Bounce Back Baby Body

Here is a photo of me about three days before I gave birth to my first daughter.

You never know what your body is going to look like on the other side of pregnancy. I remember after I delivered. The nurses told me I needed to try to get up and use the restroom, and I remember looking at myself in the mirror under the fluorescent lighting in the hospital bathroom and being horrified by my body and thinking "Well, this will never be the same again." I know we should be celebrating our female bodies and the miracle of life that we just pushed out. But how can you not have a little sadness over the death of your tight skin and youthful shape?

But as icky as I looked on my daughter's birth day, things did get better. Breast feeding burns a ton of calories. You can eat like a horse and the pounds melt away. I think I gained about 25 to 30 pounds with my pregnancy. I left the hospital with ten or fifteen pounds to lose. And less than a month after giving birth, thanks to the breast-feeding, I got down to only needing to lose five or eight pounds.

However, that last little bit took what felt like forever to come off. I feel like with both my pregnancies, it took me two years to get back to where I started. Why did it take me so long to lose those last five to eight pounds? What makes it difficult is that everything has shifted and so you have to stutter. You have to lose a little, gain some muscle, lose a little, and eventually it happens if you stick to your healthy foods plan and exercise. But I do consider myself lucky to have been able to bounce back fairly quickly. Everyone is unique and may have a different post-partum body story.

Recently, on the MJ Morning Show we talked about this woman who bounced back after her child's birth and posted some photos showing off her fit-new-mama self. Twitter trash-talkers were offended and triggered by this, tweeting that this woman is not reality. Well, that's her reality. She happens to be one of the lucky ones/hard workers...whatever you want to call it...who does bounce back quickly after pregnancies. Why do people have to hate on others' accomplishments or things someone else is good at?

What are your thoughts? Should she have kept her pregnancy bounce-back story to herself?

Florida lottery players have claimed two enormous jackpots since joining in the game back in 2013. Here are 10 tidbits about the big money winners.

Do you play your lucky numbers or do you let the machine pick? Both winners used the QuickPick option.

Shane Missler of Port Richey was only 20 years old when we became Florida's biggest lottery winner ever. He said he wasn't surprised with the win. He just had "a feeling." He first told his brother and then delivered the news to his father over coffee the next morning.

Both big Florida Mega Millions winners were big football fans. Shane Missler used his winnings to see his favorite team the New England Patriots play in the Super Bowl. Raymond Moyer and Robyn Collier said they planned to spend their winnings to go to as many Notre Dame games as they could.

Since the grocery chain sells so many lottery tickets, many conspiracy theorists think there's a bias and a disproportionate number of winners that come from Publix. Neither of the 2 big winning tickets were purchased with a Pub Sub.

Raymond Moyer and Robyn Collier of Merritt Island had to share their winnings as a Maryland player also picked the winning numbers. Taking the lump sum payment and having to share the money meant the $414 million jackpot turned into a mere $115,448,968 win for them. We're pretty sure they weren't too disappointed. Florida Today reported Collier had less than $5 cash when she filed for bankruptcy two years before the win.

Only two Florida Mega Millions players have been mega winners but 64 million have won smaller prizes from $2 to $2,000,000, totaling just over $806 million.

You can take home more money by opting to receive annual payments of your winnings. But both big jackpot winners opted to just cash in and take a lump sum payment. The Port Richey winner took a $281,874,999 check.

Both big money winners bought their tickets at gas stations. One was a 7-Eleven in Port Richey. The other was at a Sunoco on Merritt Island near Melbourne.

Although no Florida lottery players have won a billion dollars, the state's education system is getting close. Since Florida joined Mega Millions in 2013, the game has generated almost $818 million for education.

If you plan on becoming Florida's next millionaire, know a few things. First, you only have 60 days to claim your prize if you want to cash out right away. You have 180 days if you're going to take the annual payments.  And after 90 days, your name becomes public.