Spotlight: Haris Jebrini

Hey! Recovering fatty and big fan of your work! I resonated with your childhood story of family withholding food from you. Most of that came from my dad, who would also force me to run 45 minutes on the treadmill every single day. That wasn’t my dad at his harshest, besides hitting me and making me spit out food he caught me eating he told me he was embarrassed by me; that is something I realized that tainted how I looked at myself for everything not just my physical appearance. I remember I started to hate any sort of activity and found comfort in eating. I only got active when I was in high school and got to play football like I always wanted. (My dad is Syrian, mom is Bosnian so the default sport was soccer; guess who was the best goalie because they took up the entire goal haha)

I spent all of high school relatively happy. I knew I wasn’t going to win any girls heart and that hurt but I didn’t really care except for one. One guy flat out told me she was too good for me, it sounds harsh, and he did go about it like a dick but I do appreciate his honesty now.

I didn’t change my goals and start to focus on my weight until I had my heart completely shattered in my senior year of college. I also found I was always tired because I had gotten so fat I had sleep apnea at 20. I got really obsessive though, went from 350 at my heaviest to 165 at 6ft. I ended up developing an eating eating disorder that I’m still struggling with. Another “trophy” of my struggle is the loose skin that every girlfriend I’ve ever had has asked me to get rid of.

I have to thank you for talking about your struggles because it makes me feel ok for myself. That sounds weird but it makes me feel more normal.