AJ McLean has toned up over the past year, and he posted before and after photos on Instagram to prove it. In honor of Throwback Thursday, AJ shared a shirtless photo of himself on vacation about a year ago. He compared that to two new photos of himself in the gym, where he’s sporting a noticeably more ripped body.
“Thought I’d do a little Throwback Thursday vibes,” AJ wrote. “Found the pic on the left from a year ago on vacation and wow it’s amazing what a little dedication and setting goals can do for a person. The journey is far from over though. This is just the beginning! Let’s go! If I can do it so can you!!”
In addition to his inspiring message, AJ also included “sober” and “healthy lifestyle” as hashtags, along with “no more dad bod.” AJ has struggled with addiction since the early 2000s, and has been in rehab multiple times. However, he has now been sober for nearly three years. AJ was very open about his journey to sobriety during his fall 2020 run on Dancing With the Stars, where he was partnered with Cheryl Burke.
In an interview with Good Morning America that year, AJ explained that returning home to his family after a trip to Las Vegas is what pushed him to get clean this time around. “My wife could smell it on my breath,” AJ admitted. “And my youngest of two daughters would not sit with me.” AJ married his wife, Rochelle, in 2011. They have two daughters — Ava and Lyric — together.
“My wife and I always had this agreement which was, if I smelled like alcohol, I wasn’t allowed to play with my kids,” AJ told People in 2020. “I couldn’t be around my kids. “But what really hit me was the moment my youngest daughter Lyric said to me, ‘You don’t smell like my daddy.’ And when she said that to me, that was it. Enough said. I felt disgusting.”