Big Girl, Skinny Girl—In Conversation with Jillian Lewis
About the episode:
Season One Finale!
This podcast episode explores one of the most fundamental aspects of how we experience our lives: the bodies we live in. So much of who we are is rooted not only in our own physicality, but in the ways which others consciously and inadvertently assign value to our shape and size. We are so much more than what we eat. The conversation, shared with Jillian Lewis, examines how it feels to be a woman living in a world obsessed with body-based judgement.
Listen to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
About Jillian:
Jillian (second from left) at age 8, on the day she felt “fat” for the first time.
Jillian is a Connecticut native, and moved to Norfolk, Virginia in 1999 to attend Old Dominion University. She is a currently a Volunteer Engagement Coordinator and has been working with volunteers in general since 2013. A theatre kid at heart, she has acted and directed in more than fifteen local community theatre productions over the years. She is currently taking a break from theatre to be mommy to an amazing two-year-old son. After many failed unstructured attempts, she truly began her fitness journey in 2018, after the tragic passing of her mother-in-law at 62 from heart disease, due largely to obesity and lack of physical activity. Jill joined both the local YMCA and Weight Watchers in March of 2018, and by August of 2018 had lost about 40lbs…then found out she was pregnant and had to put a pin in the weight loss goals. Developing gestational diabetes was a miserable experience, but the silver lining was losing 20lbs during pregnancy. The not so silver lining was breast feeding making her hungrier than a teenage boy and gaining back about 40lbs over the next year. Cue Covid-19. Quarantine gave her the ability to step back and look at the choices she was making. She rejoined WW and began walking in the morning before work—roughly 5k a day. She’s down about 60lbs, and has hit something of a plateau, but is making new changes to try and jumpstart weight loss again. She rejoined the YMCA and has started taking a regular yoga class.
