Shar Pei pregnancy

Looking at Shakira's rock-hard abs, it's hard to believe that the singer delivered her first child earlier this year.

But the new mom, who's featured on the cover of the September issue of Self, tells the magazine that she didn't snap back into shape immediately after her son, Milan, was born in January.

"After the delivery, you look like a shar-pei!" the 36-year-old admits.

Shakira says she avoided packing on too many pregnancy pounds by training four to five mornings a week. "I did Zumba throughout my pregnancy, " she reveals, and even worked out privately with its creator, Beto Perez.

The "Hips Don't Lie" singer got camera-ready to appear on The Voice when Milan was just two months old by training hard and eating right.

"Two minutes of ab work isn't enough, " she insists, and says that she ate eight small meals a day (200-250 calories each), with lots of fiber to fill her up and protein, calcium, iron and fish oil to build muscle.

And while the Colombian star's "quite proud" of her rear, she embraces her not-so-perfect areas as well.