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Courtney Thorne Smith is this month’s cover girl of FitPregancy magazine. Courtney is pregnant with her first child and talks to about how she is staying in shape even while pregnant and how she kicked a bad exercise habit.

Have you been working out? Well, I used to be a compulsive exerciser, but I’m over that. For the past several years, I’ve been walking 40 minutes and doing Pilates and yoga stretches at home, so that’s what I’m doing now. I used to run 8 miles a day, then go to the gym, do weights and then yoga, until I realized that I was so hungry and tired all the time. So I stopped doing all that and started just walking. I feel so much freedom now: I don’t have to stay in a hotel with a gym and I’m never so hungry that I panic.

A lot of women are in a crazy exercise cycle; they’re so afraid they’ll gain weight if they stop, and it’s especially hard when they get pregnant. What they need to realize is that if you’re not exercising so much, you don’t have to eat so much, and your body adjusts. It sounds so simple, but you really do have to listen to your body.

How are you feeling about your body now? I feel great: I wanted this so badly. One day I was with one of my friends, and I was rubbing my belly, and she asked me, “How does it feel?” I told her, “It feels really good.” And she said, “Great! I hope you keep rubbing your belly with love even after the baby is born.” And that was so powerful, because my belly has always been the spot I obsess over.

I have come to appreciate my body so much—and I think that’s why I was able to get pregnant, because of that appreciation. Now, the baby is kicking and it’s all working. It’s a miracle what this body can do, and I want to treat it with respect, always, even when I’m not pregnant. And it gets better and better: I know I had a better body when I was 20, but I hated it so much that it feels better now.

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