hosts the organization’s educational podcast. Now, she’s co-chairing a $1.25 billion fundraising initiative for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where her now eight-year-old son received open heart surgery five days after his birth.

Flow Space caught up with DeLoach to discuss the special meaning behind her new project and how she keeps herself well by prioritizing her heart and brain health.

Flow Space: It sounds like this role was really special to you. What drew you to the part?

Nikki DeLoach: Professionally and personally, it was a dream come true, pinch me moment. As a young girl wanting to be an entertainer, singer and performer growing up in the Deep South, I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry. My dad and I were such fans of the artists who stood on that stage and listened to their music all the time. When one of the heads of Hallmark reached out about this movie, it was an instant yes before I even read the script. It was like, “We’re going to do a collaboration with the Grand Ole Opry? I deeply want to be a part of that.”

Walking into that building, it is a sacred space, and it is everything and more that I ever imagined it to be as a little girl. Then I read the script; I sobbed my way through the entire script.

That feeling of wanting more time is so relatable. Did you do any specific wellness or health routines to prepare for this role?

I did get back into singing lessons, and I’m going to continue working with her. When I was back in the music business, back in the day, it was a creative wound because my group was signed to Lou Pearlman and right when we were releasing our album and… I don’t blame RCA in the least… but everything we had just worked for fell apart. I walked away from that kind of breaking my dad’s heart. I had a couple of offers about solo deals, but I was like, “I don’t want anything to do with the music business.” It was so traumatic and so awful. I just stepped away from singing, and I miss it so much.

When I started back with vocal lessons, it opened up something, and now, I want to do this again. Now, I’m looking at opportunities to get back on the stage to sing and dance and perform again. It’s never too late to go for something you’re passionate about and brings you joy.

At the end of the day, life is hard, period. I’ve lost my dad, I’ve gone through three heart surgeries, a life-and-death health crisis with my son amidst so many other hard things I went through as a child. I’m not the only one; everybody is carrying their own version of hard. The more we can wake up every day and find the things that bring us joy, just wake up and do that.

Working out brings me joy, I try to do it every day. Dancing brings me joy, I try to do it every day—even if it’s just for myself in my house. I don’t know if anything will happen with it, but that’s not the point. The point is we get this one precious life, and we owe it to ourselves to wake up every day and fight for the things that bring us joy.

My prep wasn’t just vocal and guitar lessons. A mom is always a caregiver, but I was a serious caregiver with a baby that had to go though three open heart surgeries in two years, and I cared for my dad who had dementia.

I was a shell of a human and ended up in a health crisis of my own and really had to course correct that, so now a passion of mine is talking to people about how we take care of ourselves, especially caregivers because we can’t go down before the people we are taking care of.

If we want to live long, fruitful lives where we get to experience that joy every day, we have to get our sleep, eat well, move our bodies and be in community with the people we love. I really believe in the art of taking care of ourselves in spite of everything that we’re doing. Caregivers are on my heart all the time.

But the beautiful thing is we’ve poured so much money into research and innovation and we are learning so much, like the fact that the biggest determinant is not genetics, is it environment. There are things we can do to protect our heart and brain health, and those two are intimately connected.

What do you do for your brain health and heart health?

I had an enlarged aorta that we were tracking, and that absolutely would’ve needed intervention and very high cholesterol—my bloodwork was not great, at all. This was about five or six years ago. I was in osteopenia, which runs in the women in my family, but I have been able to reverse a lot of the damage by lifting heavier weights and changing my diet. Within two months of eating this way, which is eating a diet that specifically regulated my blood sugar and removed inflammation from my body, I was able to reverse the effects of my enlarged aorta, and I brought my cholesterol all the way down to normal. When I went back a year later to check my osteopenia, it was better than it was before.

Diet is so critical, but so is lifting heavy weights for women. I was growing up in that generation where it was like, “Cardio! Cardio! Be skinny!” but luckily in my 30s, when I had my son Bennett, I started working with a trainer and lifting weights. It has been the single most transformational thing I’ve done in terms of my physical health.

I am also a product of disordered eating that started when I was 10 years old. I think many women have disordered eating, they just don’t realize it. I went into treatment for anorexia for the first time in my early 20s, and I thought, ‘I’m cured,” but what I realized going through this health crisis and talking to my therapist is that my disordered eating never went away.

I see women do it all the time: they skip breakfast and have a coffee and a protein bar, then for lunch, they’ll have maybe a salad or grab another coffee and they snack all throughout the day and maybe they’ll eat dinner. This is not good for us. Probably most women need to be eating three times more food and also the right food. I had all this bloodwork done, and I thought I was a very healthy person. I worked out five times a week, and I thought I ate healthy and was doing all the right things for my body. It turns out, the one critical aspect I was missing was nutrient dense, rich food.

I get up and I eat a healthy breakfast. I eat a lunch. Every meal has eight ounces of protein and vegetables. My healthy snacks during the day are things like almonds and fruit. At night, no carbs. I highly recommend checking out the MIND Diet. I follow it, and I eat my berries every day and have my green tea. Add these things into your diet every day because every bit matters. There are weeks where I go, “I have three cheat meals this week,” but if you’re doing it pretty balanced most of the time, you’re totally fine.

Sleep is such a big part of that, and I don’t touch wine. I know that’s a heartbreak for so many women; it was for me too, but it is so inflammatory. It’s not that I don’t drink, it’s just that I don’t drink that often. That has also been a really big health hack that has helped me to maintain a really healthy mind, body and heart. All of these are connected: whatever we’re doing that’s healthy for one is healthy for the other.

It’s very affirming and empowering to know that science says there are a lot of modifiable things with heart and brain health because that’s not the case for every disease. To bring it back full circle to this project, another big determinant of cognitive decline risk is loneliness and lack of connection. How do you feed that aspect of your health?

It goes back to the joy. I think it’s because I left home at 12 years old, and I have been in this industry since then, but I had to find my chosen family. Outside of my kids and my husband, my friends are my everything.

I make a point to stay connected to them every single day. Yesterday, I was probably talking to and texting eight to 10 different friends. I know that sounds like a lot, but it is not a hard thing to shoot a text to a friend who just lost their dad and say, “I’m thinking about you and you’re on my heart” or to FaceTime somebody for five minutes to say hi and check in.

I think we think we need more time, but I can pick up the phone when I’m on the way to pick up my kids.

It sounds like your philanthropy is part of finding your joy, too.

Every day. I say to everybody: If you’re sad, mad, depressed—go be of service somewhere. There is nothing that is going to get you out of your funk more than going and being of service in the world. It is, I think, what we are here on Earth to do. What else is our purpose? Think about it, I’m just supposed to be here to get everything I can and die?

They do say you can’t take it with you.

Yes, you can’t take it with you! What a legacy to be able to leave and have the loved ones you left behind say, “the person that I love gave back to their community and their legacy was being in service and trying to leave the world a better place.”