Author: Maria Kang

Congrats to our NEM LEADER pot challenge winner, Rhoda Zaide from the Philippines for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! We have over 300 NEM Leaders making a difference throughout our world! Join our upcoming No More Excuses LEADER Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $30 you will receive a No Excuse Mom leader tank, a 12-week accountability journal and a chance to win $300, $200 or $100!

Congrats to our leader! You have $726 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself!

Be inspired by her story here!

It was a very memorable time for me, from July-August 2019. I finally had the courage to ask Maria Kang to lead a No Excuse Mom Group in the Philippines. I was still overweight and not in my preferred shape. One thing I know for sure is that I can Lead.I started my “back to my fitness routine” plan last November 2018. I was 195 lbs and 5’5 in height. I was very bottom heavy. I feel that my knees are starting to suffer. I didn’t have a goal weight to lose. I just want to be active again. Having the mindset of “one thing at a time”, I went to the gym 8 am daily for 5 days. For the first 3 months, I run for 20-30 mins prior to hitting the gym. Running made me more focused. It was very hard at first. I cant do much diet because I still breastfeed my toddler at night. I chose to eat a lot of greens. I weighed myself after 3 months-175lbs!

Come July 2019, I weighed my self again just to get some confidence for myself before I made the Direct Message to Maria Via Instagram. I was 169 lbs. I am gaining muscles!

While I am forming the No Excuse Mom group, this life changing time came. My husband had a heart attack! He has to have a 4-valve angioplasty. Scariest thing in my life! On his 1-week confinement at the hospital, I never missed a gym workout. My daughter never missed a school. My small diner business kept going in spite of my divided attention. I kept my promise to myself to never give up no matter what. NEM group became my “silver lining”. I survived the week because of my intent to keep going no matter what. My motivation kept going higher and higher because I have 7 and 3 year olds.There are so many what ifs in my head. If my husband is going for a full recovery (as what the doctors told him because his body recovers fast), I am definitely on it. Recovery period came, here comes food prep, medications, physical, emotional and mental exercise…all together. Whew…

When I feel so exhausted from all the things I have to focus on, I pray. Nothing can stop me from seizing each day with all my might. Each day that passes is a precious gift that I am always thankful for.

Come to present day, I am 154.4lbs. Size Small-Medium. Can do dead-lift of 215lbs. Burpees is part of my happiness. Gained so many life experiences, friends who truly cares and a husband who is back to his regular self (exclusion: the sugar and cholesterol in his diet). Everything seems better, I am not the same person physically, emotionally and spiritually. I am happier.

All these events that happened to me during the Pot Challenge period is a gift that I am really thankful for. I am happy I lead the group, It made me more accountable to do more and be more than I was. I was motivating members to not skip a day, I showed them that a 100reps 16kg KB full swing can be done from Day 1-Day 84.

My most important realization is that: Lead by showing them that you are able to do it. Show them the result. There is no need to use words when they see it from you. I remember one co-leader told me: “Rhoda, whenever you come to the gym, you show us your brave face in spite of what was going on with you”.

Congrats to our NEM LEADER pot challenge winner, Denisa Lalikova for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! We have over 300 NEM Leaders making a difference throughout our world!

Join our upcoming No More Excuses LEADER Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $30 you will receive a No Excuse Mom leader tank, a 12-week accountability journal and a chance to win $300, $200 or $100!

Congrats to our leader! You have $726 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself!

Be inspired by her story here!

Congrats to our overall pot challenge winner, Taryn Elder, for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge!

Join our upcoming No More Excuses Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $50 you will not only receive an email consultation with Maria Kang, a 200-workout ebook, No Excuse Mom tank, 12-week accountability journal and a fitness/nutrition guide, but you will also get a chance to win $1000 worth of money and prizes.

Congrats to our overall winner! You have $2,178 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself! Many of our No Excuse Moms followed our official NEM program, where they used a fitness calendar, logged in their meals, participated online/in-person and overcame their excuses!

Be Inspired by her story here!

I’d always wanted to have a fit pregnancy, to be that mum capable of anything and inspiring others. But I guess life had other plans. Prior to the birth of my first son, I suffered a miscarriage and my obstetrician wouldn’t allow me to exercise for the first 14 weeks. I returned to training but due to the break it was mild and I had a lot of fear that something would go wrong. I was determined to do things ‘right’ the next time. Fast forward we began trying for our second.  My third pregnancy was an ectopic, which ruptured resulting in emergency surgery and the loss of my fallopian tube. We were staring down the barrel of IVF. More surgeries, hundreds of injections, six embryo transfers and another miscarriage, I was now on my fifth pregnancy. This journey was the most stressful and mentally damaging time in my life. I was emotionally eating, specialists kept stopping my training, I gained a huge amount of weight, had a mainly sedentary pregnancy and completely lost me.

