Jess like that she’s an example to all

JESS REDDEN has garnered lots of praise and plaudits for sharing her weight gain online – with the pharmacy student saying the response reduced her to tears.

The fiancée of rugby star Rob Kearney is in Australia where Rob is signed to the Western Force Rugby League team in Perth. Showcasing her figure in an aqua blue bikini, Jess said that body image and its attendant issues have been weighing on her mind prompting her to share the snaps and detail the secret heartache she has been harbouring.

She wrote: ‘I wasn’t planning on sharing too much of my weight gain journey online mostly because I’ve only started to deal with it myself (offline!) and it can be extremely hard to have those conversations with yourself let alone sharing publicly. However, the overwhelming support and response I got moved me to tears (which is easily done at the moment) but more than that my words and experience resonated with many people and again if I can help just one person by shining the spotlight on myself, then I want to do that.

‘It’s taken years for me to view how I ate as disordered. I wasn’t fuelling my body adequately but was conditioned into thinking this was normal. Under-eating is not normal, our amazing bodies need the calories and nutrients to function optimally. The first step is wanting to change for yourself not because anyone else says you need to.

Fair play, Jess!