Cassie has opened up on how hard it was to lose the weight she gained during pregnancy, which resulted in postpartum depression.
Despite being married to a personal trainer, the singer had a “depressing and confusing” time trying to lose the 60 pounds she gained during pregnancy.
“I lost 20lbs within the first couple of weeks which I was told was normal and then another 10 gradually over the next 2-3 weeks.
“I started to workout when I had a goal of 30lbs to go and when my doctor cleared me to. I went pretty hard at first. By mid March I was down another 15 and feeling pretty good. I had a bit of unexplained anxiety, but I was able to work through it…” she wrote in an essay for Almost Homes.
However, she suddenly gained 15 pounds back, which prompted her to go to the doctor. She was told that she had something called postpartum thyroiditis. Following her diagnosis, Cassie began to pay closer attention to her diet, which still yielded frustrating results.
She explained: “Basically my thyroid was hyper for a short period (hence the anxiety and weight loss) and then slowed down causing me to gain weight back.
“The next 3 months following were confusing and depressing to say the least. I changed my diet paying attention to things that I reacted negatively to (ie, bloating). I actually started roughly following an autoimmune diet (AIP) in fear that my thyroiditis would turn into Hashimoto’s Disease (an autoimmune disorder).
“I had completely lost my mind, but I’m glad that I did. I needed to understand what was happening with my body.
“I went from creating and bringing life into this world to trying whatever I could to get back to feeling like myself again. It wasn’t about my weight anymore, it was about being happy, feeling good and not developing a disorder I’ve never heard of.
“It was discouraging. Once I started to become more consistent, I started to see and feel the results very slowly but it was happening,” she shared.
“I know a lot of people think, well she’s married to a personal trainer, it shouldn’t be hard for her or she should be in shape she has no excuse, but I was unhappy with myself. Shit happens, I’m human.”
Cassie said that she wanted to share her difficult journey to highlight how differently each person’s postpartum body will react.
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“As women, (not all of us, but a decent amount) we put so much pressure on ourselves to look a certain way when I think what we should be focused on is our overall health and happiness. Whatever your goals are, choose to be healthy.”