Rebecca Romijn appears on the March cover of Fitness magazine looking as svelte as ever. But the model and actress reveals that losing 60 pounds after giving birth to twins was “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Romijn says that she started gaining weight before getting pregnant, thanks to her happy relationship with husband Jerry O’Connell.
“Every meal with Jerry includes wine and dessert,” says Romijn. “But I was happy and in love, and my clothes still fit. Jerry liked how I looked. He’s very much a ‘there’s more to hold on to’ kind of guy.”
But during pregnancy and after giving birth to twin girls, Romijn says that she started overindulging. Meanwhile, her old exercise regime was no longer doing the trick.
“Everything I did before I got pregnant — like Pilates, which I had done for about 14 years — didn’t work anymore,” says Romijn. “I had to find a completely different way to challenge my body. A friend suggested I try Bikram yoga. At first the idea of doing a 90-minute workout in a 105-degree room sounded like torture. But the sweating is exactly what I became addicted to.”
At the same time, Romijn went on a major diet, cutting out starch, dairy, fat, red meat, alcohol and sugar.
“Just being on a diet was weird for me. I had never been on one in my life, and suddenly I was counting calories and measuring my food … I had to change the way I worked out, the way I ate — everything,” says Romijn, adding that she now feels great. “I was proud to get back into a bikini.”