Maria M. Kang-Casler (born 1980 in San Francisco, California), is an American fitness advocate, coach, blogger, and founder of the No Excuse Mom movement, a nonprofit organization which promotes a healthy lifestyle, centered on diet and exercise, for mothers. Residing in the Sacramento, California area, Kang began competing in beauty and fitness competitions as a teenager, winning several including Miss Petite Teen International, Miss Philippines USA, and Miss Bikini California. After leaving competition, Kang founded the Fitness Without Borders nonprofit organization to advocate for fitness in disadvantaged communities. In 2012, after marrying and giving birth to three sons, Kang posted a photograph of herself in exercise clothes with her children on her exercise group's Facebook page with the caption, "What's Your Excuse?". A year later, the photo went viral and received national media attention. In January 2014, Kang founded No Excuse Mom and made appearances on local and national media to opine on lifestyle issues. As of mid-2015, approximately 300 No Excuse Mom workout groups had been established in the United States and 25 other countries with 70,000 participants. The groups hold weekly, free workouts aimed primarily at mothers of young children. In March 2015, Kang published her first book with the goal of providing readers with a simplified approach to making a healthy change in lifestyle.
Early life Kang's mother, Caroline, the daughter of Philippine diplomat George G. Aducayen, Jr., from Cagayan married at 16 and had four children, one boy and three girls, by the time she was 22. Kang was the second child and the oldest of the three girls. The family lived in the Bayview-Hunters Point, San Francisco area of California. Kang's Malaysian Chinese immigrant father, Francis, was a police officer while Caroline worked full-time managing a state-owned parking garage. Starting at age 12, Kang would wake up at 5 a.m. with her mother to help prepare her siblings for the day's activities. As Kang grew up, her mother Caroline suffered from numerous health-issues related to her being overweight, including diabetes, heart attacks, a stroke, and kidney failure. Kang said that her mother's weight-related health issues affected her deeply. In 1991, the family moved to Elk Grove, California, outside of Sacramento. There, Kang became heavily involved in fitness activities, such as running and aerobics. Kang attended Laguna Creek High School where she did well with her studies and participated in cheerleading. She was bullied at times, however, by her classmates, including two instances in which a group of girls threw orange juice on her. Kang stated that the stress at times caused her to cut or scratch herself.
Beauty competitions and start of fitness advocacy At age 16, her mother persuaded Kang to compete in the local Miss Philippines Sacramento beauty pageant. She won first prize and began competing in beauty pageants on a regular basis. Over the next few years, Kang was crowned Miss Petite Teen International, Miss San Francisco Chinatown, and Miss Philippines USA. Kang then switched to fitness and figure competitions and, in 2003, won Miss Bikini California. Soon after, at a photo shoot at a pool in Los Angeles with other bikini models, Kang felt that the atmosphere and presentation had crossed the line into softcore pornography. Feeling exploited, she walked away from the shoot and never competed again in a beauty or fitness figure event. Kang graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2002 with a double major in history and international relations. In 2003, she moved to San Francisco and worked at 24 Hour Fitness as a program coordinator and, in 2004, was photographed for covers of Florida Fitness and SF Weekly magazines. At this time, Kang struggled with bulimia, finding herself addicted to the binge eating and purging common to the disorder. She was able to overcome the bulimia by forcing herself to eat without vomiting, and her weight increased until she was about 145 pounds, which she felt was overweight. In 2005, Kang started a personal website on which she gave her life story and. In 2007, founded a nonprofit organization called Fitness Without Borders to train leaders in low-income communities on the need for fitness. In 2009, Kang began leading free workout sessions for women at Kunsting Family Park in Elk Grove. The next year, she married ex-Marine David Casler, whom she had met on MySpace. Due to an obesity-related medical emergency, Kang's mother was unable to attend the wedding.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
