Laura Adlington has revealed she spent a long time wanting to ‘slim down’ in order to have ‘better sex’ before she found self-confidence.
The Great British Bake Off star, 33, who is a size 26 and an avid body positivity advocate, recently gained 50,000 likes for her inspiring Instagram post.
Laura said that she often found herself ‘putting things off’ due to her weight, thinking she would enjoy things more, like sex, adventures and holidays, if she was ‘slimmer’.
But now, after finding inner-confidence Laura has admitted she will never put her life on hold again because ‘life is too short’.
In a candid interview, Laura said: ‘I spent a long time not doing things or putting things off, and reserving things for when I was smaller.
Laura Adlington, 33, has revealed she spent a long time wanting to ‘slim down’ in order to have ‘better sex’ before she found self-confidence
The Great British Bake Off star, who is a size 26 and an avid body positivity advocate, recently gained 50,000 likes for her inspiring Instagram post
‘I’d always say “Laura version 2.0 is going to go on more adventures, more holidays, have better sex, greater friendships”, but actually, you are just putting your life on hold. If Covid taught us anything, It’s that life is short.
‘You don’t need to have a small life just because you’re in a bigger body, or if you have insecurities. Life is for living.’
It comes after Laura proudly posed in a plunging red swimsuit as she shared an inspiring body positivity message on Instagram earlier this month.
The influencer, who came second place on the baking show in 2020, urged fans to not delete their photos because of ‘insecurities at the way they look’.
Laura detailed that the first thing she noticed after the picture was taken was her ‘bingo wings, lumpy legs, stomach and a shiny face’ and at first was ‘very tempted’ to delete the photo.
But looking deep into the snap, she then revealed she saw a ‘happy and confident woman in a swimming costume on holiday’, and was so glad she didn’t delete the photo because she ‘didn’t look perfect’.
Captioning her post, she wrote: ‘Don’t delete your memories because you don’t like how you look in the pictures.
‘I’ll be honest…the first thing I noticed when I saw this picture Matt took of me on holiday was my bingo wings. Then my lumpy legs. Then my stomach. Then my shiny face. My first thought was ‘Ugh’.
Laura said that she often found herself ‘putting things off’ due to her weight, thinking she would enjoy things more, like sex, adventures and holidays, if she was ‘slimmer’
But now, after finding inner-confidence Laura has admitted she will never put her life on hold again because ‘life is too short’
In a candid interview, Laura said: ‘I spent a long time not doing things or putting things off, and reserving things for when I was smaller’
‘The temptation to hit the delete button was very real. But as I’m looking at this photo now I’m so glad I didn’t, because what I also see is a happy and confident woman wearing a bright red swimming costume and having a lovely time on her holiday.
‘I spent years not wanting to be in photographs, and deleting the ones where I thought I didn’t look “perfect”.
‘And what this means is that I can probably count on two hands the number of photos I have of myself between the ages of 15 and 25.
‘How awful is that. When we delete a photo because we don’t like how we look in it, we’re kind of tossing away the memories it holds along with it.
‘So here’s to being in the photos. And, more importantly, KEEPING them.’
Fans flooded Laura’s Instagram comments with praise and admiration for her raw and honest post, with some recalling how much they needed to hear her message.
Some comments read: ‘Yes! And we’d never say anything like this to our friends, why do we think it’s okay to say it to ourselves? You look so happy.’
‘I just thought how refreshing this post was and it wasn’t “a perfect bikini” picture and something I could relate to myself! I think you look happy and that’s all that matters.’
‘I’d always say “Laura version 2.0 is going to go on more adventures, more holidays, have better sex, greater friendships”, but actually, you are just putting your life on hold. If Covid taught us anything, It’s that life is short’, she added
‘You don’t need to have a small life just because you’re in a bigger body, or if you have insecurities. Life is for living’, she continued
‘I CANNOT tell you how much I needed to see and read this, you are absolutely beautiful and an inspiration to anyone who sees a photo and hesitates to post.’
‘My first thought when I saw this was how amazing you look in that swimming costume.’
Laura previously admitted on her body positivity podcast Go Love Yourself that she does worry about the health implications her size may bring when she’s older.
Yet she reasoned: ‘I think a lot of people think when you’re body positive you’re promoting obesity but actually we’re just existing.’
Discussing her yo-yo dieting, she continued: ‘I’ve tried every single diet numerous times, tried everything and all that happens is that I put the weight back on and more and feel s***er.’
‘I’m at the point where I think diets don’t work, I don’t want to have bariatric surgery, my options are to try and be a bit healthier and just accept myself and not beat myself up and try and live life to full.’