I was reading the Sun Herald this morning when I came across Mia Freedman’s column. I read her blog and enjoy reading her pieces in the paper just as much.
This morning she wrote about our bodies after we have babies. So often I see on covers of magazines how celebs get their bodies back after having a baby, and usually it’s done within a matter of weeks. Just last week I was put off with the cover of Woman’s Day with Bec Hewitt’s Best EVER Body comeback. She got back to her pre-pregnancy weight within 5 weeks. Amazing! Really? Not really. I couldn’t put the magazine back quicker. Thank goodness for my magazine ban.
I’m glad that these celebs can get back into shape so quickly, but please do it quietly. Subtlety is the key.
I loved the words that Mia finished her article with:
I’ve had a post-baby gutful of the way we’re being sold the rubbish idea that the female body must remain frozen in time at about age 23 and that we’re only sexy and empowered if we conform to a cookie-cutter media model of what’s apparently hot.
Says who? How does a flat stomach empower me? What about the idea that our bodies change with time and childbirth – sometimes permanently and that’s OK. What about the fact that most men don’t view their partners as a sum of inadequate body parts? What about more focus on the miracle of having a healthy baby? What about gratitude for even having a baby when so many women can’t? What about some respect for what our bodies can do instead of fuelling a competition to see who can erase all evidence of having created a life and race back into their pre-pregnancy skinny jeans? Stick that in your bikini and smoke it.
Well said Mia. Whilst I desperately want to be back to a healthier weight, I realise that I need to stop and appreciate what my body has been able to do and create. What a miracle that is. xx
Hey Chantelle,
Just found your blog via a Google search while I was looking for that Bec Hewitt cover to post on my blog with today’s column. Glad it resonated with you. I certainly have a bee in my bonnet about this one!
Love your blog.
Mia
Hooray for common-freaking-sense! ‘telle, love your blog mate.. I find myself relating a lot to what you say, and getting a good giggle (PMSL ‘thank goodness for my magazine ban’)
I couldn’t go near that Woman’s Day either, even in the doctors surgery waiting room, because I knew that article would piss me off to the nth degree.
Hip Hip Hooray for common sense!
I love Mia. She’s amazing – and the voice of reason! xo
This is such an important point to make. Surely spending time caring for and bonding with your new child is more important than spending all your time at the gym in an attempt to go back to what was.
Excellent post!!! I'm so very glad that you found my blog & left a comment so it would end up bringing me to yours!
My son is 2 1/2 and I'm just NOW to the weight I was at my first ob-gyn appointment to confirm that all those pregnancy tests were, in fact, telling the truth. I need to get healthier so I'm around for him (I lost my own mom due to complications from her own obesity), but I'm obviously not in any kind of race to get it done … nor do I ever expect to have a perfectly toned body with buns of steel once I do get to where my body decides it needs to be!
Hi,
Got to you through a comment you left on A Dash of Cinnamon. Great article – my doctor once commented that celeb mums usually have an entire team of staff dedicated to (a) looking after baby and (b) helping mum getting back into shape in such a short period of time. That helped me get a reality check …
Excellent post, Chantelle!
And very exciting that Mia Freedman left a comment too. So cool 🙂
Hana xx
So true Telle – yep I have stretch marks and yep my body definetly looks different in a bikini – but my arms look different these days because they are carrying a gorgeous little girl and my heart looks different because it is overflowing with love for her – and that is what really matters.
Chelle! I love what you said – couldn’t have said it better myself.
I think it’s a different world that celebs live in with personal trainers and dieticians etc….I reckon if I had all that malarkey I’d look crash hot too!
If I had someone to cook, clean, watch my children and enable time for sleep & exercise I am sure I would have my body back sooner too! But you know what I enjoy spending the time I have with my children and not focusing (well totally) on what I look like.
Well said Telle
True, true, and true.
Skinny Jeans? Pfft!