This Fitness Model Wants to Know, "What's Your Excuse?" for Your Average Body

A controversy exploded online recently over a California mom of three who posted the following photo on her facebook page:

Photo of Maria Kang by Mike Byerly

People freaked out when they saw this image. They accused her of fat-shaming women, being a bad mom and a bad person. I came across the story in this article on Yahoo. She's a fitness model, a former beauty queen, and a small business owner, and she claims she posted the image to provide inspiration for other women struggling with their weight. She says she wanted to encourage people to take responsibility for their own behavior and acknowledge the degree to which they are responsible for the state of their own bodies.

Okay - I take her at her word, and I certainly would never accuse her of being a bad mom or person for making a commitment to fitness in her own life. Clearly, she has done a great job! I have no issue with her desire to inspire. She makes part of her living off of trying to do just that and playing into the winds of the fitness industry, as do I.  I agree that, thankfully, we have a great deal of power over our own lifestyle choices, but that is where our similarities end.

At the core of the statement "What's your excuse?" is the assumption that we all strive to look like her, to be extraordinarily fit. It assumes that beauty is our highest ideal, rather than health. 

Putting aside all of the reasons why many people actually can't physiologically achieve that level of fitness (health problems, genetics, access to healthy food), even if we all could, would we want to? Would I want to get up at 6 a.m., do burpees and lunges while my kid hangs out at the playground, and never-ever watch TV as she does? Not really.

I exercise to maintain physical and emotional balance, not to achieve a predetermined, ideal image of a woman's body. I take no issue with Maria's choices in her own life and with her impulse to inspire others to better health, but I do think she is lost in a glorified, fitness mindset and a way of thinking about those of us who aren't striving for that particular "look." She presupposes that we are missing something and that we would be happier or more fulfilled if we lived life like she does. She presumes that we need an "excuse."

I walked in to the gym this morning, trying to think my way through her message and the explosion of responses she has received. I looked around the room at people of all shapes and sizes - women in particular - plugging away at the elliptical machines and weight benches, and I was actually moved to tears. These people were making an effort. They were there to take care of themselves, and they were both beautiful and lumpy in their sweaty spandex. 

What's missing from Maria's off-the-cuff question, "What's your excuse?", is an acknowledgement that beauty and health come in multitudes of shapes and sizes.

My clients, and the women of Body Baggage, work extremely hard to improve their health every day. Obesity causes physiological changes in the mind and body, and it's not always as easy as "deciding" to get in shape. (See previous posts on how difficult these changes can be and how to think about overcoming them here and here.)

Most of us are putting in a good faith effort to be healthy every day. Could we do more? Definitely, yes. Do we need an "excuse" for not dedicating our energies to being beauty queens? No. Most definitely not.