It’s a constant struggle for many to keep the pounds off. But a Nova Scotia author says she’s finally okay with being what she calls ‘a fat person in a skinny-obsessed world’, and is sharing her story of body acceptance with others.
Jessie Harrold says she can pinpoint the exact moment she became aware that she was bigger than her friends. She was just six years old and it was Halloween.
“I was a witch and went up to a woman’s house, and she asked me ‘Oh what have we here? What are you?’,” recalls Harrold. “Before I could respond, she responded for me and said ‘a fat witch’.”
That realization has followed her ever since, and in her teens and 20’s, led her to spend a lot of time trying to lose weight.
“I felt that way because that’s what society expects of women in so many ways. We can’t unsee all of the media that we’re exposed to that shows us what healthy is supposed to look like, what beautiful is supposed to look like,” says Harrold.
Despite Jessie’s constant dieting and over-exercising, she never quite reached her goal weight. She did however, accomplish other remarkable physical feats, like breaking a world record for long-distance ocean swimming.
“So yes I’m fat, but also, watch me break this record,” explains Harrold. “Watch me climb this mountain, watch me play tackle football, and do all these things that we don’t think of fat people being able to do.”
Harold says she hasn’t given up on being healthy, but she has come to the realization that ‘healthy’ doesn’t look the same for everyone.
“I realized that I was actually really healthy in the body that I was in, and that I could do just about everything I wanted to do in my body,” explains Harrold. “So it became much more about coming to a place of acceptance and respect within myself.”
In her book Project Body Love: My quest to love my body and the surprising truth I found instead; Harrold shares her story about her battles and experience in her quest to find acceptance, respect and body love.
“Do I look in the mirror and do a happy dance about how my stomach looks every morning? No, absolutely not! I think that would be unrealistic, but oh my god, am I ever happy that I have a body,” says Harrold.
Harrold says her awakening about her own body has also changed the way that she parents her young children.
“It’s made me just a little bit more careful about the way that we talk about bodies, my body and their body, all bodies are good bodies and fat is okay,” says Harrold.
“My children say ‘Mommy, you have a big belly’, and I say, ‘Isn’t it awesome! You can rest your head there, you can snuggle there, and that’s where I grew you, and that’s amazing!” adds Harrold.
While Harrold shares her message of body love with her children, she hopes the rest of us will be inspired to love ‘every body’ too.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Maria Panopolis.
