Lindsey Swift was simply going out for a run with her boyfriend recently when a stranger decided he was going to try to ruin her day with jokes about her weight as he was driving by.
Instead, the heckler fired up the British 26-year-old to write an impassioned open letter on Facebook. Swift is just fine with her body and hopes that others trying to lose weight won't be discouraged by that type of behavior.
"I am indeed a big girl, and I am indeed beautiful,'' she wrote. "Normally I don't get militant about these things, idiots are idiots. However, I can see why comments like these might put a person less confident than me off from running, and that is shameful. Everyone starts somewhere."
The driver of white van even slowed down to shout a rendition of Mika’s "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful),'' according to Buzzfeed. Her boyfriend, Ryan Wilkes, 30, was running with her on a road in Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England, when it happened. Swift did not return a request for comment from TODAY.com.
"Let me make one thing very clear, I am not ashamed of my body. It has never stopped me from doing anything I want,'' she wrote. "My fat body has done things that you, hanging out of the window of your babe-magnet white van could only ever dream of. My fat body has been swimming in crystal clear Thai seas that you have probably only ever seen on TV. It has lived in countries you wouldn't dream of visiting and been a part of cultures you are too small minded to appreciate. My fat legs have carried me up mountains on more than one occasion. My fat brain speaks languages you probably don't see the point of learning, which is why you spend your time hanging out of van windows since you have nothing better to occupy it with."
Swift noted that her goal is to run a 10-kilometer race and that she has already "a stone (14 pounds) lighter" since she started running. She ended by letting him know that his jeers were not going to stop her in her quest to get in better shape.
"Here's hoping that anyone with a goal, fat or thin, isn't put off by this kind of thing,'' she wrote. "I know I haven't been."