Kerry Washington on why she’s not interested in getting her post-baby body ‘back’

“Scandal” star Kerry Washington, 38, graces the September cover of Self magazine. In the pages of the lifestyle publication, the mother of 17-month-old daughter Isabelle breaks down her go-to workout… pilates and says she’s not interested in getting her post-baby body back anytime soon.

“There are a lot of forms of exercise where you have to leave yourself out of the room while you force yourself to do this thing,” she explains. “With pilates, I get to bring my true self. I cry, I laugh. I get to go: Where is my body today? What do I need today? How can I take care of myself and push myself past my comfort zone? How can I be both loving and challenging?” She said.

She added. “I try to get it in so I can be back with my kid early,” she says. Truth be told, she’d prefer to be cuddled up with her two loves and their shih tzu–Yorkie mix, Josie, who is undoubtedly asleep at the foot of their bed. But Washington never misses a workout. “I have to take care of myself in order to live life the way I want to,” she says. “It’s important to have rest days. But in the long run, if I don’t work out for, like, three days, I feel worse, not better.”

And unlike many Hollywood moms who feel the pressure to get back to their pre-baby weight, Washington it’s not her main focus . She’s fully embracing her post-baby body. She explained, “It’s the site of a miracle now. I don’t want to be pre-miracle.”

Pre-baby weight or not, Washington looks great!