
Six months after home-delivering (!) a bouncing baby boy, Karolina
Kurkova is back and better than ever. (Just take a look at that
microscopic waist and endless legs on display in June's
"Best In Show"
feature) She attributes her lightning fast return to form to eating an
annoyingly healthy diet (think zero processed foods and gallons of green
juices) and shaking her groove thing at Tracy Anderson's studio. Still,
she gets the guilts just like every other working mama. Read on and
learn how she juggles supermodel-dom with the new-mom thing.
Kurkova in "Best in Show," shot by Craig McDean
You already have your figure back! Did you have a lot of weight to lose?
I didn't gain much weight, and I think the secret was really staying
active throughout my pregnancy. I did Pilates, a lot of weight training,
I walked a lot and I traveled. I lived my life, you know? And I was
eating really healthy, taking good supplements and vitamins, drinking
green juices and just making sure I was putting the best stuff in my
body. I didn't eat much junk, and I was lucky I didn't really crave it,
either. So I'm all about listening to your body. But obviously you want
to try to give it more natural foods, and fruits, good vitamins, fish
oils, fiber. Lots of fiber when you're pregnant!
So how did you get back in shape?
I've been working a lot with
Tracy Anderson at her studio. After I had
my baby, I wanted to try something different. I didn't want to be in the
gym doing weights. And I like Tracy. She's a working mom like me and she
understands that, and understands a woman's body. It's been really fun.
I'd done gymnastics and ballet earlier in my life, and she incorporates
the barre, and you kind of hang there—it's a bit of a mishmash of
everything. A little ballet, a lot of dancing, funk cardio. As a woman,
where else can you go and listen to fast music and really dance?
Especially after you have a baby, it's not like you have a lot of time
to go dance! So it's a great place to just go and be, and feel good,
feel sexy and sweat.
From left: A pregnant Kurkova in August 2009; Kurkova at the 2010 Costume Institute gala earlier this month.
Do you follow Tracy's food regimen too?
I haven't tried the food delivery, but I've heard it's good. I just try
to eat really healthy. I always do my own thing. We still do a lot of
fresh green fruit juices, and try to cook as much as we can so that
everything's light, delicious and gluten-free. We don't really eat
anything that's white, or processed. And we try to buy things from
little farms and local places to support those businesses. I'm a big
believer in that.
Are you modeling less now? It sounds like you're still keeping up a
pretty intense schedule.
I did take a few months off, to make sure we bonded and established a
relationship as a family—not just me and the baby, but my husband, too.
But now I'm back to work and it's actually busier than ever. I'm having
more fun, and it's almost like I have a higher purpose now. I mean, I
never did stuff just for me anyway. I've always kind of done it for
everybody around me, to help people and make them happy. I don't look at
it like, "Oh, I'm doing it so I can buy a better bag or a new
apartment." But definitely, it's challenging. How do you balance being a
working woman, a good mom and a wife? It's tough, but kind of exciting,
too. It's so easy to be stressed about it and put pressure on yourself.
Like, "If I'm not there, I'm not a good mom." I'm just really glad to be
back to work, and I'm fortunate that sometimes when I have to go away
for a few days, I can take my son. I want to incorporate him into my
life as much as possible. And he's getting used to being in different
places and around new people. I think he likes it!
Check back next week for the latest installment of The Skinny. And see all our previous model Q&As here.