This picture has been all over the place. I think every fitness magazine has posted about it, I’ve even seen news channels post it. Have you seen it?
The response to the picture has been super divided. Some people think that she is inspiring and they feel motivated to get in shape.
Others feel like Maria is fat shaming moms. That if you have kids and don’t look like her, you must be doing something wrong, or you’re just lazy and full of excuses.
Here’s my take: I don’t think it was her intention to fat shame at all. I think she just wanted to say that if she can do it with how busy she is, you can do it too.
That’s not how it was really interpreted though. So if this picture made you feel badly about yourself, I want to tell you something: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. You don’t have to be a size 2 with a flat belly after having your kids. You aren’t doing something wrong if you don’t look like Maria Kang. You aren’t a failure if you don’t have the perfect body; you’re human.
Our bodies change after we have kids. I’m still in the process of losing my baby weight. Not everything is going to go back to looking the way it once did. You may have a few extra pounds, stretch marks or loose skin. It’s your bodies way of showing that you grew another human being. Celebrate that!
If you’re happy and healthy with how you look and feel, rock on. Don’t let this picture make you feel bad about yourself, because I’m sure you’re doing the best you can.
Us women need to stick together, not bully, point fingers and shame others. We need to lift each other up. We need to help each other feel GOOD about ourselves. Being a mom is hard enough.
I really don’t get all the hype about the picture. Good for her and she has an awesome figure and I think that whole point about shaming others is just ridiculous. My take is that she is encouraging others to fitness. May of us will never look like her and that’s okay because we are not her and we can’t be her. We don’t have to look like her but just be the best version of you that you can. No one can expect any more than that.
It definitely wasn’t her intent to fat-shame anyone. I’ve always had an eating disorder. When I was a teenager, I was anorexic and as an adult I was alcoholic and over-eating. I didn’t do any of those things because of a picture and I didn’t feel ugly because of a picture. I wanted to assert some control over my life and the easiest way at the time was by controlling my body. As young girls society teaches us that our opinions don’t matter over an adult’s opinion. We’re taught to be “nice, little ladies” while boys are allowed to be rowdy and rambunctious. We were born with power and as we were growing up that power was taken from us. I think that a lot of the women who were offended by this picture honestly already had some sort of internal issue with themselves. It may not have even been with the way that they look, but with the power that they had lost so long ago. I’m a former Beachbody coach, but will return to it again when I can achieve a little more balance in my life. Until then I eat healthily, exercise daily for 30 minutes, do yoga twice a week, meditate daily, and go to meetings where I can listen to other like-minded individuals discuss their addictions, disorders, and recoveries. I’m still overweight but this picture doesn’t bother me or make me feel intimidated or inadequate in any way like it might have at a less emotionally healthy time in my life. We’re all beautiful.