After an eating disorder and obsessive exercise, swimming with friends taught me plumpness is power

I was used to strict fitness regimes, but lazy, pleasure-driven swims helped me to feel more comfortable in my own skin

It was last September, while on a hen weekend in north Wales, that I realised how important swimming had become to me.

There was a temporary break in the organised fun and a clutch of attendees I vaguely knew from university asked if I would join them for a dip at the nearby beach. The conditions were hardly dreamy: it was raining; I hadn’t bought a bathing suit; the only towel I could use was the child-sized one provided by the Airbnb. But I took them up on it all the same. “I’ll be with you in five minutes,” I said, grinning.

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