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At 31, Grammy-winning artist Meghan Trainor is rewriting her own narrative about body acceptance while raising her sons Riley (4) and Barry (1)—and she’s doing it on her own terms.
Since bursting onto the music scene with “All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor has weathered endless public commentary about her body. Now, as a mother of two young children, she’s shifting the conversation entirely—embracing changes, celebrating strengths, and making choices that empower her, regardless of outside opinions.
In a candid conversation with Mother.ly, Trainor reveals how motherhood has transformed her perspective on everything from physical health to emotional wellbeing. Whether she’s discussing her protein-packed morning routine, the laundry sheets she keeps handy for her son’s potty training regression, or her decision to undergo breast augmentation, Trainor exemplifies perhaps the most revolutionary act: living confidently on her own terms and doing what she believes is best for herself and her family.
A new relationship with her body
For Trainor, pregnancy and childbirth marked the beginning of a profound transformation in how she views her body. After experiencing gestational diabetes during her first pregnancy and undergoing two C-sections, she developed a deep appreciation for her body’s resilience.
“When I’m naked in the mirror, I look at my body and I love her the most right now,” Trainor shares. “I’m so proud of her. I see how hard she’s working. She’s taking care of me.”
Rather than focusing on “bouncing back” after pregnancy, Trainor has embraced her changed body—scars, stretch marks, and all.
“I see scars everywhere. I see my new boob scars. I see my C-section scar doubled through. I see stretch marks, and I look at her and I’m like, ‘You’ve been through so much and you’re just 31, but you did a great job.’”
This perspective shift didn’t happen overnight. Trainor emphasizes the importance of giving yourself time to heal after childbirth: “Take care of yourself and give yourself over a year to come back at all as you, because that fourth trimester when you’re with your baby—that’s still for them. You’re taking care of someone and you always forget to put yourself first.”
Motherhood as motivation for health
Becoming a mother fundamentally changed Trainor’s approach to health and wellness. What had previously been occasional attempts at healthy living transformed into a committed lifestyle.
“My children were the only thing that got me really motivated to be my healthiest self,” she explains. “I always tried to be healthy here and there, but I look back now, I’m like, ‘Oh, I wasn’t really trying.’ Now everything matters. Whatever I put in my mouth matters—food and ingredients—and moving my body every day.”
After her gestational diabetes diagnosis, Trainor gained a new understanding of nutrition and exercise: “I loved learning the science of when I eat something, look how my blood sugar changes. I learned the simplest tricks of like, walk 10 minutes after and it’ll level out your blood sugar better.”
Protein has become a cornerstone of her nutrition plan, with Trainor making sure she gets over 100 grams daily. During our conversation, she even called her husband into the room to explain their morning routine: “His main goal is to help me get more protein because when you work out in the gym and you don’t eat enough protein, it’s like, what are you doing?”
Her husband creates a protein-packed coffee for her each morning, blending protein powder with a “fat bomb” (or “bulletproof butter bomb” as they call it) to create a frothy, delicious drink. (This man really seems to be gunning for husband of the year and frankly, we’re here for it.) “It’s like foamy and delicious. It’s a tasty coffee. It’s a sweet treat, I tell you what. And it has 25 grams of protein in it every morning,” she shares. “And then I have my yogurt that has 15 grams of protein. So like right off the bat, I’m strong as hell.”
Working with a dietician helped Trainor reframe her relationship with food: “Every reward to me was like eating a terrible big meal. And she was like, ‘Oh, does a celebration have to be a meal?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I guess not.’”
Now, Trainor and her husband approach fitness as a family value. “My husband and I are like biohackers—we wanna figure out how to live forever and live our best, strongest life and show our kids like, if you do hard work, you can live strong,” she says.
When their children ask why both parents exercise together, Trainor explains: ” We both need to be strong so we could pick you up and chase you and play games with you!”
