Sheryl Crow gets her act, life together

It's not for nothing that one of Sheryl Crow's early hits was called Strong Enough. Over the past year, the singer/songwriter endured, in rapid succession, the breakup of her highly publicized engagement to biking champion Lance Armstrong and a battle with breast cancer.

But Crow, 44, now says, "I feel the best I've felt in a long time, mainly because I've changed the way I treat my life."

And now that she has her act together, Crow has taken it on the road. She launched a five-week string of makeup dates last spring, shortly after completing a series of radiation treatments. The recovered singer has teamed with John Mayer on a national trek scheduled to wrap in mid-October.

"I needed to feel like things were getting back to normal," Crow says. "A tour is a reminder of what my life is about. This one's more celebratory than other tours have been, and at the same time it's gotten me back to a sense of normalcy."

For Crow, that includes a more healthful diet. "I've been eating very plain, organic food. I never loved sugar, but I'm a big salt freak, and since I have low blood sugar and very low blood pressure, I'm always craving salt. I've cut back on my Frito intake, and I probably haven't had a doughnut for eight months. That's a big thing for me, since those were the only sweets I would really eat." She also has eased back on items with higher nutritional value: "My cancer was estrogen-positive, so there are things I now know that I shouldn't have, like tofu and stuff." Instead, she opts for "a high-omega diet of mostly fish and rice and vegetables."

The singer allows herself to cheat occasionally -- "You have to let yourself off the hook" -- and though she clearly stays active, she has learned the value of rest and relaxation. "I don't kill myself trying to be busy all the time. When I feel like slowing down and taking a nap, I do it. That's also new for me."

If any fallout from her relationship with fellow cancer survivor Armstrong is a source of stress, Crow isn't letting on. "It would have never been my preference to talk about it," Crow says; she addressed it briefly on Larry King Live and with Vanity Fair. "But obviously, the association with cancer is strong and undeniable."

Crow is more forthcoming about another personal loss she suffered when Scout, a Labrador mix who had been her constant companion for more than a decade, died in April 2005.

"It was devastating," Crow says. "But he's still with us in spirit. We still call (our tour company) Scout Tours, and my dressing room still has his name.

"Scout and I used to stare into each other's eyes longingly; it was like a sick love affair."

Happily, Crow has found new love with Rex, a full Lab, and two other dogs she rescued from the pound. "And strangely enough, I've accumulated about 12 horses," she says. One, Sally, her companion during radiation therapy in Los Angeles, recently gave birth to a filly. "And I've got three Arabians, two of which I had with me in Austin, and there's Lady, my trick horse. And I bought a few other sweet, easygoing horses, mostly around Nashville."

The well-traveled singer also bought a farm in Nashville and built a studio in the basement, where she plans to start working on new material after she completes her tour. "Starting in November, I'm just going to sort of go at it at my leisure, at my own pace."

Though she still has a bunch of unrecorded songs from initial sessions for her last album, 2005's Wildflower, Crow says, "I've been through so much this year, and they don't really represent that. I wrote a lot through my cancer treatment, and those songs are much more compelling for me, right now, than anything else I could write."

But, Crow says, "I do want to write from this peaceful place I'm in right now, too. I'm eating well, sleeping great, so I'm just really happy and healthy."

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