Alexis Neiers has come a long way since she served time for being a part of the Bling Ring, the infamous gang that robbed celebrity homes and inspired a Sofia Coppola movie.
Now 27, the mother-of-two seems to have grown up quite a bit — and she’s sharing some of her wisdom with her Instagram followers.
Alexis took to Instagram this weekend to talk about coming to terms with the way her body has changed since she’s had kids, revealing that she had no qualms about getting a little help of the surgical variety to feel better.
Speaking out: Alexis Neiers, who was part of the infamous Bling Ring gang that targeted Hollywood homes, has opened up about her postpartum body in a candid Instagram post
‘Nancy Jo, this is Alexis Neiers calling…’ Alexis appeared in her own reality show on E! called Pretty Wild, which began filming during the time of her arrest for the Bling Ring robberies
It’s been years since Alexis Neiers, now Alexis Haines, served time in a cell next to Lindsay Lohan after she was sentenced for burglarizing Orlando Bloom’s house.
Real: The 27-year-old also added a photo to her Insta Stories showing her stretchmarks after her tummy tuck
These days, she’s no longer yelling at journalists via voicemail because they incorrectly described the height of her heels — as she did on her E! reality show, Pretty Wild — because she is too busy focusing on being a mother.
In 2012, she married Evan Haines, and the pair have two daughters: Harper, born in May 2013, and Dakota, born in June 2016.
But while her Instagram account makes it clear that she is loving motherhood, Alexis recently revealed that adjusting to her changing body has been a more difficult aspect of her parenting journey.
On Sunday, she posted a side-by-side comparison of her body now and what it looked like just after she delivered her first daughter via C-section.
Then, she was 87 pounds, having gained 67 pounds during pregnancy. Five and a half years later, she weighs 137 pounds.
‘Does your weight equate to your value?’ she wrote. ‘The difference I see is that my worth weighs more than gold in both pictures. I am a hard working mother, a devoted wife, and great friend. A person who is passionate about helping others and I juggle it all like super woman (most of the time).
Mama: The 27-year-old is now a mother of two little girls, Harper and Dakota
Growth: She has spoken about accepting that her body has changed permanently
Family: Alexis, who married Evan Haines in 2012, said: ‘I’ll never be 120 pounds again. I don’t want to be 120 pounds again. I was miserable and too thin’
‘My weight in both photos doesn’t matter because I was kicking a** at motherhood (despite postpartum depression and anxiety) in 2013 and I still am today.’
Realizing that has given her some peace when she thinks about the likelihood that she’ll never have the same body she did before pregnancy.
‘I’ll never be 120 pounds again,’ she wrote. ‘I don’t want to be 120 pounds again. I was miserable and too thin. I also never want to be in that mindset again… thinking my value was all based on how I looked, not how much I offer to those around me.
‘It is super easy post-baby to beat yourself up about how much weight you’ve gained, how much extra skin you have, how weird your boobs look, and how many stretch marks you have,’ she went on.
‘Especially when you have people on the internet, like I did, calling you a pig right after you’ve given birth. Self-acceptance takes work. It doesn’t have to be before you lose the weight.
‘While yes, it’s so important to be healthy, it is also important to see that your value is not defined by how much you weigh, but by how hard we work as mothers.’
While Alexis has come to terms with the way her body has changed, she also admitted to having some help.
‘Self-acceptance takes work. It doesn’t have to be before you lose the weight,’ she said
A long way: Alexis is pictured with her mom while pregnant with her first child
Work done: Alexis admitted she has had a breast lift and tummy tuck
In fact, she said, she wants to be honest about getting work done so people who haven’t don’t compare themselves to her unfairly.
‘Please recognize that the “snap back” isn’t a real thing for the majority of the population who don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on personal trainers, plastic surgeons, and hair and makeup artists,’ she wrote.
‘Before you compare yourself to me… don’t! I lost all the weight and then I got a full tummy tuck with muscle repair and hernia repair and a breast lift.
‘I am shameless about the help I’ve had. I still have stretch marks and some cellulite just like vast majority of mothers.’
She also posted a close-up of what her stomach looked like a year after the tummy tuck, proudly showing off her stretchmarks.
This isn’t the first time that Alexis has share a candid post about her postpartum body, either.
In January of 2015 — nearly two years after delivering her first child, and before getting pregnant with her second — she posted a close-up of her belly before the tuck, showing the loose skin where it used to be taut.
Honesty: In January of 2015 — nearly two years after delivering her first child, and before getting pregnant with her second — she posted a close-up of her belly before the tuck
Flashback:Alexis was sentenced to 180 days in jail for burglarizing Orlando Bloom’s house
‘I have lived in fear the last two years about showing my body to anyone,’ she wrote at the time. ‘Partly due to the criticism I received for gaining so much weight with Harper and the media telling women that bodies like these aren’t acceptable.
‘My legs and arms returned to normal but my stomach will never go back to looking the same way it did before Harper. I have trained and trained and it will never look the same.
‘I am so tired of seeing women on the covers of magazines after birth who don’t look like me. It feels like they are telling me that my new body is not okay. I am done feeling bad about my body. Today I am taking my power back.
‘This body carried and birthed one baby. This body endured a C-section and a home birth all in one day. This body recently lost one baby and carried it for as long as it could. This body is capable of birth.
‘This body is capable of bringing life into this world. So here I am! Feeling absolutely vulnerable and raw. Feeling like my healing from Harper’s birth is starting to happen,’ she said.
After Alexis’s Bling Ring sentence, she was arrested and put on trial for possession of heroin at age 19. She pleaded with the judge to not send her to jail, and ended up completing rehab treatment for drug addiction.
According to InTouch, today she works at Alo House Recovery Center as a drug and alcohol counselor.