14 DAY TRIAL // Maria Kang has 3 young sons, holds down 2 jobs because her husband can’t work anymore, doesn’t have a personal trainer or a nanny, so she feels she has every reason to share her pride at staying in top shape despite her hectic schedule. Haters on Facebook obviously don’t feel the same way, which is why she’s addressing them directly.
Maria posted online the photo attached to this article last year, but it’s only gone viral these past few days. As it did so, she was overwhelmed with attention from women and men from all over the world, both of the negative and the positive type.
She’s responding to the former by reposting the photo that shows her incredible figure, together with a non-apology to all those who feel offended by it.
“I'm sorry you took an image and resonated with it in such a negative way. I won't go into details that I struggled with my genetics, had an eating disorder, work full time owning two businesses, have no nanny, am not naturally skinny and do not work as a personal trainer,” she writes.
“What I WILL say is this. What you interpret is not MY fault. It's yours. The first step in owning your life, your body and your destiny is to OWN the thoughts that come out of your own head. I didn't create them. You created them. So if you want to continue ‘hating’ this image, get used to hating many other things for the rest of your life,” Maria adds.
In a statement to Yahoo! Shine, she explains that she works very hard to stay in such amazing shape and that she’s constantly struggling to find time to exercise.
She does strength training and aerobics for one hour a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Instead, she gets up every morning at 6 and doesn’t watch TV to make sure she has time for her boys, her husband, and her career.
People were supposed to be inspired by her example, not hate it without even thinking about it, she says.
“I wanted to inspire people. I wanted to say, ‘I know you think you don’t have time if you have kids. But if I can do it, you can do it, too’,” Maria explains for the publication.
“I think people struggle with their weight. When you add on being a mother — and the pressures we face to have it all and be everything, including fit — the expectations are so high. I think some moms saw the picture and just said, ‘This is ridiculous.’ [But still,] I felt really frustrated. Being called a bad mother and a bad person definitely hurts,” she adds.
It also hurt her because she knew what she’d been through to get to where she is now, physically. As she mentions in her non-apology, Maria struggled with obesity and then an eating disorder, but she was determined to get in shape, so she did it.