The Shay way

Between first-time motherhood and a life-altering pandemic, Shay Mitchell struggled to find a new normal that felt good. But by speaking up about her experience and recommitting to movement, she zeroed in on a fresh flow that’s made her an even better parent, partner, and person.

- Molly Creeden

In the first year and a half of her life, Shay Mitchell’s daughter, Atlas Noa Babel, learned how to crawl, walk, wave, point to birds in the sky, pick up rocks and offer them as presents, eat spinach off her parents’ plates, and parrot things her mother says, like: “I don’t knoooow!” It took that same time period— one and a half years, during which her baby has changed countless times—for Shay to finally feel like her pre-pregnant self.

“I hit the pause button,” she says of the confluence of a newborn, a pandemic, and a life devoid of travel and social activities. The actress felt lucky to be present with her partner, Matte, and Atlas, who was 5 months old when the pandemic ramped up, yet she was also unmotivated. “I was like, ‘Well, what am I getting ready for?’” she says, reflecting on how little she moved. Atlas wasn’t mobile, so Shay spent a lot of time with her on the floor. “Everything just went whoooomp,” she says, articulating the slowed pace of everything.

In January, a partnership with Openfit—in which she and friend Stephanie Shepherd committed to working out five days a week for four weeks, via classes on the app—made her take stock. Part of what attracted her to the partnership was that she would have to treat working out like a job. Twenty days of accountability. “It changed everything,” the 34-year-old says of finally feeling like herself again. “I had way more energy; I don’t have five cups of coffee anymore. I can sound preachy when I’m talking about it, but it totally altered my year.”