jessica alba

In the upcoming March issue of ELLE magazine, Jessica Alba opens up about her new life as a mom.

She talks about trying to get back into shape unhumanly fast after giving birth to her daughter, Honor. In the story, Alba describes workouts so horrible and strenuous, they made her cry.

Another trial she endured for beauty’s sake? “I wore a girdle,” she says. “Eight weeks after my girlfriend had her baby, you could see her six-pack. She told me to put an elastic band around my waist—any kind of band or girdle works. She was like, ‘I slept in it.’ I didn’t recover as fast as she did. I [still] don’t have a six-pack.”

Catch the rest of the story at Yahoo Shine.

Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Alba – the list goes on of A-list moms-to-be who immediately transform their post-baby bodies into their pre-pregnant shapes. How do they do it so quick?

The overwhelming pressure to be thin in Hollywood is a massive driving impetus for these new moms to whip their bodies back into svelte shape. But all of them work hard to do it. They may have the money for personal trainers, baby-sitters and personal chefs but when it comes down to it, each of these new moms have to put in the work.

Health experts recommend pregnant women gain anywhere between 20 to 40 pounds for a single pregnancy. For those moms-to-be who are underweight to begin with, they are encouraged to fall on the weightier end of this spectrum. For those ladies carrying multiples like Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie, the weight recommendations are a bit more generous.

A few weeks after Jolie gave birth to twins, Vivienne and Knox, it didn’t even look like she had ever been pregnant: Her slender physique showed very little, if any, hint of her pregnant self.