Post Baby Body

"I like that my tummy is a bit soft... I think it's womanly" Denise Van Outen explained to the Daily Mail on her post-baby body. And I find myself nodding in recognition. Your body DOES change after having a baby. Mine, luckily, not overly much so, but a little softer, a little more womanly, sure.

And the best part? I don't mind at all. That's not to say I - like all other women on the planet - don't always harbour ambitions to be fitter and keep my body toned and healthy - which is a good thing, we should strive to work out and keep fit, not to get younger, but to get older. As in if you want to live a long full healthy life, be healthy.

Magazines are stuffed to the brim with pictures of celebrity mamas "miraculously" shrinking in front of our eyes as soon as bump graduates to baby, leaving most mere mortals green with envy. How normal does it seem to you when they pop straight back to their pre-baby bodies seemingly minutes after leaving the hospital? No? Me neither? And if there is one thing motherhood has taught me, is that happy mummy = happy baby. Starving yourself when you are meant to be: 1. recovering from labour. 2. producing nutritious milk for your baby and 3. storing energy to handle those sleepless nights and long feeding sessions, is clearly not very clever. Not good for mummy = not good for baby.


Eating healthy. Getting out for walks which provide the double goody of fresh air and exercise. Letting your body heal and recover. Slwly reintroducing your pre baby exercise regime. All smart moves.

But Denise Van Outen, unlike most celebrity mommies, is happy to reveal that her body completely changed after giving birth to daughter Betsy in May 2010.

"My hips area is still wider so I can't get into any of my old jeans," the 36-year-old Essex girl says. And so what? She still looks like a yummy mummy to me!

Denise shows off her post-baby figure in the latest issue of Health & fitness magazine, but says some parts of her body have changed for good:

"My tummy is different now," she tells the magazine. "But I quite like the fact it is a bit soft because I think it's womanly. And if anyone says anything to me about it I'm like "Oh come on give me a break, I've got a little girl to show for it!"'

Denise, who married Lee Mead, 29, in 2009, says her role as Paulette in West End musical Legally Blonde keeps her in shape.
"If you think about it I'm doing a gym workout seven times a week,I dance in the show and running up and down the stairs for costume changes is a lot like interval training!" Yummy and sensible Mummy - we like!