The Sunday Times (Aug. 14th 2011)
Shaping Up
It’s not easy being a new mum in Hollywood these days the pressures on to shed the baby weight almost as soon as you leave the hospital. With fitness gurus on hand and nannies to look after the baby while they sweat, Tinseltowns stars often have to battle to be beautiful again for the big screen, but some claim they just don’t care.
Gwen Stefani is one of the stars who reveals how she dealt with getting back into shape.
She and husband Gavin Rossdale, 45, are the proud parents of two boys, five year old Kingston and Zuma, 2.
Stefani, 41, went hell for leather trying to shed the pregnancy pounds after she had Kingston. Her hectic work out schedule left her exhausted before her baby was even born.
"I worked hard with my trainer until about two weeks before the birth," she says of her term with Kingston. "I cried during my last session. I was like, I cant breathe. I cant do this any more!. It was crazy. If I didn’t have an album coming out, theres no way I would have got myself back into shape in that time."
She admits she tried too hard to stay in shape during her first pregnancy and happily let it all hang out the second time round. With hindsight, Stefani knew she should really take it easy as a new mum when baby Zuma came along.
She contents herself with "all the healthy stuff" most of the time, "but I let myself cheat once or twice a day with a cookie or pizza".
With help from personal trainer Mike Heatlie, Stefani found the best way to working out was to take it easy and go at her own pace and not push herself to an unrealistic target.
"When you have a new baby your metabolism is like, whoosh!" she says. "You’re sleep deprived but you have this crazy amount of energy because of those hormones. Mike is completely passionate about health and fitness and is a wonderful motivator. He makes working out something to look forward to. There aren’t any tricks. Its simple maths you put this much food in, you burn that much working out. I gave myself three months the first time and was easier on myself the second time."