Great Bodies: Jody Watley
People Magazine
October 16, 1995
Vol. 44, No. 16

Jody Watley never thought twice about her fabulous figure. It was her birthright. So she fully expected the needle of her scale to shoot back to 125 following the birth of her second child in 1992. During the pregnancy, though, Watley gained 80 pounds. "I cut out butter and fried foods," she remembers, flinching. "But I kept gaining. My hormones were out of whack."

No longer. Anyone who has seen Watley frolicking on the beach in bikini top and cutoffs in her current video Affection would know that the ex-Shalamar singer has whipped those hormones- and everything else- into 34-26-36 form. "It's a myth that women aren't sexy after they have kids," says the mother of Lauren, 13, and Arie, 2 (Watley divorced her husband, musician Andre Cymone, last month). "Women come up to me and say, 'You encouraged me to get back into shape.' "

Still, Watley can teach her fans some serious diet don'ts. At first she overdid it, installing a StairMaster in her kitchen, walking five miles a day, weight training three times a week, and consuming only 1,200 calories a day. Within four months, she had whittled her 5'7" frame down to 110 pounds, but "I didn't look attractive." Now 130, Watley eats three meals a day and does 300 push-ups and sit-ups while on tour- but only if she feels like it. "I'm not a fanatic," she says. "My workout sometimes just consist of reading Shape magazine.

Must be mind over matter. Says John Watley, Jody's 39-year-old brother and tour manager: "People say Jody looks better than she did in Shalamar. They didn't know she had that body."