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- Shawn Johnson East appeared on the latest episode of People's podcast, "Me Becoming Mom."
- Johnson East said she "couldn't wrap" her head around her body changing during pregnancy.
- She previously struggled with eating disorders during her gymnastics career.
Shawn Johnson East said she was initially "terrified" of pregnancy due to her struggle with disordered eating.
Johnson East opened up about motherhood and health during the latest episode of People's podcast, "Me Becoming Mom." Johnson East gave birth to her daughter, Drew, in 2019. In July, she welcomed her son, Jett.
The Olympic gold medalist, who is married to NFL player Andrew East, said she felt nervous about her body going through changes during pregnancy.
"I was terrified of it, because, I've been very open about this but, I struggled throughout my gymnastics career with a lot of eating disorders and body image issues and just self-confidence issues when it came to the physical aspect," Johnson East, 29, told People's Zoë Ruderman.
Johnson East continued, sharing that training as an elite gymnast affected her body image, saying, "my entire career was based on how, basically, my body looked and how it performed."
"I couldn't wrap my head around gaining 50 pounds and not being able to move, you know, and be mobile, and how that would affect me mentally and affect the baby," Johnson East said on the podcast.
In February Johnson East told Today that she worried her previous eating disorders would arise during her pregnancy, but "the reverse" happened.
"As soon as I got pregnant, I couldn't care less what I looked like, what I gained, or what the scale said," Johnson East told Today. "For me, it was no longer my body. It was for my baby. And I felt like it had such a purpose that no material body image issue occupied my brain."
In early October, Johnson East claimed that a TSA agent "groped and yelled" at her while traveling with breast milk.
"We as mamas have a duty to our babies and a right in this world to carry breast milk through security. Having you public humiliate me in proving to you it was breast milk was against my rights," Johnson East said on Instagram. "To then be groped and yelled at in public was excessive."
A representative from the TSA told Insider in a statement that it did not have further information on the situation. They added that "breast milk is, of course, permitted."