Since the age of 11, Parenthood‘s Lauren Graham has been watching what she eats. “I’ve been on a diet for 35 years,” the 46-year-old TV star reveals in the May issue of More.

As the years have gone, however, Graham has learned to love her appearance.  “I’ve spent a lot of time wondering, ‘What’s going to happen?'” she says of getting older. “I try not to allow myself to do that much anymore. I think I’ve gotten more comfortable with the unknown.”

Perhaps that’s a good thing, given Graham’s unstable profession. Though she starred on TV’s Gilmore Girls from 2000 to 2007 and has appeared in films like Evan Almighty and It’s Kind of a Funny Story, the Virginia-raised star says she her career has slowed down at times.

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“Acting is the most bizarre profession. You can stay in it for years and not really be in it and be waiting for someone to give you an opportunity,” Graham explains. “It’s like when I watch American Idol and see people who have been told to believe in themselves at all costs: It’s not always a good idea.”

Graham has a backup plan in place: writing. The actress recently penned her first novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe. Graham was inspired to pursue her passion for words by Diane Keaton, who played her meddlesome mother in 2007’s Because I Said So. “If she had told me to consider a career in banking, I would have done that,” Graham tells More. “I wanted to write about the tiny, tiny progress and the complete unknown of wanting to follow any impossible dream.”

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