People.com Celebrity Parents Swimmer Dana Vollmer Didn't Worry About Returning to Pre-Pregnancy Weight After Baby: Nursing Was 'My Top Priority' "I had to view getting back into shape as this healthy, nutritious process," swimmer Dana Vollmer says of how she took care of her body after baby No. 1 By Jen Juneau Jen Juneau Twitter Jen Juneau is a digital news writer for PEOPLE. A '90s teen and horror film connoisseur, she started at the brand in 2016, after a decade of working as a technical writer and then moonlighting as a journalist beginning in 2013. Originally from New Orleans, Jen grew up both in NOLA and Florida and eventually attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando (still her home base!), where she earned a bachelor's in English/technical communication, with a minor in magazine journalism. People Editorial Guidelines Published on August 9, 2017 12:15 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Bouncing back after baby wasn’t at the top of Olympic swimmer Dana Vollmer‘s to-do list. Vollmer — who is mom to Ryker Alexander, 5 weeks, and Arlen Jackson, 2 — posed nude for the inaugural Women’s Health‘s Global Naked issue while she was still pregnant with her younger son, and revealed some of the experiences she has had concerning her body both as an athlete and a mom. “It took the disappointment of missing the Olympic team in 2008 to realize that I wasn’t happy,” says Vollmer, 29, who won three medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics after becoming a first-time mom to Arlen. (Previously, she took home three gold medals at the 2012 games.) “I wasn’t enjoying competing, or training, and it was because I was picking apart every single thing I did and picking apart my body. It took that disappointment to realize this is not a way to live,” she continues. “From that point forward, I tried to step back from that mindset and learn to appreciate all that my body does.” Want all the latest pregnancy and birth announcements, plus celebrity mom blogs? Click here to get those and more in the PEOPLE Babies newsletter. Jeff Lipsky/Women's Health Vollmer says pregnancy “was a positive for me too,” as she came to “the realization that my body has created a new life.” “That’s one reason why coming back to the sport after the birth of my son went so well. I had Arlen, and it wasn’t about getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight,” she explains. “My top priority was being able to nurse him. That meant that if I was going to train, I couldn’t just quickly lose weight.” Adds the mom of two, “I had to view getting back into shape as this healthy, nutritious process. It made me love training again, and it made me embrace my body, embrace life. All of that made getting back into Olympic form easier.” FROM PEN: Emily Maynard Johnson Admits She Was Ashamed to Stop Breastfeeding Her Third Son Early Mommy Gold! Olympic Swimmer Dana Vollmer Welcomes Son Ryker Alexander — See His First Adorable Photos The athlete sees her naked body as “strong,” but admits that her career choice has made that difficult at times in the past, considering how much competition was around her. “Being a swimmer all your life, you’re exposed. You’re always in a swimsuit. It’s easy to be critical of yourself,” Vollmer says. “I wasn’t as lean as some of the athletes I saw. I wasn’t as toned. I didn’t have as much muscle mass,” she continues. “You look at other swimmers and you think, Their body is why they’re successful — I need to do exactly what they do. But my body is not their body. I can’t eat the same way as other people. My body is not going to respond the same way.” Olympic Gold Medalist Dana Vollmer Expecting Second Child Luckily, Vollmer has learned to see the bigger picture in terms of how to appreciate her form in the frame of all parts of her life — including how fortunate she is to have her sons and husband Andy Grant by her side. “Looking at myself now, at 35 weeks pregnant [as of the interview], I joked with the photographer that this is the first photo shoot where I’m not thinking about sucking in my abs,” she reveals. “I can step back and look at the broader perspective: My son is happy; the pregnancy is going well; life is good right now.”