beauty

Seven Year Switch's Cassie admits she's struggling with 'post baby body' pressure.

It’s been eight weeks since Cassie and Ryan from Seven Year Switch joyfully welcomed their third daughter into the world.

Mena Lee Thistleton is the couple’s fourth child; their son, Dex, was stillborn.

This week they’re planning to travel to Sydney to film a documentary of the Stillbirth Foundation Australia, which they’re “honoured” to be a part of.

However, when Cassie reached into her pre-pregancy wardrobe to pick out something to wear though, nothing seemed to fit anymore.

“Everything was either too tight or didn’t fit,” she wrote in a candid Instagram post.

This weekend we will travel to Sydney to film a doco for the Stillbirth Foundation Australia which we are so super excited about and honoured to be a part of! Last night I went to my pre-pregnancy wardrobe to pick out something to wear. Everything was either too tight or didn’t fit! It was horrible, I even had an audience (the husband and eldest daughter) giggling at my attempts to make something look half decent. I went to bed feeling ugly, fat and angry at myself for not fitting in exercise today. I was soooo disappointed ???? Today it’s been 8 weeks since I gave birth. I have such high expectations of myself to get back into shape as quickly as possible, why wouldn’t I when celebrities can do it seemingly overnight! The reality is everyone’s bodies are different. With my other pregnancies it has taken me a good year to get back to my pre pregnancy condition. I’m not sure where the pressure has come from (Mabey being in the public eye has played its part or the millions of amazing super mums on social media who were blessed with amazing genes!) I don’t know? What I do know is that I just need to give myself a frigging break. I know my body will come back eventually because I want it bad enough. I am my own worst critic, most of the time this works in my favour and builds determination and persistence, but at times it can beat me down to an unhealthy frame of mind. I know so many of you who are reading this do the same. Let’s try something new and love our bodies.. It’s harder said than done but I have a feeling we will be so much happier if we let the expectations go! ???????? #pregnancy #breastfeeding #mumbod #8weekspostpartum #strength #lovemybody #keepgoing #mumlife #bump #baby #labour #motivation #ryanandcass

A photo posted by Ryan And Cass (@ryanandcass) on Aug 8, 2016 at 8:06pm PDT

ADVERTISEMENT

“It was horrible, I even had an audience (the husband and eldest daughter) giggling at my attempts to make something look half decent. I went to bed feeling ugly, fat and angry at myself for not fitting in exercise today,” she said.

“Today it’s been eight weeks since I gave birth. I have such high expectations of myself to get back into shape as quickly as possible, why wouldn’t I when celebrities can do it seemingly overnight?”

There are very few women who can appear bikini-clad with an eight-pack just a few weeks after squeezing another human being out of them, but overwhelmingly these are the women we see splashed across the covers of glossy magazines when we trundle down in our trackie-dacks to buy milk.

Watch: The Pregnancy Project explores how birth affects women’s body confidence. (Post continues after video.)

As Cassie points out: “The reality is everyone’s bodies are different.”

“With my other pregnancies it has taken me a good year to get back to my pre-pregnancy condition… I just need to give myself a frigging break. I know my body will come back eventually because I want it bad enough.

“I am my own worst critic, most of the time this works in my favour and builds determination and persistence, but at times it can beat me down to an unhealthy frame of mind.”

ADVERTISEMENT

 

She finishes with a call to action for other new mums who might be struggling to accept themselves — and more importantly love themselves, just as they are.

“Let’s try something new and love our bodies. It’s harder said than done but I have a feeling we will be so much happier if we let the expectations go!”

Onya, Cass.