Celebrity Celebrity Family Celebrity Parenting Chrissy Teigen on Learning to 'Be Happy' with Her Body After Baby: It's 'a Bit of a Journey' Motherhood is helping Chrissy Teigen come to terms with her body By Dave Quinn Dave Quinn Dave Quinn is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE. He has been working at the brand since 2016, and is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It. People Editorial Guidelines Published on January 15, 2019 09:01AM EST Motherhood is helping Chrissy Teigen come to terms with her body. The 33-year-old Lip Sync Battle star — who shares daughter Luna Simone, 2½, and son Miles Theodore, 7 months, with husband John Legend — covers the February issue of Good Housekeeping, opening up to the publication in a candid interview about the ways she’s learning to accept her body’s new normal. “I think, in a way, we’ve forgotten what a regular body looks like,” Teigen tells the magazine. “There are people out there who are struggling and I’m struggling, and it’s okay to come to terms with that being okay, to realize that it’s gonna be a bit of a journey.” “Every morning when I look at myself in the mirror, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, how did it get here? My baby was, like, four pounds and I gained, like, sixty pounds, and that seems off!’ ” she adds. “But, you know, I think everyone’s body is just really different.” Want all the latest pregnancy and birth announcements, plus celebrity mom blogs? Click here to get those and more in the PEOPLE Parents newsletter. Eric Ray Davidson For Teigen, choosing her attitude has been a helpful tool in the process of self-acceptance — as has putting her attention toward her children. “It’s all about trying to be happy with myself,” she says. “Because I’m not blind: I see my body, I see the difference in shape, I see that I gained weight. But I also see with those same eyes that I have a beautiful baby boy, and this little girl that’s relentless and amazing, and I am very happy.” “This is a new thing that I can change within my mind, that I don’t have to be swimsuit model anymore,” the model adds. “I get to be a mommy, and I get to cook, and I get to meet incredible people, and I’m happy to be going through this transition.” She’s also begun focusing on fueling her body through food and fitness. “I think now I understand that food is so emotional for me, so I need to realize that if I put good things in my body, I’m probably going to have a better day the next day,” the cookbook author tells Good Housekeeping. “Working out, to me, has never been about losing weight, it’s always been a mood thing, and it always, always helps my mood. So to be able to get back in that routine would be great.” Eric Ray Davidson Chrissy Teigen Shares a Photo of Her ‘Thigh Hives’ and ‘Fun’ Stretch Marks with Fans Throughout her journey to self-acceptance, Teigen has always been honest with her followers on social media — sharing content she jokingly calls “posts of real mom s—.” “I think as important as it is for people to see me do that, it’s also really important for me,” says Teigen, who also had postpartum depression. Though it’s been helpful for her fans, there have been plenty of people who have reacted negatively on social media. So how does she handle those comments? “I have moods like anybody else,” Teigen tells Good Housekeeping. “Some days, I’ll wake up and I’ll read something and it’ll totally not affect me. But if I read that same thing the next day — after a night of no sleep and a really rough day with Luna — it naturally gets to you because you’re in a s—tier mood. If I wake up, and I’m like, ‘Ugh, I feel bloated, I haven’t worked out for a few days’ and I read something about my body? That’s the day that I’m gonna speak up.” Overall, Teigen says, “It’s just crazy how judgmental people can be.” Chrissy Teigen and her mother. Eric Ray Davidson Chrissy Teigen. Eric Ray Davidson Also in her Good Housekeeping chat, Teigen talks about how Luna helped her gain confidence with her own personality. “It sounds weird to say, but I really am an introvert,” Teigen says to the magazine. “Luna’s just two and a half now and bringing out so much of my personality that I was too anxious to share in the outside world before, so I get to be goofy; I get to be silly.” Being more outspoken hasn’t hurt Teigen in her career. She explains: “In the beginning of my career, [brands] didn’t want to see your personality; they wanted to see a pretty face. Obviously, speaking your mind can limit you to 50 percent of the population these days, but I think more and more, companies are realizing that authentic voices actually end up being much more beneficial. I’m outspoken when I wanna be, and I always have to be myself, so I can’t really compromise on that.” ‘Better Than Ever!’ All the Sweetest Things John Legend and Chrissy Teigen Have Said About Each Other As for life at home, Teigen says she and Legend are “very much homebodies.” “I’m not the type to meet a friend for lunch; I’m only comfortable in my home,” she tells Good Housekeeping.