How Does This 34-Weeks-Pregnant Woman Still Have a Six-Pack?
Nathalia Melo-Wilson, 32, is a certified personal trainer living in Northern Ireland. She's spent over seven years bodybuilding for bikini competitions, snagging first place in the 2012 Bikini Olympia competition, which she describes as the Super Bowl of bodybuilding. (It's the same competition Arnold Schwarzenegger has won several times, FWIW.)
But now Nathalia is taking on a new challenge: She's pregnant - very pregnant! - with her first child, due in August.
Cosmopolitan.com asked the competitive body builder (and bona fide Instagram fitness star) what it's been like to put her body through the ringer in a such a different way - and how she's somehow managed to maintain some semblance of a six-pack through it all.
How has it felt to see your body transform before your eyes?
It was especially difficult for me in the first three to four months when I had no control over the changes. I didn't even look pregnant - it was more like I'd had a massive cheat meal. I was too big for my regular clothing but too small for maternity clothing.
When I developed a proper bump and began to feel the baby moving, I started to embrace the changes because I knew they were all happening for an amazing reason - even though there are still days where I don't feel like myself, nothing looks right, my feet and hands are swollen, and I can't even tie my shoes.
How has your fitness routine changed since you got pregnant?
Before I got pregnant, I used to train six to seven times a week for an average of two hours. My workouts were very intense, with very little rest between exercises. Now that I'm pregnant, and have gotten the go-ahead from my doctor, I work out five or six times a week for 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how I feel.
I still do most of the exercises I performed before pregnancy, but take longer rests between exercises, lift lighter weights, and modify any exercises that involve lying flat on the back (which can compromise blood flow to the baby), or anything where my bump gets in the way.
Have you been doing anything special to maintain your abdominal definition with your belly bump?
No. After 16 weeks of pregnancy, you aren't supposed to do any direct core exercises. I think my abs are still showing because I had definition before getting pregnant, and because I have been trying to eat healthy for the most part.
You've said you've suffered from morning sickness but exercise has helped. Is this something your doctor recommended?
I think that if I had mentioned my ''trick'' to my doctor as a ''treatment,'' he would had said I was crazy! It was definitely a trial-and-error thing. I felt very sick in my first trimester - heartburn, sickness, nausea, you name it. When I just stayed home and felt sorry for myself, none of the symptoms would go away. But when I woke up, drank a smoothie to ease the sickness, then went to the gym, I wouldn't think about it as much and [would] feel better.
Have you gotten any backlash from followers who are concerned about the safety of your fitness routine?
When you're pregnant, people think your body becomes public property and say things they'd never say to a non-pregnant woman, like, "OMG, you look huge!" or, "Your face has gotten round too!"
Some people have accused me of harming my baby, or suggested I take it easy and rest. It's extremely insulting to think that I would do anything to harm my baby, especially considering that most of people who make negative comments have absolutely zero knowledge about prenatal training, whereas I completed a pre- and post-natal fitness training course as soon as I found out I was pregnant to figure out what I could and couldn't do.
At first, I used to get angry, but now, I just get annoyed and move on with my life. If you aren't my doctor or my husband, and you don't have a PhD in training pregnant women, then I don't care!
Are you worried about getting back to competitive bikini modeling after the baby is born?
I would love to get back to the shape I was in before getting pregnant - and I plan on going back to the gym as soon as I get the OK from my doctor - but I don't have any plans to compete after the baby comes. Competing is very demanding and time-consuming, and while I love being on stage, I do think my priorities will change once the baby is here.