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Mental health openness
Perhaps most refreshingly, Trainor speaks with remarkable candor about mental health. In an era where many celebrities present curated versions of parenthood, she’s transparent about the tools that help her maintain emotional balance.
“I’m in therapy, I’m on antidepressants. I love medicine,” Trainor states plainly. “My kid’s in therapy. We’re in therapy. I love a therapist.”
This openness extends to how she parents her “feely stressy boy,” encouraging emotional intelligence in ways that challenge traditional gender expectations.
“I feel like with boys, we like told them to block all their emotions and then they grow up and they’re like, ‘Woo!’” she observes. “So I’m like, ‘No. Feel, feel everything.’”
Trainor emphasizes the importance of recognizing when you need help: “Asking for help is really crucial. Ask for help when you need it and listen to your body.” She recently demonstrated this self-awareness by canceling a songwriting session when she felt overwhelmed: “Last night I felt like vibrating, like my body was like, ‘hello,’ and I have to listen to my body.”
Practical parenting hacks
Between recording sessions and parenting duties, Trainor has developed practical strategies for managing everyday challenges. When it comes to potty training regression, she doesn’t shy away from sharing real parenting struggles.
“Our 4-year-old is withholding right now,” she explains. “He is my feely stressy boy. As soon as anything emotional happens to him, we notice he holds in his poop and he will not let that go. Therefore we have accidents all the time.”
For these unexpected parenting moments, Trainor has found solutions that work for her family, including Arm & Hammer laundry sheets that she keeps on hand for quick cleanups. “I need a quick ‘let’s clean these underwears.’ I need a quick toss in the laundry,” she says, appreciating products that are portable enough to keep in her purse while traveling.
When packing the perfect diaper bag, Trainor is equally prepared: “Full outfits… any type of wipes for boogers… And we bring the Arm and Hammer laundry sheets everywhere we go, just in case for emergencies. If we don’t have snacks, the car turns around.” She’s refreshingly real about the less glamorous aspects of parenting.
For her own self-care, Trainor has discovered time-efficient beauty routines: “I don’t wear makeup every day, but I will put on a brow every day… If I put on makeup, I do a brow and lip tint, and people are like, ‘Wow, you must have a full face of makeup.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m just lazy and quick.’”
Carrying forward her own mother’s legacy
One of the most heartfelt moments in our conversation came when Trainor spoke about her relationship with her own mother—a bond she previously celebrated in her touching “Mom Song.” When asked if becoming a mother herself would change how she’d write that song today, Trainor was emphatic in her response.
“No, I wouldn’t touch it. I love it. It’s perfect,” she says without hesitation. “My mom is my best friend and my favorite person. I know now that I’m an adult and I see my other friends with their parents, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is rare. This is special.’”
She treasures having captured that relationship in music: “We need to hold onto this and capture it in a song forever. That was like the best decision I ever made. And now there’s like a plaque in her house that’s like ‘my mom’s song’ and it’s an old picture of us together and I will treasure it forever.”
This deep connection now guides her own parenting approach: “Being a mom now, I just try to be her every day. I try to be her and try to be my very best and try to remember anything from childhood that I wish I had and then give it to my kids—whether it was like eye contact or get down low and really talk about ‘What are you feeling? Are you frustrated?’ Really diving deep into emotions.”
For Trainor, the song represents a legacy she hopes to continue: “I just love that I can play it for my great grandkid someday and be like, ‘She was the greatest, you know?’”
In an industry that often expects women to compartmentalize their identities—be a sex symbol or a mother, a professional or a caregiver—Trainor boldly refuses to choose. She’s getting protein-packed morning coffees made and delivered by her husband, talking openly about therapy, celebrating her post-C-section body, and making career decisions based on what her “vibrating” body tells her. She’s teaching her sons to feel their emotions while teaching herself to listen to her own instincts. And in doing so, she offers perhaps the most valuable lesson for all parents: authenticity isn’t just something we teach our children—it’s something we practice ourselves.
As she puts it simply: “Just try your best one song at a time.”