Whilst I’m completely thankful for our beautiful boy, the NEM 12-week challenge could not have come at a better time. I wasn’t going to be silly and waste the newborn stage but I was excited to get me back.

My goals and outcomes for the challenge were:

1.       Lose 5kg – I have lost 8.3kg

2.       10,000 steps 3x a week – Tick until week 9, due to weather I was unable to take the pram out.

3.       30 minutes of movement 5x a week – Tick for all but one week.

4.       Commence swimming lessons – Tick. I chose swimming lessons in order to be safely active with my children.

5.       Park run once a month – This didn’t happen, the heat and timings with breastfeeding I couldn’t make it.

6.       2x weightlifting sessions a week once cleared – Strength sessions commenced a few weeks in and have continued throughout.

The biggest things I learnt came from my fitness pal. It gave me a better understanding of calories, portion control and to be flexible. It made me accountable, even if I ‘slipped up’. Tracking allowed me to acknowledge and move on. I’m now more flexible and confident in my approach to nutrition.

Things that side tracked me mastitis, it was painful and disheartening when you start to get into the groove and then have to stop. With the support of my 12-week challenge online community I rested for the week, then moved forward. I was unable to breastfeed with my first, so breastfeeding itself was a challenge. Balancing life and exercise with demand feeding is difficult I had to be flexible with things and accept what I could and couldn’t do.

Moving forward, I’m yet to meet my goal weight so I’ll continue tracking food and increasing exercise as my body allows. What I appreciate most from the challenge is finding myself again, a body and mind I can be proud of that helps me be more present, happier and a better mother and wife.

Congrats to our Region 13 pot challenge winner, Veronika Sefrana for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! Region 13 consists of Europe!

Join our upcoming No More Excuses Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $50 you will not only receive an email consultation with Maria Kang, a 200-workout ebook, No Excuse Mom tank, 12-week accountability journal and a fitness/nutrition guide, but you will also get a chance to win $1000 worth of money and prizes.

Congrats to our regional winner! You have $145 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself! Many of our No Excuse Moms followed our official NEM program, where they used a fitness calendar, logged in their meals, participated online/in-person and overcame their excuses!

Be Inspired by her story here!

Hello, 

my name is Veronika. I am mom of two kids (6, 5 years old). 

I hesitated to sign up for this challenge. The fact is that after maternity leave and start of my job I have a bad feeling of having lack of time for family, household, activities, myself. I am still, after two years, looking for ways to get back to my regime and well-being. At the beginning of the challenge, I started a new job and I knew the time rush will be greater.

But the enthusiasm of my friends from the NEM group inspired me and so I went for it.

The first month was euphoric, wonderful. The work is really my dream job (although I still have to learn a lot and graduate). Trips alone with a partner to the mountains, with the whole family … just a month full of action. And I was doing the exercises at home as planned – tabata, HIIT.

In the second month I was running out of energy. The feeling that I could not catch up on everything what I have to do, was even stronger. This also decreased the desire to exercise. I rested for a few days and decided to change the type of my exercises. I started running and a did some weight lifting home from time to time. Before that I preferred home workout type of tabata, HIIT, jump rope and cardio.

In the third month I slowed down and had to shut down because I broke my leg during one beautiful autumn run. At first I thought that I could do some exercises for my abs, my arms, my shoulders on the floor… but the mood went down. I was worried about the new job, my inability to help my partner at home, with my children, shopping, cleaning….

I stopped exercising, unfortunately even the diet was not very ideal.

Now, before the end of the challenge and the end of my sick leave, I realized that I had to relax with demands on myself and my loved ones too.

I can’t have a regime that I had and very much loved on maternity leave. I need to rethink my goals and plans.

Although my transformation or change in the figure will probably not show. I don’t count the disproportion between the left and right leg 🙂 (left calf 32, right 37), but the transformation is happening from inside. I have my new plans and goals. I don’t need to have a perfect household, mood, activities, be perfect in the work or have the perfect figure. I will relax and enjoy mainly my family, my dream job and I will try to find a few days a week for myself to exercise because I enjoy it and need it.

Have a great Christmas time.

Best regards to all of you.

Veronika from Czech Republic.

Congrats to our Region 12 pot challenge winner, Annie Henry for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! Region 12 consists of Asia and Africa!

Join our upcoming No More Excuses Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $50 you will not only receive an email consultation with Maria Kang, a 200-workout ebook, No Excuse Mom tank, 12-week accountability journal and a fitness/nutrition guide, but you will also get a chance to win $1000 worth of money and prizes.

Congrats to our regional winner! You have $145 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself! Many of our No Excuse Moms followed our official NEM program, where they used a fitness calendar, logged in their meals, participated online/in-person and overcame their excuses!

Be Inspired by her story here!

