Naya Rivera Reveals How She Got That Rockin' Post-Baby Bod—and Her New-Mom Worries
Fit Pregnancy and Baby
Former Glee star Naya Rivera will be the first one to tell you that she completely let herself go during her pregnancy.
"Weight wasn't something I wanted to focus on, so I ate anything and everything and had a blast," the 29-year-old first-time mom told Fit Pregnancy and Baby in the May 2016 issue (where she and son Josey appear on the cover!). "Afterward, I was, like,''Let's get back to business.'"
"Business" meant a combo of nursing, healthy eating, and exercise that helped Rivera 86 the first 30 pounds. But she still had the other half of her 60-pound weight gain to go. "My closet was divided in half," she explained. "On one side were maternity clothes and on the other side were clothes I thought I would never wear again."
Been there!
But thanks to a trainer and thrice-weekly spin classes, Rivera slid into her favorite pair of leather pants just four months after her son was born. "Muscle memory luckily kicked in," she says. "I was, like, 'Yes!'"
Best. Feeling. Ever!
Rivera—who worked as a nanny before landing her breakout role as snarky cheerleader Santana on Glee—also copped to feeling some new-mom pressure since giving birth to son Josey. "You're always going to wonder if you're doing things wrong," she said. "But that's what it means to be a mom—to care so much about someone else that you just want to be as perfect as possible."
RELATED: Want to Lose Weight? Eat Like a Kid!
So true! Another "a-ha" moment about motherhood, she said, came on her birthday earlier this year. "I called my mom and said, 'I totally get it now; birthdays are for the parents,'" she explained. "Now I understand that the day you give birth to your child, and see him for the first time, will always be such a special day."
I totally agree.
And not just because today happens to be my son's half birthday, and I may or may not have just run out to buy him a cake.
Read the full interview with Rivera on FitPregnancy.com.
Hollee Actman Becker is a freelance writer, blogger, and a mom. Check out her website holleeactmanbecker.com for more, and then follow her on twitter at @holleewoodworld.
