Jenna Dewan Had to ‘Remember to Look After Myself’ at the Start of the Pandemic

Like so many moms, Jenna Dewan spends her pandemic days trying to balance work with caring for two small kids — while trying to find ways to relax and destress.

The professional dancer and actress, 39, says that she has to consciously make time for self-care, especially after she and fiancé Steve Kazee welcomed son Callum, 5 months, on March 6, just “a week before the world was crazy” with COVID-19.

“I had to remember that I needed to look after myself too, during this whole process,” Dewan tells PEOPLE. “I’ve been trying to find time for centering and balance with meditation. That’s been hugely important after having a baby. You kind of come back into yourself and take some me time.”

The Step Up star says that she feels her best when she’s moving her body.

“I feel powerful from dancing, Pilates, strength training, hiking — it's really about getting my body moving and feeling the strength come back, because when I am a little too sedentary and not moving my body as much, I definitely notice that it affects my mind, it affects my willpower, my emotional state,” she says. “So I just find things that remind me to keep a strong body.”

And Dewan, who has a new partnership with immunity supplement brand Renew Life, says that their women’s probiotic helped her recover after Callum arrived.

“After giving birth and having a C-section, there was a lot of gut health that I was focused on solving,” she says. “Immediately after I started taking Renew Life’s women’s formula I noticed debloating, my skin cleared up, I had more energy, a lot of the brain fog after having a baby went away. So I’m just a really big believer.”

And it helps Dewan meet her 80/20 health approach.

“I try to eat healthy, make good choices and do my green smoothies 80 percent of the time. And then I give myself 20 percent of the time to splurge and eat what I want to eat and have my nachos and French fries and enjoy a little bit, have a glass of wine,” she says. “Enjoy life.”

She admits, though, that the last few months of life during the pandemic have been filled with ups and downs for Dewan and her family of four, which also includes 7-year-old daughter Everly with ex-husband Channing Tatum, along with Kazee and baby Callum.

“It's funny because having a baby is its own form of a quarantine in a sense,” she says. “There's just a real grounding and hominess that happens after a baby anyway, but not being able to have family members and friends come visit was tough. Also just the inherent stress that you are picking up on. Just seeing what’s happening in the world was the biggest challenge for me after having him. But it’s been an incredible family bonding time for all of us. We’ve been in the house with anything else distracting us, so that’s been a blessing.”

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