What having four kids really does to your body: in pics
Wow! Mum boldly shares pictures of her changing body and big twin pregnancy bump to show 'what a woman's body can do'
A mum's frank blog about her body struggles after 3 pregnancies – including twins – has gone viral. And no, not because she's magically 'snapped back' into shape, but because she's learned to accept her body and appreciate how great it is for giving birth to 4 babies.
Joanna Venditti has had her children, including twins, in just 5 years. On her blog, Nesting Story, she says she was at her lowest weight before her wedding to husband Mike. But despite her bikini body, above left, she admits that her "weight control was coming from a place where I felt I had to punish my body".
And after each of her first 2 pregnancies, she was able to lose weight using the same negative methods. "Getting pregnant and watching my belly grow while expecting our first two kids was so exciting and I was able to drop almost every one of those 50 lbs I gained with each pregnancy… but again it was coming from this negative and frustrating place," she admits.
But then when Joanna was pregnant with twins, she knew things would be different. "I couldn’t wrap my mind around how enormous I was going to get," she says.
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While pregnant, Joanna says she thought of her body as a vessel to stop panicking about her size. And once her daughters Mia and Everly were born, Joanna was "bruised and battered".
"My distracting enormous but adorable baby bump had been deflated and I was left with mush, bruising, swollen ankles and healing from a c-section. I had this sadness for my body. I felt so badly for it with the state it was in and at the same time was so grateful for what it had done," she says.
But instead of crash dieting to lose her tummy, Joanna decided to be "kind" to her body by eating healthily and working out but also allowing herself to indulge. "I also wanted to get in shape again, especially knowing I was finished having children," she says.
So now, Joanna tries to wake up every morning to work out before everyone else is up. "Most days I succeed and I am actually starting to see my body come back," she said. "But it has been through a war."
Did you struggle to lose weight after pregnancy? Let us know in the comments below.
Photos: Joanna Vendetti
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