 My fight with body dysmorphia started when I was around 11 years old. I was always considered chubby in my slim Asian family.  It continued to get worse in high school during cheerleading, while working out 2 hours a day and competing in national competitions. The pressure I placed on my body was mentally strict and physically demanding. I never weighed more then 110 lbs at 5’1 but I always saw myself as “chubby”. My relationship with food became terrible and I found myself feeling so guilty every time I ate too much.  Enter the years of trying to battling hating myself and trying to be skinny. I battled these demons for many years and the best thing I ever did was join the military.

      My body was no longer just what the scale said, but it was a powerful machine that could lift and push with the big boys.  I never felt so much love and admiration for my body before.

After having my first child, I entered the world of bikini bodybuilding and again was faced with the demons from my pass. I quit competing in 2017 when I realized I was no longer in a good place with the dysmorphia of my body or my relationship with food.

Depression became an accompanying friend to my body dysmorphia and there I found myself in such a dark place. But after a painfully slow recovery, I found myself working out again for fun and for no other purpose. I smiled again and found myself able to eat pizza without guilt.  Fast forward to 2019, I became pregnant with my second son and had such a healthier pregnancy. I ate and worked out in hopes of an easy delivery and recovery time.

    I was 3 months post partum when the NEM challenge was starting up. Not only did I find a reason to challenge myself, I found a community to help push me along the way. Being in the military I was used to challenging myself physically, but having to fight your body after childbirth is both mentally and emotionally challenging.

With the NEM challenge I found myself being more understanding of my body and patient with the changes. Although I didn’t have a lot of weight to lose, I was able to lose one more lb than my pre baby weight 6 months post baby. Not only did I lose the weight fast, I was able to keep up my milk supply and am still successfully breast feeding.

And as I still struggle with a high needs baby, I still plan to workout more while incorporating baby wearing and jogging with the stroller.

My new goals are to continue to eat intuitively and listen to my body. To not only forgive myself but to understand my health is a means to LIVE.

Congrats to our Region 11 pot challenge winner, Dee S. for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! Region 11 consists of Canada!

Join our upcoming No More Excuses Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $50 you will not only receive an email consultation with Maria Kang, a 200-workout ebook, No Excuse Mom tank, 12-week accountability journal and a fitness/nutrition guide, but you will also get a chance to win $1000 worth of money and prizes.

Congrats to our regional winner! You have $145 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself! Many of our No Excuse Moms followed our official NEM program, where they used a fitness calendar, logged in their meals, participated online/in-person and overcame their excuses!

Be Inspired by her story here!

Do you have a baby in there? Are you pregnant? The words I hoped to never hear before taking this journey. How could I honestly tell an 8-year old that I am a Cancer survivor and my stomach is so big because it was full of tumors four years ago? I heard these words four times this year, from four separate students, and all four times crushed me: Crushed my soul, my spirit, my confidence, and any motivation I had because I had learned to just live with this pain and weight gain. However, my students are not saying this to hurt me. It took this Challenge for me to realize that my Cancer nor my body define who I am. I needed to stop making excuses…to be accountable for my actions like eating chocolate excessively or eating anything, for that matter, to satisfy my emotions; but also to be accountable for the negative mindset I had allowed myself to adopt…telling myself that this was how I was going to look and feel the rest of my life, and to give up on any thought that I could ‘fix’ my problem. My most successful transformation over the last couple of months has definitely been my shift in mindset. Learning to let go of these negative thoughts, and to negative people that were consuming my happiness. This opportunity has been the push I needed to conquer my emotional demons. I started slowly by getting more active. It was painful to feel all of this weight pound onto the floor when I did Zumba, or to feel my muscles ache for days when I lifted even the lightest of weights. But I didn’t give in or give up. I learned to sleep more, go to bed earlier (there are still some late nights), and realize that my lack of sleep has been one of my worst enemies in healing. I didn’t give up. Now on to nutrition. I’ve been battling with so many ideas and recommendations suggested by doctors, Naturopaths, podcasts, Facebook posts, articles…I was willing to try anything to get this inflammation and weight under control. After tracking my meals for the first month, I realized that I had been eating way too much sugar previous to the challenge, and not nearly enough fat. We are brainwashed with so much information that is supposed to ‘help us’, but when I figured out that I needed to reduce my sugar unless I wanted serious health issues, it was a game-changer. I lowered my sugar, and ate more healthy fats. Then I started seeing and feeling so many beautiful things: more energy, less cravings, more confidence, and results! After four years, I was finally starting to see my cheekbones again, to see my abs again, to feel strong- and more confident! I cannot thank you enough, NEM, for this opportunity. My journey has just begun- 8.1 lbs and 10.2” down; there is nothing stopping me now.

Congrats to our Region 10  pot challenge winner, Carey Falter for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! Region 10 consists of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska!

