About karina

Absolutely, Karina. Below is your final rewritten “About Me”, integrating the full timeline with dates, honoring your 

I Was Born Fighting. Now I Fight for You.

I’m Karina Rabin, founder of WaistedMom, and I didn’t create this brand from comfort or convenience—I created it from trauma, chronic pain, heartbreak, and a relentless desire to rise.

I was born with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)—an inherited autoimmune condition. At just 8 years old, I developed psoriasis, and kids at school called me “polka dots.” I wore long sleeves in the summer to hide my skin. The shame wasn’t just physical—it was emotional, and it taught me to disappear long before I ever learned to feel safe in my body.

At 18, I worked the front desk at Jack LaLanne’s gym, hoping fitness would somehow rub off on me. I watched people lift, train, sweat—and I did everything they did. But no one talked about food, hormones, or autoimmune health back then. I lifted weights, gained weight, and panicked.

So I stopped lifting.
And for the next 25 years, I turned to cardio—trying to burn away the shame, the bloat, the confusion, the emotional weight.
But shrinking isn’t healing.
And cardio couldn’t fix what trauma left behind.

In 2001, I was 23 years old, hungover from a Michael Jackson concert the night before, and late for work in Manhattan.
That’s the day the towers fell.
I ran through the city not for fitness, but for survival. The fear, the silence, the smoke—9/11 etched itself into my nervous system, and I’ve never forgotten how fragile life is.

• In 2004, my father died.
   
• In 2005, his mother passed.
   
• In 2010, my uncle died.
   
• In 2011, my mother died from complications of obesity, diabetes, and kidney failure.
   
• In 2012, another uncle died—the same year I had my first C-section.
   
• In 2016, I had my second C-section.
   

My mom had two brothers, and all three siblings died 12 months apart to the day.
Each time, one of us in the family was giving birth that week.
Death and life, grief and motherhood—always arriving together.

I pushed for over an hour during my first labor. His head was too big. I ended up in an emergency C-section and left the hospital with a hemorrhoid that itched for years, and back pain from the epidural that still hurts today.

After my second son, I found out we were moving away from family. I was postpartum, exhausted, and pretending to be okay.
Then, in my 40s, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, scoliosis, and told I had a shorter left leg—the missing puzzle pieces of a lifetime of unexplained pain and imbalance.

I was inflamed. Bloated. Alone. Still carrying what felt like everyone else's weight—physically and emotionally.

On my 40th birthday in June 2018, I made a decision:
I will stop hiding. I will stop shrinking. I will get strong—for real this time.

I started lifting again—not to get small, but to get powerful. I shared my journey publicly to stay accountable.
Six weeks in, I saw muscle. But more importantly, I saw hope.

I reached for shapewear to support my belly and back—but it hurt. It restricted. It made me feel like I was still trying to squeeze into someone else’s life.

So I created something better.
WaistedMom was born—not to shape women into silence, but to support them through their healing.

The back pain from my first epidural never went away.
I waist train every day—not for appearances, but for support. It’s how I manage chronic pain.
It holds my spine. It eases pressure.
It makes me feel stable in a world that rarely is.

That’s what WaistedMom is:
Not a gimmick. Not a trend.
It’s relief.
It’s permission.
It’s support for women carrying more than anyone sees.

In 2020, I started streaming workouts from my living room. No makeup. No filters. No perfection.

Women showed up. Not for abs—but for truth.

They were tired. Inflamed. Perimenopausal. Grieving.
And ready to stop pretending.

Together, we didn’t just lose weight—we let go.
Of shame. Of silence. Of the belief that we had to carry it all alone.

It’s about everything women carry:

Autoimmune conditions. Birth trauma. Silent grief.
Hidden shame. Diagnoses we didn’t see coming.
Back pain. Bloating. Exhaustion. And the fear we’ll never feel like ourselves again.
 

I was told:

“Don’t tell anyone about your kidneys. They won’t want you. You’ll be alone forever.”
 

I believed that for a long time.
Now? I tell everything—for me, for my mother, for every woman still hiding.

• Food: Cook your meals. Feed your body like it deserves healing.
   
• Workouts: Lift weights. You’re not too old or too far gone.
   
• Cardio: 20 minutes after lifting—not to erase yourself, but to remember you’re still here.
   

If you feel bloated, inflamed, ashamed, or exhausted—you’re not broken.
You’re becoming.

I created WaistedMom for:

• The 8-year-old girl called polka dots
   
• The 18-year-old trying to belong in a gym
   
• The 23-year-old running through Manhattan on 9/11
   
• The daughter who buried a father, a mother, two uncles, and still stood
   
• The postpartum woman pretending to smile
   
• The woman in pain with no diagnosis—until she finally got one
   
• And you—still carrying more than anyone knows
   

You don’t need to be perfect.
You just need to begin.

I’m not quitting. And I won’t let you quit either.

You are not broken.
You are becoming.

With radical truth, fierce love, and unstoppable power,
Karina