Blake Lively got real about how hard it is to lose weight post-pregnancy, and that applause you hear is from us
It seems like whenever a famous woman gives birth, she faces immediate pressure to get her body back to its pre-baby measurements. And now, Blake Lively, known for her past honesty about topics like marriage and being jealous as a mom, opened up about just how difficult this post-pregnancy weight loss is.
To recap, Lively gave birth to her second daughter, Ines Lively Reynolds, in late 2016. The actress gained 61 pounds during her pregnancy, and now, 14 months after Ines’ birth, she has managed to lose the weight she gained. But Lively has been refreshingly candid about how difficult her weight loss journey was.
In a February 12th Instagram photo of her posing with her personal trainer, Don Saladino, Blake explained the challenges she faced during her post-pregnancy weight loss.
"Turns out you can’t lose the 61 lbs you gained during pregnancy by just scrolling through instragram and wondering why you don’t look like all the bikini models," she wrote in the post. "Thanks @donsaladino for kickin my A double S into shape. 10 months to gain, 14 months to lose. Feeling very proud. "
Although Lively worked hard to lose weight, she is also a firm believer that new moms should be proud of their bodies, even if it’s sometimes difficult to embrace the changes. After her first daughter, James, was born, she acknowledged that while she had to adjust to her new body, she still felt that it was “amazing.”
"After I had a kid, I thought, 'Okay, this is what my body looks like. This is amazing — I earned this body,'" she told an Australian radio stationin 2016. "And it's not as good as it was before I had a kid, but, oh well."
Losing weight after giving birth is hard work and can take a long time. It can be easy to negatively compare ourselves to celebrities, so we’re glad to see Lively being honest about how much work went into reshaping her body. Bringing a baby into the world is an incredible feat, and new moms should take pride in their postpartum bodies, no matter what size they are.
