Fit Mom Gained Weight and Karma’s a B*tch, Right? Wrong

Remember Fit Mom, Maria Kang, who posted the “What’s Your Excuse” photo surrounded by her three sons all under the age of three in all her six pack ab glory?

Well, she’s gained weight. In an interview with People Magazine she shares that she has gained 10 pounds over the past year and has struggled with motivation. Basically life got in the way and fitness became less of a priority. She had an excuse.

And this is where we say, karma’s a bitch, right? She got what she deserved. Now she knows what it’s like to have life get in the way of working out and that sometimes other things become the priority.

Wrong.

Because there are some life lessons we don’t understand until we experience it ourselves.

Case in point, I was a complete a**hole when my sister had her son. I wasn’t even close to the baby making stage and it never occurred to me that I should call her to check in and see how she was doing because there was a good chance she was a sobbing heap on the floor due to not sleeping more than three hours at a time for 47 days straight.

Or when my mother died I had friends who stayed silent instead of reaching out. Later, when the dad of one of those friends passed away she called me to apologize. “I didn’t know,” she said.

It was as simple as that, she didn’t know. She knew it was a sad time but she had no idea how devastating it really was until it happened to her.

Maria Kang didn’t know either but now she does and is using this to step forward to say it doesn’t matter if you’re skinny, fat, overweight or obese, we should all be proud of who we are today.

I work out five or six days a week and I do it to, well quite frankly, keep myself from becoming a raging maniac. Running until I’m a hot, sweaty, red mess is my best antidote to stress. My friends know this and they support me. If there comes a time when life gets the best of me and exercise gets put to the side resulting in me gaining 10 or 15 or 20 pounds, those same friends will also be there to support me.

We talk about having lost the community or how women/moms need to stick together but on the internet we are tearing each other to shreds. It’s not just Maria and her abs, it’s breastfeeding moms and non-breastfeeding moms, working vs. non-working, or even simple every day choices that become a personal attack playground.

It all boils down to this…. You don’t know what you don’t know.

But here’s the other half of the equation, once you do know you do your best to never make that mistake again.

I may have been a sh*tty person when my sister had her son but I can tell you that I’m now the first person to step up to the plate and offer help when my friends need me because now I know.

Maria not only gained ten pounds, she gained empathy and is trying to do good with it.

Let’s show her our support.

^{Image Source: Instagram/BrittenPhoto}