The Paris based fitness blogger made her case on Instagram. (iStock)
Imagine giving birth to a beautiful baby girl and then, mere months later, you discover texts on your husband’s phone that not only revealed he was cheating on you but that he and his mistress were teasing you about your weight.
Some normal people would feel like taking their kids and burning the house down, but Betsy Ayala took a different route — and is actually thankful the whole thing happened.
Ayala, who lives in Houston, Texas, gave birth to her daughter Isabella in 2013 and at the time weighed 265 pounds.
She had been trying to get into shape when she discovered the cruel messages on her now ex-husband’s phone.
“I started in September and was doing okay until two days after Christmas, when I found out my husband was cheating on me with a co-worker,” Ayala told Honey.
“I had been with him since I was 17 and pretty much devoted my life to our relationship and him.
“I was devastated. I found out through some messages I read on his Facebook where they were calling me a cow and fat and just trashing me and my whole world fell apart,” Betsy added.
The 34-year-old mom was heartbroken.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself at the time. I was still over 220 pounds with a six-month-old and everything that I had worked for had just vanished,” she said.
But Ayala wasn’t going to be defeated that easily. She started small, cutting out sugary snacks and began working out with her sister and doing Zumba, channeling the break up into her gym sessions.
Cut to a couple of years later and Ayala has since lost 103 pounds and is a Herbalife wellness coach for others trying to lose weight — and oddly enough, she’s thankful for the whole heartbreaking experience.
“Now I honestly feel that what he did was a blessing because otherwise I would have been the way I was forever.
“I prayed all the time for my life to change and my prayers were answered just maybe not in the way I envisioned but I got a second shot at a fresh start and I’m grateful for that,” she said.
And while Ayala is thankful for her ex-husband giving her the original jolt she needed, the mom eventually changed her attitude about getting fit.
“I would cry after every workout and it was then that I decided that this would not define me and I was going to change for me and for my daughter. I wanted her to be proud of her mom and I wanted to be an example for her,” she said.
Ayala is hoping to transfer her love of working out to her children, something she herself didn’t have as a child.
“I was always the chubby kid,” she said.
“I never played sports or wanted to take in physical activity because I was overweight. I did get bullied in school and got picked on. I think for me eating was like self-medication,” Betsy added.
But despite her past, things are clearly looking up.
She has over 70,000 followers on Instagram and is doing the rounds on television, recently being interviewed by Steve Harvey.
“I’m a completely different person both on the inside and outside because of my outlook on everything. I was always very negative and had a chip on my shoulder because I was unhappy with me. I’m happier, I’m confident and most of all I’m positive,” she said.
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