Everyone Needs To Stop Taking Other People's Lifestyles as a Personal Insult

This is Maria Kang and, apparently, she has decent abs. She posted this picture on her facebook page last week and beep boop blop... INTERNET WAR. I don't think it was the picture that offended people so much as the question, "What's your excuse?" which implies that having three small children is such an incredible feat that every other excuse is just that. Pathetic. 

Or, that's how a lot of people took it. In fact, she is just a woman who watched her mom suffer from diabetes at an early age, so Maria began a non-profit to teach kids about fitness and a mom & me fitness community, where women can turn to for advice and inspiration on the road to staying fit & raising fit families. She doesn't want anyone else to go through a preventable tragedy like that. (What a bitch, amiright?) 

Sure, she could have said something along the lines of "If I can do it, so can you!" But she played on people making excuses for why they aren't staying healthy, because she did that. She watched her mom do that. And as much as it hurts to hear, because people - moms of young kids, especially - are stretched so thin, it's true. I make excuses all the time. 

I'm not devoted to fitness. I don't have time to be, because it's not my job. I write. Unfortunately writing is not conducive to fitness. So I am constantly struggling to cook, clean, tend to all the kids, write, etc. I can barely pull all that off most days, let alone wake up doing jump squats, climb a mountain before noon and squeeze a 5K in before bed. But I'm not mad at Maria and I am not offended by her challenge. 

I can do SOMETHING if I reset my priorities and that's her point. 

The state of her abs are not a testament to my failures as a housewife and a mother. Her abs have nothing to do with me. 

Far and wide across the internet, we worry far too much about what other people are doing and how they're doing it better. If someone is good at something, or merely doing something a different way, people take it personally. The other way must be refuted to the fullest. The better way must be branded tyrannical or obsessive. And the way we react to other people's success says a lot about us, doesn't it? Insecure much? 

When my middle girl went to Preschool, there was this mom dropping off her daughter, too. My neighbor and I called her "P90X mom." Obviously, she had an athletic build, shapely muscles and always came wearing her spandex gym clothes. She looked great. But instead of her existence making me feel inferior, she inspired me. I'd look at her and think, soon enough. Once this last baby is in Preschool, I'm going to show up in my lycra and head straight to the gym. I can't wait. 

So please, folks, calm thine buns and tits. Fit people aren't rubbing it in or shoving anything down your throat (unless you want them to - ZING!) - you're responsible for how you treat yourself. So by the same extension, take care of yourself and you won't be so testy about some chick's abs in your facebook feed.