Jenny McGinley, Communications Director, Health and Medical Solutions, TENA
“I have always been a plus size person. From reaching the height of 5’7 in sixth grade, to filling in the stereotypical roles of ‘clean-up’ batter in softball and goalie in field hockey, to learning throughout life how to dress to look thinner (as if).
My body has never held me back from doing anything I wanted until 2018. I took my son, who was 13 at the time, to Hawaii for a special vacation. One wish he had was to swim in a waterfall, so we ventured to Waimea Falls which boasted a brief 30-minute hike to the waterfall…but it was all uphill. During our hike, I realized that my body was beginning to fail me because I hadn’t been treating it very kindly over the past 3 years. I was at my heaviest weight and making that hike to the waterfall showed me that if I didn’t make some drastic changes, adventures like this with my son would come less and less – and that was unacceptable to me.
We ended up taking a shuttle cart up to the waterfall that day and I made a commitment to myself to change. I don’t aspire to be skinny, but I do want to be healthy and I want my body to hold up for at least another 50 years. I’ve lost 70lbs since this photo and have about 100lbs more to go. I do it for me… because I like life, I love adventure, my son means the world to me and my body deserves some respect.”
