Mindy Kaling is lifting the lid on her diet and fitness secrets and revealing how she managed to keep her weight gain during pregnancy to 27 pounds. Speaking to Shape Magazine for a new cover feature, the A Wrinkle In Time and The Mindy Project actress opened up about staying in shape and keeping active both during and after her pregnancy, revealing how she lost the baby weight.
Speaking about how she managed to keep her pregnancy weight gain to a minimum while she was expecting her first child last year, Kaling told the magazine in the new interview that she knew she had to take control while she was expecting in order to make it easier for her to lose the extra pounds once she’d given birth.
“Because I like to eat, and I’m not skinny to start with, I knew that if I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy, things could just fly off the rails in a really bad way,” Mindy explained.
She revealed that she then spoke to her doctor, who informed her that moms-to-be who keep their weight gain within a 25 to 30 pounds framework “usually have less trouble losing it after the baby is born,” which is why she aimed to stay at a gain of around 27 pounds.
On how she managed to keep her weight gain as low as she could, the former The Office star said that she “did a lot of yoga and a lot of walking” and also joked that she “jogged until I couldn’t jog anymore,” even exercising right up until the morning she gave birth to her daughter, Katherine, who’s now 5-months-old.
“About a week after I had the baby, I started walking a couple of miles a day. I don’t recommend that for everyone, obviously, but I didn’t have that difficult of a delivery,” Mindy continued of her post-pregnancy workout routine. “All those things were really helpful when it came to losing the weight.”
As confirmed by People in December, Kaling gave birth to a baby girl , whose full name is Katherine Swati Kaling, a few days before Christmas on December 15, 2017, but has not yet publicly revealed the identity of the father.
As for how she’s continuing to stay in shape following the birth of her baby girl, Kaling told Shape that she works out four to five times a week now when she’s not busy on the set and does a mixture of different exercises to keep things interesting.
“I like to mix up my workouts: I’ll do a SoulCycle class, a strength-training class with my trainer, and yoga once a week,” Kaling revealed, admitting in the June issue of the magazine that she “loves” working out.
The actress also told the site that food is a big part of her life, while she revealed her trick to being able to order whatever she wants while eating out at a restaurant, but still keeping her weight under control.
“If I’m going out, I’ll order whatever I want and eat half of it. That way I get to taste everything,” Mindy explained, as she said that she likes to keep what she eats healthy when she’s cooking for herself at home.
Of what she eats in a typical day, the new mom told the diet and fitness publication that she’ll usually start off her day with eggs as well as a third of an avocado, and Ezekiel toast with butter.
For lunch, Mindy usually munches on a large salad with either chicken or fish, before then enjoying a healthy dinner at home, such as salmon with spinach.
“I was raised to clean my plate,” Kaling said of her diet, “and I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I don’t have to eat everything on there.”
