Celebrity Trainer Weighs In On Model’s Controversial Post-Partum Selfie
Photo: instagram.com/mcnaughty
Australian model, actress and television personality Erin McNaught probably didn’t expect the body-shaming firestorm that erupted in the wake of posting her four-weeks post-partum selfie, but the trainer responsible for getting Jessica Alba and Halle Berry back in shape after their first kids says today’s overshare culture has created an environment that breeds negative comments.
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In an Instagram photo, 32-year-old McNaught showed off her bikini-clad self in a mirror image photo, with the caption: “4 weeks PP [postpartum] and I’m starting to get my stomach back. Aside from lots of walking and eating healthily, I’ve been doing loads of pelvic floor and transverse abdominus exercises. Still no traditional ab work though which is driving me crazy!” While plenty of the responses to her post were positive, a number attacked her speedy slimdown with comments like “If you’re a new mum and this is what’s important to you…you’re doing it wrong #priorities,” and “Did she have a surrogate?”
Ramona Braganza, celebrity trainer and creator of the “3-2-1 Baby Bulge Be Gone” workout program, says it’s impossible to know much about a person’s health or body from a single Instagram photo, and that the negative comments say more about the commenters than the model. “Some people automatically feel inadequate when they see pictures like this and they lash out, and that’s not healthy at all,” she says. “Today’s visual culture makes it so easy to advertise ourselves, and images often get misconstrued.”
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Every mother, and every body, is different, Braganza points out. “Some people are smaller throughout pregnancy so bounce back more quickly. People who workout before and throughout pregnancy also lose the weight more easily,” she says. “Rather than getting worked up about things out of your control – like another woman’s selfie – worry about your own health and your own self.”
Body shamers should keep in mind, too, that bouncing back is in McNaught’s job description. “Celebrities have events and photo shoots and the pressure of their careers pushing them to get back in shape,” Braganza says. Not to mention the fact that cameras can be manipulated. “Camera angles and lighting and photo-shopping can do a lot to adjust an image,” she explains. That’s not to say McNaught’s photo isn’t authentic, but simply that other moms shouldn’t use it as a bar for comparison.
“On average, it takes a good three months to lose the weight in a healthy way,” Braganza says. “But every mom is different, just like every kid is different.”
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