Blake Lively's Post-Baby Body Took 14 Months of Hard Work and Dedication
Leave it to Blake Lively to tell it like it is on social media. Today, the mother-of-two took to Instagram to post a fitness-minded selfie showcasing her strong arms and toned abs alongside longtime trainer, Don Saladino. Thanks to a clean diet of no processed foods and a rigorous workout schedule, it took just over a year to the lose the weight she gained after the birth of her second child, Inez, with husband Ryan Reynolds. And it wasn't easy: "Turns out, you can’t lose the 61 lbs you gained during pregnancy by just scrolling through Instragram," she quips. "Thanks @donsaladino for kickin' my A double S into shape. 10 months to gain, 14 months to lose. Feeling very proud."
And why shouldn't she be? After all, Lively, along with others, has said that society's expectation of young mothers to immediately bounce back after giving birth is "silly." She even admitted, after the birth of her first child, James, that it took a moment to get used to her new physique. “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 station. “‘And it’s not as good as it was before I had a kid, but, oh well.’” Of course, Saladino and her job as a professional actress to portray a surfer chick stranded out at sea in the 2016 film The Shallows whipped her into extreme shape in ten months-time. Lively called the role "an advantage," and said, “I’ve never been in that great a shape in my whole life." Now, with no bikini-clad character calling her name, she's done it again, and she's proving that slow and steady, healthy and happy, wins the race.
