Minka Kelly Opens Up About Dieting — And How She Justifies the Occasional Big Mac

When it comes to food, Minka Kelly is not one to hold back on indulging—but she also knows when she’s taken things a little too far.

“I just pay attention to how I’m feeling and try to keep that in check,” she tells PEOPLE. “I know if I’m feeling sluggish.”

The actress and culinary school grad—who partnered up with Dove Chocolate to give a behind-the-scenes look at how the company sources cocoa beans from farmers in Ecuador—admits that her most recent guilty pleasure is a McDonald’s Big Mac or Taco Bell.

“I love fast food, it’s really bad,” she says. “But that’s the truth. I’m not perfect.”

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On her less-than-perfect days, Kelly has a justification for her meal choices that we can certainly get behind. “I just try and make sure I’m drinking enough water,” she says. “I really subscribe to the adage of today’s lack of energy is due to yesterday’s lack of water. I really notice a difference when I’m drinking enough water, how much energy I have the next day. So I feel like if I do have a Big Mac, if I just drink so much water it’s just going to wash it all out.”

Not stressing too much about what she eats is central to her diet philosophy. “I just enjoy my life and I enjoy food and I enjoy a glass of wine but I also try and balance it out and take breaks once in a while,” adds Kelly.

Because she lives alone, the former Friday Night Lights star says “you sort of lose the inspiration to cook an extravagant meal” and instead sticks to her go-to “super boring and basic but super easy and good for you” dish of salmon with broccoli.

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Kelly is more inclined to pull out the skills she learned at the New School of Cooking at one of the “cooking parties” she often hosts for all of her girlfriends. “We have a cookbook club where we pick a book and all of us make one dish from that book,” she says. “When you buy a cookbook, you’re probably only going to make one or two things from that book. So when you have six of your girlfriends and each of you picking one or two recipes from that book, you’re going to try more of that book then you normally would.”

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As for anything she won’t dare cook, a certain eight-armed sea animal comes to mind. “I have yet to attempt octopus. I’ll eat it but I watched my girlfriend cook it and I had no idea what an intense process it is because it starts as the whole thing,” she says, squirming a bit. “I just can’t do it.”