Naomi Osaka is learning to give herself grace when it comes to her body.
In a candid Instagram post she shared over the weekend, which included a carousel of photos of her body's transformation over the past year, the four-time Grand Slam singles champion reflected on the changes her body has been through and how the journey hasn't always been easy.
"Honestly I don't really know what to caption this post," Osaka began. "I wanted to say 'body changes throughout the year' but it actually means a lot more to me than that."
"There were moments this year where I felt really ashamed of my body, (for example when I had to wear form fitting tennis clothes lol)," she wrote. "I was also constantly struggling with this overwhelming urge to 'snapback', seeing other mom's seemingly shrink immediately after having their baby was an expectation I began to put on myself."
Naomi Osaka opens up about postpartum journey, being a new mom"That self comparison always hurt because I felt as an athlete I should be losing weight quicker than most, I was in the gym everyday so that thought didn't feel too unrealistic," she continued, adding that it was "disheartening" when the weight "didn't disappear overnight."
Osaka said that getting her body to the point it is now was a "journey, an adventure I know that I'm still embracing."
"All bodies are different and I appreciate mine for how it is," she said. "My body has done so much for me and adapted so well to the tasks that I'm asking from it, I'm extremely grateful and thankful."
At the end of her post, Osaka wrote that the overall message she wanted to share was gratitude for her body.
Naomi Osaka says motherhood made her 'proud' after early US Open exit
"While typing this I realized that if I had to title this post it would be super long and go like- 'thank you body for the journey over the past year, I'm excited to learn more about what you're capable of in the years to come ❤️,'" she said.
Osaka welcomed her daughter Shai in July 2023. Since then, the tennis star has been open about her postpartum journey, telling Glamour in January that it was hard recovering after childbirth.
She also spoke candidly of her worries about being "a good mom."
"I often worry about if I'm a good mom, but at the end of the day, I realize Shai is my daughter," she said at the time. "There's nothing I could do or I want to do that's going to change that, and I just want to be a good role model for her, and I want her to be proud of me."
