'What's your excuse?' Fitness blogging mom under fire for Facebook post

SACRAMENTO (KTXL) — A Sacramento fitness blogger has come to national attention due to a seemingly innocuous photo she posted to her Facebook page.

Maria Kang – a self-described wife, business owner and mother – has been blogging about her experiences with fitness on her website MariaKang.com since 2005. She has built up an impressive array of awards in beauty and fitness competitions.

Tuesday, a photo she posted on her Facebook page went viral due to the “fat shaming” undertones some commenters see in the picture.

Kang – dressed only in a workout bra and micro shorts – poses with her three kids in the photo, with caption “What’s your excuse?” written across the top.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the post had garnered nearly 18,000 comments and over 13,000 shares.

In response to the negative comments, Kang has released a statement apologizing to the people offended by the post:

“I’m sorry you took an image and resonated with it in such a negative way. I won’t go into details that I struggled with my genetics, had an eating disorder, work full time owning two business’, have no nanny, am not naturally skinny and do not work as a personal trainer. I won’t even mention how I didn’t give into cravings for ice cream, french fries or chocolate while pregnant or use my growing belly as an excuse to be inactive.

What I WILL say is this. What you interpret is not MY fault. It’s Yours. The first step in owning your life, your body and your destiny is to OWN the thoughts that come out of your own head. I didn’t create them. You created them. So if you want to continue ‘hating’ this image, get used to hating many other things for the rest of your life. You can either blame, complain or obtain a new level of thought by challenging the negative words that come out of your own brain.

With that said, obesity and those who struggle with health-related diseases is literally a ‘bigger’ issue than this photo. Maybe it’s time we stop tip-toeing around people’s feelings and get to the point. So What’s Your Excuse? – Maria Kang”