Eight weeks after giving birth to her THIRD child, Heidi Klum walked the Victoria’s Secret runway in (and this is not a joke) an electric thong.

Five months after having her son, former Bachelorette Trista Sutter appeared on the cover Us Weekly in a bikini with visible ab defintion and nary a stretch mark in sight.

A recent article at MSNBC questioned whether the insanely quick return to pre-baby condition by celebrity moms like Heidi and Trista helps or harms us mere mortals.

In one camp, moms like Catherine Lang-Cline are inspired by these hot mamas. “… I do find it inspiring that I don’t have to stay the flabby lump of goo that I feel I am now. Celebrities show that it’s possible to look good after having a baby. Granted, they’ll probably do it in half the time, but at least it’s possible.”

On the other side of the fence, some experts argue that celebrity moms set expectations that simply aren’t realistic for the vast majority of us who don’t have a nanny, nutritionist, chef, and personal trainer on call. These expectations influence our husbands, who wonder “If Christina Aguilera can lose the weight, why can’t you?”, and us, sparking disordered eating and exacerbating postpartum depression.

The question of the week is this: Are you inspired or discouraged by women like Heidi and Trista? How does their post-baby body success make you feel?

Speaking as a terrified mom-to-be with a history of disordered eating, I’d have to say that it alarms me. I don’t feel inspired; I feel intimidated. What if I can’t measure up to this impossibly high standard? I’d prefer to spend the first few months after delivery focusing on the baby rather than freaking out about my body (although I suspect a certain measure of freaking out is inevitable).

What do you think?

Hop on over to Stephanie Quilao’s Back in Skinny Jeans and check out my guest post!

I had the great pleasure of meeting Stephanie in person at BlogHer 08, and I’m here to tell you that she’s every bit as warm and funny in person as she is online. (Plus, she has absolutely FABULOUS hair and is a phenomenal speaker! Fangirl crush!!)

Thanks, Steph, for the opportunity to share my story!

“I was so busy–I just forgot to eat!”

I always thought that statement was, excuse my British, utter shite. Who can forget about food? The waffley temptations of breakfast. The decadent pastries of the early morning snack. Open-faced sandwiches for lunch. A melty, chocolate chippy afternoon cookie. After ten-plus years of counting every calorie, monitoring every morsel of food, and anxiously awaiting (or painfully avoiding) mealtimes, I couldn’t understand how anyone could just “forget” to eat.

But then it happened to me a few days ago.

I woke up and had a light but healthy breakfast (running late on this of all days, of course), thinking that I’d be having a snack in a few hours. Then I got to work and all hell broke loose. I was in meetings and conference calls from 9:30am until 3:00 with virtually no break. Around 4pm, I was finishing up an email when I heard my stomach growl. That’s when it hit me–I had forgotten to eat. For almost nine hours. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I actually, seriously FORGOT about food.

If you’ve ever suffered through skipping a meal to lose weight, you know how mind-blowing this is for me.

I couldn’t help but suspect that there’s a lesson in this for me. After a few days of reflection, I think the lesson is this: Boredom is really, really, REALLY bad for me.

Pretty much every time I struggle with or (God forbid) give into my disordered eating impulses, I’m sitting at home alone, with nothing to do, feeling kind of bored. Or it’s a really slow day at work and I’m struggling to keep myself occupied. I start to feel restless. I get a mental itch right in the center of my brain. Leisure activities (reading, watching TV, going for a walk) don’t fix it. I need to have something that I have to do–something I choose to do isn’t quite the same.

Does anyone else find this to be true? Does boredom derail you? Are you better off busy, or does being busy produce stress that gets you off track?

As you already know, I’ve struggled with disordered eating for years. I’ve hated myself, abused myself, lectured myself, and punished myself. It has NOT been fun. But I’ve made incredible progress over the past few months, and I feel like I’m in a better place than I’ve ever been with my eating. Thanks to all of you for your support!

Body image, on the other hand, is something I’m still struggling with. Like most disordered eaters, I’m unable to see myself realistically and objectively. If you show me a picture of myself, I focus on the flaws. My nose looks crooked. My arms are shapeless. My butt looks saggy. You know how that story goes. It got even worse after the masectomy. Then I was convinced that everyone could tell that I had implants. Did they look too obvious? Too big? Too round? It never ends.

When I came across Suzanne’s blog entry about the Swimsuit Brigade for Honest Photos–which is her effort to fight back against the media’s ridiculously unrealistic portrayal of the female body–I was incredibly moved. Much to my surprise, I found myself wanting to participate, to put my picture out there and say, “Hey, world–this is what I look like. It’s real and it’s OK.” I know how it feels to think that the way you look isn’t good enough, and I wanted to support this woman’s very brave effort to show women that we look JUST FINE thankyouverymuch.

So here I am.

In all my glory.

Let me know if you decide to participate–it’s terrifying (I freely admit that I almost deleted this post about six times), but it’s also very empowering and liberating.

Viva the female form!

Hold on to your knickers, because I have a stunning success to report!

(If you’ve never struggled with disordered eating, you will likely be perplexed and possibly disappointed by this success story. Just take my word for it–it’s HUGE!)

For the past four or five days, I have been viewing food as (are you ready for this?)… FUEL.

Amazing, right?!?!?

It all started with my personal trainer (my first session was three weeks ago), who asked me to write down everything I’ve been eating in order to track my protein intake. I complied, and we discovered that (as he suspected) it was abysmally low. He encouraged me to start adding more protein into my diet. Countless protein shakes later, I was getting more than enough of the good stuff to build and maintain muscle–something that is particularly difficult for endurance athletes (i.e., marathon runners) and ectomorphs (i.e., long, gangly people like yours truly).

All was going well until I discovered that protein kills–absolutely murders–my appetite. I was eating solely to ensure that I got enough protein. (I know!!!) Unfortunately, something else that high-mileage runners need is CARBS, and being stuffed with lean ground beef and protein shakes, it was incredibly difficult for me to force anything else down.

Then, a few days ago, I hit The Wall. Any of you who have ever worked out really hard for a sustained period of time know what I’m talking about. The dreaded Wall. I was out for a short, easy run and all of a sudden, I just could not take another step. I was shuffling along at a pace a full minute-per-mile slower than when I started training several months ago. I felt totally drained. I was overwhelmed by exhaustion for the next 24 hours. I was experiencing, so my trainer tells me, glycogen depletion. Why? Because I need more carbs!!

I began to look at my diet in an entirely different way–not in terms of calories and weight loss, but in terms of getting both the energy (carbs) I need for running and the protein my body requires to build and maintain muscle. It completely altered my approach to food and eating. I’ve been eating based not on what my mouth wants (or what my emotions tell me that my mouth wants), but on what my body needs. And–this is the best part–I haven’t minded it at all!

How can I make this permanent?