I’M A PLUS-SIZED FITNESS INSTRUCTOR

Becky Scott, 40, explains how she’s finally learnt to love her body

- MOIRA HOLDEN

Squeezing into a pair of shorts, my cheeks burned. I was 12 and in a bid to get out of cross country, I’d fibbed to the teacher I’d forgotten my kit. But when the first runner came home, the teacher ordered me to change into their kit and run the course.

Larger than most children my age, the borrowed shorts and vest, already sweaty and dirty, was ridiculously tight. I’ve never forgotten that humiliation.

Exercising to music, though, was a complete contrast – the movement filled me with joy. So, while I hated PE lessons at school, I loved my dancing classes.

DIET CYCLE

But by the age of 13 I was already in a diet cycle of losing weight, putting it back on and then adding a little bit more. And I gave up ballet at the age of 15, just as we were about to learn how to go