Hot Mom Defends Herself On Facebook

On Facebook one of my friends re-posted this article:

Hot Mom Defends Herself Against Facebook Haters

My friend posted, "Interesting Debate.  What are your thoughts?"

(Smart man... not posting an opinion.)

Since reading this article I cannot get it out of my head.

Now, I'm not going to "hate on" this woman and I'm not going to say the nasty comments that some people have been saying, but what I have to say is this...

She is a former pageant queen.  Which means her body was probably already close to this size naturally.

She was a fitness competitor.  Which means she had a personal trainer and/or coach where she had to make the sacrifices necessary to maintain this kind of body.

She's a recovering bulimic.  Which means her issues with food were under consumption, not over consumption.  Over consumption is the problem with which most women deal with.

So I understand how she wants to motivate and say that even with three kids she's able to have this rocking body.  But unfortunately we are not comparing apples to apples with a majority of women who struggle with their weight in this society.

And here is my story.. (I'll try to keep a long story short)

In 2006 was I was overweight.  That is me on the far left.

We went out to a karaoke bar on my 26th birthday and they gave us complementary pictures of us singing.  Seeing as I didn't own a camera... seeing myself came as quite a shock.  I joined weight watchers later that week.

It took me 4 years to take off 35 lbs.  I did not have a personal trainer.  I did not have a nutritionist.  I did go to weight watchers for a good portion of that time and I had a co-worker who was a personal trainer, who I'd occasionally get tips from.  I did my best with what information I had and taking this weight off wasn't easy.

Fast forward to 2010... to my wedding day.  I was 3 lbs away from my high school weight.  I was running 5-9 miles a week.  Running was my exercise of choice.

My husband and I were talking about getting pregnant and I was petrified.  It had taken me so long to get my weight to where I wanted it and I was so scared of being a position where I had to willingly gain weight again.

Two months after our wedding day I was pregnant with my amazing son Alex.  I worked out and was active the entire pregnancy.  I was already very active, but I heard it would help with the delivery and I wanted the easiest delivery possible.  I took Hip Hop classes throughout my pregnancy because they were low impact and fun.  I took my last Hip Hop class the weekend before I gave birth.  In my third trimester I was really excited about getting back to running and looked forward to the day I could do it.

There were complications with the delivery.  My son was born "sunny side up" which forced amniotic fluid into his lungs, so he was unable to breath.  He had an infection and had to stay in the NICU for a week.  He was 9.1 lbs 22.5 in. long, so he was also a large baby.  I had an infection and was put on antibiotics.  I did not heal well after delivery.

6 weeks after Alex was born, I wanted to get back to working out, but my right foot would go numb and would painful.  I saw a podiatrist who thought I had a hairline fracture and had me in a boot for a couple months.

This was me on Christmas Eve 2011.  My husband found me vacuuming.  Took the picture and then told me to get off my foot...

I had a MRI taken of my foot and they couldn't find a fracture.  I went to an orthopedic.  He said I had tendonitis and that it's not uncommon after pregnancy.  He said it was something I will probably have to deal with my entire life.  My husband suggested orthodics in my running shoes and low and behold I could stand to put weight on my foot again.

Unfortunately, it took my 13 months to fully heal from my delivery, so it wasn't until my son was 13 months that I was able to run again.

Then... 4 months later... I'm pregnant again.  This time around is much harder.  I wasn't able to take the last 20 lbs of my pregnancy weight off because I was unable to workout.  I did every diet trick I knew and that stinking weight would not come off.  My body also wasn't as in as good of shape as I was the first time around, so I'm lucky if I can walk around the block once a day now that I'm in the third trimester.

So I understand... the woman in the article was trying to motivate.  Unfortunately pregnancy takes a much greater toll on some bodies than others.  It's so frustrating when I hear people say that pregnant women "let go" or take "advantage" of being pregnant, because how to take care of yourself throughout pregnancy isn't something that is addressed.

Even with this pregnancy, I asked my doctor how many calories I should be consuming a day and he couldn't tell me.  I wanted to make sure I was consuming the correct amount of healthy calories, and not just eating cakes and cookies.  All he told me was, "stay away from sugar and carbs and you'll be ok."  Unfortunately sugar and carbs were all I wanted to eat this pregnancy.  I was given no information as to what foods I should be eating to support a healthy baby and all I wanted to do is eat anything and everything in sight.

The last thing I'd say about this article is this...

If you asked me tomorrow to join Dancing With The Stars, I would sign up immediately.  Why?  Because I've had 14 years of dance experience and 8 of those years were ballroom dancing.  If you want me to compete against a bunch of celebrities that have never danced before... no problem.  I'm there.

To have a former fitness competitor flaunt her body after 3 kids and challenge everyone else to do so.  Unfortunately, I understand why she got so much hate mail.....