Drew Barrymore Posts Before & After Photos While Revealing She's Lost 25 Lbs: 'It's Hard AF'

Drew Barrymore is proud of her progress!

On Friday, the Santa Clarita Diet star, 43, updated her followers on her health and fitness journey, explaining that thanks to a lot of hard work, she’d lost 25 lbs. over the course of three months.

Alongside a series of photos that illustrated her progress, the mother of two shared that despite how much social media emphasizes physical perfection, it’s not always easy to prioritize taking care of yourself.

“When I look at Instagram, I am made to think I should be at my best self. But most days, I lack consistency due to real life,” she wrote, adding that sometimes people need assistance from professionals. “With the right people (@marniealton) we can make our goals a reality…”

“Here is me in a before pose and then 25 pounds later in the same place,” she wrote. “You can tell my face is so much thinner!”

In the before image, Barrymore appeared to be struggling with the move while wearing a cast on her foot. In another, looking noticeably slimmer, the actress seemed much more at ease with the balancing position.

Barrymore went on to share with her followers how difficult her journey has been.

“This takes me so much work,” she wrote. “Diet and exercise and fighting like a lion for it! Damn you genetics!”

Even though the actress has to work extra hard to slim down, she loves her body, “whatever package it comes in.”

“And yet thank you for all the good stuff. I love where I come from (JOHN ETHEL LIONEL),” she remarked, paying homage to the famous Barrymore family. “I just know that I have the control to be what I want. Even if it’s hard AF!”

“At least I know there are experts I can turn to for help. I mean look at what Marnie helped me do in three months!” she continued, giving a shout-out to Marnie Alton of Barre Belle. “When I have time off in 2019…I’m comin for ya! PS may I just say I want these ladies on the front page. You are my spirit animals and my goal posts!”

RELATED VIDEO: Drew Barrymore on Losing 20 Lbs. and How Playing a Zombie Has Ironically Helped Her Feel ‘More Alive’

Opening up about her fluctuating weight earlier this year, Barrymore revealed that although she begrudgingly diets to fit the look of a woman on a high-protein (a.k.a. human meat) diet when she’s filming the Netflix horror-comedy series, she lets herself relax when the show is on hiatus.

“Let’s face it, I hate it,” she said of her filming diet during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden in March. “I would much rather eat fettuccine alfredo all day long.”

But Barrymore wanted to show the major life change that her fictional character, Sheila Hammond, experiences after becoming a zombie. And it came at a time when the mother of two was going through her own life change after splitting from ex-husband Will Kopelman in 2016.

“When I first started the show, I was 145 lbs. and my life was kind of falling apart,” she said. “And I said, ‘Victor [Fresco, the show’s executive producer], can I lose 20 lbs. over the course of the show, and change my eyebrows and the height of my shoes and the body language and attitude and go from someone who’s kind of naïve and unhappy to someone who’s empowered and alive?’ And he said yes, and so I got to make that transformation.”

“When I’m doing the show I’m a vegan and I barely eat anything, and I work out every day, and it’s so healthy,” she said. “It gets to be euphoric, and then it’s like food poisoning, you feel like you’ll never eat again, and then before you know it you’re pigging out with the feed bag strapped to your face. And I’m a foodie, and love food and I travel the world for food, so I get heavy again between the show.”

But while Barrymore didn’t mind her extra weight, she shared that while leaving a restaurant with her friends and all of their kids, a woman stopped her and asked if she was expecting a child.

“And I just looked at her and go, ‘No, I’m just fat right now,’ ” Barrymore recalled on Corden’s show. “And I walked out of the restaurant and I was like, ‘Oh man, that is rough.”