A fitness influencer has it back at trolls who criticised her for working out just a few weeks after welcoming her first child.
Danae Mercer Ricci has built up a following on 2.3 million followers on Instagram ( ), where she is an advocate for body positivity.
The mum-of-one welcomed daughter Aurora in January, but was stunned to get a barrage of messages questioning her choice to return to the gym soon after her birth.
Others criticised her for being hypocritical to the body positivity movement and accused her of wanting to lose weight.
The fitness buff took to Instagram to share a video of her working out, insisting that her exercise regime is about far more than toning up and is crucial to maintaining balance in all aspects of life.
Danae’s post resonated with thousands of mums, garnering 40,000 likes.
“A few weeks after I had baby, and with the guidance of my doctor, I started to gently easing back into fitness,” Danae, originally from California but now living in Florence, told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
It was mostly really soft things, like pelvic breathing, or just activating my core, but it helped me feel more balanced and more like myself, since fitness is such a big passion of mine.
“I shared it on social media, and got some really unexpectedly awful DMs basically accusing me of trying to lose the ‘baby weight’ and saying I wasn’t ‘body positive’ because I was clearly ‘rushing back’ into working out.
“It surprised me. I thought about it a lot, and realised we have seriously warped our understanding of fitness.
“So often we view fitness as a way to shrink or ‘fix’ our bodies – but it’s so much more than that.
“For me, exercise is really mental. It helps me feel strong and energised and empowered. Especially now, when my whole world has changed, it’s helped me find 10 minutes to ground myself.
“There is no shame in any of that – and we shouldn’t shame mothers for making decisions that feel right to them.”
In the video, various clips of Danae at the gym and enjoying movement are shown, as well as intimate moments of her cradling Aurora.
She captioned the video: “I got a DM the other day: ‘Why are you training postpartum? Are you that desperate to lose weight? You’re supposed to be about body positivity. Such a fake.’
“And it made me so sad that we’ve somehow reduced exercise into an unpleasant chore done simply to shrink or ‘fix’ our bodies.
“Exercise can be so much more. It IS so much more. It’s mental and emotional and social and physical, all wrapped in one sometimes-sweaty package.
“For me, fitness helps me stay balanced.
“I’ve struggled this last month – more than I’ve felt strong enough to share.
“I’ve been a bit angry with my body. Not for how it looks, but for what it couldn’t, what it wouldn’t do.
“Exercise has allowed me to find my feet again. And I am so sad that diet culture has somehow corrupted our idea of movement, which is at its core such a varied and joyful thing.
“So today, if I could give one bit of advice, it would be this: Don’t listen to the narrative of ‘no pain no gain’.
“Instead, create goals that feel right for you. Your fitness should feel like ‘I get to’ instead of ‘I have to’.
“Allow yourself the joy of intentional movement – however big or small or soft it might be. And I’ll keep doing the same.”
