1 week Ago
Why as a slim woman, I always have to tread on eggshells around my overweight friends By Angela Epstein Published: 20:42 EDT, 8 May 2024 | Updated: 20:47 EDT, 8 May 2024 e-mail View comments The holiday in Tenerife had been wonderfully relaxing. Not least because we had stayed at an all-inclusive hotel, which meant any request for food or drink was just a polite wave away. Little wonder then that after a week of calorie-freighted cocktails served with more-ish bowls of nuts and crisps, I returned home a couple of unwelcome pounds heavier.
Hardly worth holding the front page for. Yet it’s the sort of bothersome detail that, as women, we often share with our closest pals. After all, isn’t empathy for even the most trifling concerns one of the great joys of female friendship? But sitting in a cafe for a catch-up with an old school friend shortly after my trip, I found myself deliberately censoring this detail from our conversation.
Why? Because, whether we like it or not, size matters, and my friend is significantly overweight. It strikes me that I routinely walk, and talk, on eggshells when I’m with my friend, careful to avoid any topic that might highlight the disparity in our sizes How on earth could I possibly moan about gaining a couple of pounds when I can still fit into my size ten jeans? Particularly as she’s been fighting the flab for years. Any complaints about my own weight would surely sound smug, disingenuous and profoundly annoying.
In fact, it strikes me t.
