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Parenting
"What's your Excuse" Poster- Discuss.
AF came today, so I'm wanting to just rip this thing up. I like the message of the picture, but it's the caption that really eats at me. Probably because after just 1, I know I will never look that way. I am very fit (I'm a health and P.E. teacher so it's in my job to be very active), but I have so much floppy skin left no one would ever know. My stomach looks like it belongs on an 80 year old. It's embarrassing really...so for her to assume that any mom can look like that is really naive on her part. And I confess that if it wasn't for my job, I would have great difficulty staying fit. There's not much time left in the day after work, dinner, bath, cleaning, and lesson plans/grading...and I even have DH to help me out. I saw an interview with her. She used to be a fitness model, so it's clearly in the genes (although I'm sure there's some hard work on her part as well).
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Re: "What's your Excuse" Poster- Discuss.
So...
Regardless, she's free to post whatever and I'd tap that.
I swear fitness is like some peoples' religion. If it makes you happy and you find it fulfilling, great. But don't shove it down peoples' throats and enforce your doctrines and experiences on them. I have a fitness FB friend who posted some asshole's blog post about people who were talking shit about the Maria Kang photo and basically saying that anyone who had something negative to say about it were deeply unhappy, jealous fatties. I'll see if I can find the link.
DD2 (b. 9/04/2013)
BFP 2/25/12, m/c @ 6w 3d || BFP 8/1/12, m.m/c @ 9w5d
I do think the word choice on the poster is poor because it implies that women have some sort of problem or aren't good enough if they don't look like that. Kind of like the "Are You Mom Enough?" Time magazine article, I feel like this poster implies that if I don't look like that or don't weigh 125 lbs, I'm not good enough. No, I didn't BF my child until he was 3, and I don't weigh 125 lbs. If you do and that works for your family, good for you. That's just not high on my priority list, and as long as I'm healthy enough to be a good role model and live a long and active life with my family, I'm happy.
If that's really how much she works out (which I don't necessarily believe) then I work out way more than that. And my excuse is that I fuckin want to eat nachos once in a while, so no I don't look like that.
I don't want to look like her.
It doesn't really bug me personally. Some women are in better shape and healthier than me, some aren't. I looked at her fitness page. She looked fine in both her 150lb photo and 125lb photo IMO.
@robinokj
I don't know--I think in most circumstances people can commit to an hour of working out five days a week (and should). Of course there are exceptions to the rule. And of course everyone has a different body type and will not be that petite regardless of how they eat/how much they exercise. I do think that moms should aim to be a healthy weight for their own body and toned and you can only use the baby excuse for so long. Toned has a broad range of body types. I've known women who were a size 12 and had abs and a size zero that were flabby. I also don't see a difference between a working mom who has paid childcare and a working mom who has a sahd.
Whenever the issue of body image comes up, women get defensive because being a certain kind of sexy IS something we're supposed to aspire to. I mean, my DH doesn't have a stomach that ripped and he never birthed a baby. If you asked him what his excuse was, he'd look at you like you had three heads and say, "I work all day as a doctor, cook my family a homemade dinner every night and, oh yeah, beer is awesome." And we'd all be like, okay then. Carry on. But no one is asking men what their excuse is.
I think it goes both ways. People get pissed they feel judged but then judge back except its more socially acceptable to judge thin. And then when you reach that certain status of being thin people go ahead and judge you...but to your face. Then you hear the "you should eat a cheeseburger" comments. Even on this board I've heard people say women whose hipbones protruded were gross and no one batted an eyelash. Meanwhile if someone said fat was gross the troops would be lining up to flame their ass.
I wouldn't take exception to it, no. I'd think the exact same thing I thought when I saw Maria kong's photo, which is good for her. I also don't think she necessarily works out a million hours a week. I have a friend who has abs after two kids and teaches ballroom dance 2 nights a week and runs for thirty minutes 3 days a week. I know she doesn't have a gym membership and she doesn't have gym equipment in her basement. Not everyone that has abs after kids spends a million hours a week in a gym lifting weights.
Working parents also (usually) have lunch breaks during the day. Theres gym that provide childcare before/after working hours. if your dh works reasonable hours you can go in the evening or early in the morning. Heck, I lost thirty pounds by eating better and walking nine flights of stairs at my lunch break at work and taking the stairs vs the elevator when I needed to speak with a coworker. I think it's little things and really the appearance of your midsection has a lot more to do with diet vs exercise anyway.
I've mentioned quite often on the bump I used to be overweight. Like many people I put on 40lbs after college graduation due to a more sedentary lifestyle combined with meds that slowed my metabolism. I lost 30 of it before I got pregnant, had my kids, then lost 45 over the course of 18 months. I wasn't someone who magically snaps their fingers and dropped the weight--don't know where you get that illusion. I also am not trying to be unsympathetic because I've lost a good amount of weight twice and know its tricky. I do think parents should be striving to eat healthy and fit working out into their lives--not because I think everyone should look exactly like that chick but because its the right thing to do and a good example for kids.
So you get a p90x video and do it in the comfort of your own home. I know there are certain circumstances where people just can't go to the gym but there are other avenues of getting adequate exercise that don't involve the gym.
Meh, considering her parents are both pretty heavy I'm going with no. I think people throw around the genes thing far too much.
I don't except the world to look like her at eight months Pp (and I read she has stretch marks and loose skin so I think the fake tan helps to give more of an illusion of definition but I digress) but I feel like there's this huge myth floating around that the only moms who work out a million hours a week are a healthy weight and have muscle tone.
It's great she looks hot. Good for her. But her results are not standard for the amount of working out she reportedly does. You may be sick of hearing about genes, KC, but I think some people muscle up more easily. Her parents being overweight doesn't prove a thing. Perhaps they'd look like her with her program and they choose to do nothing.
And perhaps that's where some of her nasty attitude comes from. Her parents do nothing and are overweight and she does her routine and looks like that. Maybe she doesn't get that different people get different results (which is sad if she works in fitness).
And five one hour work outs are a decent chunk of time a week. It's great if she can do that and it'd be great if everyone could, but that's not always feasible.
So you get a p90x video and do it in the comfort of your own home. I know there are certain circumstances where people just can't go to the gym but there are other avenues of getting adequate exercise that don't involve the gym.
Hahah. I did p90x. First of all, even when I did p90x I didn't look like that woman. Secondly, it's a huge time commitment in setting up and it's 6 days a week. It would take me at least an hr and a half a day to do p90x. It was hard to squeeze in when I was childless and had a 10 minute commute. I don't know how I would even begin to try to do that again now that I have DS and a 1.5 hr commute.
I can't get the ticker to work, but I have two sons:
Baby RJ, born 1/25/2014
Formerly Twilightmv