But What About Senator Gillibrand's Baby Weight??

“Like every new mom, it takes time, it takes time, to get back in shape and be yourself again,” Gillibrand told the New York Daily News. And then she Revealed Her Diet Secrets!

You know how yesterday we suggested that, just maybe, the culture was a leetle too interested in strangers’ “baby weight?” Like, more interested in “losing the weight” and “regaining the body” than, say, an upcoming primary battle? Well. No one stands corrected.

On the one hand, as long as we must prolong this absurd conversation, at least Gillibrand’s comments on the subject are relatively wholesome. “Most of us are not Heidi Klum and Angelina Jolie who look great the next day – for me, it took a good year and a half to get off all my Henry weight.” (Henry is her baby. Elsewhere in the article she refers to her “Theo weight,” too. This is either better or worse than any alternative we’ve heard.) But, that said, the Senator still works out five mornings a week, runs and plays tennis.

The senator said she began focusing on her diet in August when she finished breast-feeding Henry. She eats fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and fish, aiming for roughly 1,200 calories a day. “I write down everything I eat,” she said.

Her goal, she says, is to “get back into the wardrobe she used before having her oldest child, Theo, 6.” For a woman who’s achieved this level of public success, I’m guessing she can achieve this, too – if she wants. It’s somewhat dispiriting that given a public platform, such a visible woman not merely plays into a post-weight hysteria which is frankly none of anyone’s business and has even less to do with politics than Hollywood, but also subscribes to success-as-dress-size rather than general health and well-being. And calorie-counting, for my money, should be banned from print. We know people gain weight when they have babies; that’s Nature. The amazing thing is that each instance of public gain and loss is still met with wonder and fascination. And that this piece will likely influence at least one voter.

Sen. Gillibrand Shedding Pounds – But Politics Is Not Reason For Fitness Kick, She Says [NYDN]