Like many others before me, I’ve been watching my weight since I was 9 years old. In fairness, at the beginning, I wasn’t that much heavier than other girls my age, but the dreaded comparison of my ‘big boned’ and heavily endowed body structure to those of my thin, beautifully developing peers contributed to a progressively poor self-image. Swimsuits and pool parties, sports recreation and being forced to wear ‘larger-sized’ clothing that was ‘out of date’ did nothing to help build my sense of self worth. So I continued to live out my life as the ‘fat girl’ – the vivacious personality that everyone wants to be mates with but no-one wants to date! Dieting has been a never-ending struggle, often causing me to blatantly lie about food choices and cheat by overeating. My weight steadily rose from 74 kilograms when I was 16 to 152 kilograms at my largest. However, with the assistance of lap band surgery, 2005 saw me lose 28 kilograms in approx. 12 months… only 44-kg to go!
So here at 32 years old I have finally come to the realization ‘Hey! I’m Fat! And…shock horror… I am ok with that! Sure… I don’t want to stay this way and I am committed to doing everything in my power not to, but for now, this IS me but I revel in the expectation that soon it will all be in the past tense.
The Lighter Side of Large is based on my private collection of illustrated anecdotes based on my own personal experience of being fat. I began writing these stories and anecdotes to inspire myself, an affirmation, if you like, of what is ahead of me; what to look forward to, but also as a reminder of where I have come from. Now I have been inspired to turn it into a novel from start to finish with a bit of creative license. Although the story itself is fiction the ‘fat’ experiences are true. Very soon the frustrating and somewhat embarrassing moments captured in this book will no longer be a concern for me. However, for now whilst I am on this journey rediscovering WHO I am whilst shedding the extra burden that I have labored under for the past 20 years, this book serves as a checklist or yard stick with which I can measure just how far I have come and what milestones I have yet to achieve. Similarly, I hope that, in a light-hearted way, it will inspire the many others like me that we are not alone and the best is yet to come.
This book is for all those fat people out there that know they are fat and can laugh about it and for all who look forward to being on the lighter side of large… as I do