Join our upcoming No More Excuses Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $50 you will not only receive an email consultation with Maria Kang, a 200-workout ebook, No Excuse Mom tank, 12-week accountability journal and a fitness/nutrition guide, but you will also get a chance to win $1000 worth of money and prizes.

Congrats to our regional winner! You have $145 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself! Many of our No Excuse Moms followed our official NEM program, where they used a fitness calendar, logged in their meals, participated online/in-person and overcame their excuses!

Be Inspired by her story here!

Who would I become if I actually applied everything I knew about changing my body and mind for 12 weeks? I viewed this challenge as a gift I could give myself. I went about creating an experience that was demanding yet simple. I would drink half my body weight in water, exercise three or more times per week, plan out my meals, prepackage food, have an accountability partner, and do my very best to stay on track.

I would like to thank some special people who walked this journey with me. Thank you to my husband for teaching me about counting macros, whispering encouraging words, helping with meal prep, and waiting to eat with me when the weighing and measuring took too long.

Thank you to Kat Timlin for volunteering to be my accountability partner. I shared my struggles of emotional eating, knee pain, and self-deprecating tendencies. Your kind words lifted me but also reminded me to continue on my journey. I am forever grateful for you.

Thank you to my local and national NEM community on Facebook for being a source of inspiring stories and messages. I am grateful for Tasha Tartaglia for posting regularly and being an enthusiastic leader. Her welcome messages and workout invitations helped warm my cold feet as I got started.

Finally, I thank myself for sticking to process. I am so proud of all the hard work I put into the challenge. I changed more than eating habits; I changed how I cope with stress in my life. I sought out counseling to uncover why I turned to sugar and alcohol to numb my feelings. My stable blood sugars allowed me to face my trauma and start the steps to heal my heart.

When I started, my one hope was to look in the mirror and feel proud of myself again. I smile today not because I went from 140 pounds to 128.8, or started at a size 8 and now wear a size 4. I smile because I did what I set out to do and found a new ME along the way.

Congrats to our Region 9 pot challenge winner, Loraine Manu for being an incredible inspiration and following through on our 12 week challenge! Region 9 consists of Nevada, Arizona, California, Hawaii !

Join our upcoming No More Excuses Challenge starting January 20th and ending on Easter HERE!!! For $50 you will not only receive an email consultation with Maria Kang, a 200-workout ebook, No Excuse Mom tank, 12-week accountability journal and a fitness/nutrition guide, but you will also get a chance to win $1000 worth of money and prizes.

Congrats to our regional winner! You have $145 extra shopping money this season and we hope you get something extra awesome for yourself! Many of our No Excuse Moms followed our official NEM program, where they used a fitness calendar, logged in their meals, participated online/in-person and overcame their excuses!

Be Inspired by her story here!

My story started from the young age. I was always considered the “chubby” sister,cousin, or friend. For most of my life I would get comments like, “you would be so much more prettier if you lost some weight”. I remember clearly one year, my aunt had bought my girl cousins matching bathing suits and I was the only one who didn’t have a two-piece. I remember her telling me, “I got you a one-piece to cover your baby fat.” And of course as a young girl that would stick with me all throughout my life. I grew up embracing the fact that I was the “chubby” one in the family but would be very self-conscious whenever family events came around. I chose to opt out of family events family events because I was ashamed of my weight. When I had my two sons, I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t restrict my kids from being around their family because of my insecurities. When I had my first son, I had lost a lot of weight from breastfeeding then a year post partum I was having bad stomach pains, resulting in gallstones and the removal of my gallbladder. Post surgery I was feeling great because I had lost a ton of weight because of my gallstones so I thought since I was thin, why can’t I eat what I want to eat? Not taking account that I would pack on the weight FAST! When I got pregnant with my second son, I was already 20lbs over weight, and gaining an extra 30lbs! 200+ pounds at 5’2” is a LOT of weight! Luckily I had a normal pregnancy and delivery with no complications, BUT I seeing my post partum body was a huge eye opener for me that I need to be responsible for my health! When the No Excuse Mom Pot Challenge came along, it was a sign that I need to at least try and get this health journey started. Little did I know that these 12 weeks would change my life AND my figure so much! I REALLY focused on diet, which has always been a hard factor of losing weight. I learned self-control and moderation! I am no longer a binge eater. This journey has taught me self-love, brought confidence
I never had and the best part, it has inspired my family and friends to join this
healthy lifestyle with me! My new goals are to keep up this weight loss; my goal is to fit a size 6 pants! Crush a 5k under 30 minutes. And to continue to help my family and friends reach their goals too! This whole journey was not only fulfilling because I lost a total of 30 pounds, 10 inches all around and gained some muscles but helping my loved ones lose weight and helping them achieve their goal keeps me wanting to strive for more. Also being able to run around with my toddler without getting winded feels
great!

09/03/2019