Jasmine Harman, 45, has shared how she felt overwhelmed by the response from her followers after she posted a photo of her weight gain after turning to “food and wine” during the coronavirus lockdown. The A Place In The Sun presenter admitted she felt low when uploading the photo on Instagram a couple of months back, as she was “ashamed” of how she had “let herself go”.
Jasmine explained she had decided to upload the side by side comparison of herself, after hiding behind “old photos”.
She explained: “I was really nervous [to put up the picture], it took me a long time to get the courage.
“I thought, I’m hiding behind social media. I was sharing old pictures from shows that I filmed ages ago, because I was basically ashamed of myself.
“I felt ashamed of how I had let myself go, especially as beforehand I had done a couple of interviews and a couple of photoshoots where I had been working out a lot and I was really happy, and I wasn’t having to deprive myself of anything.
“I felt like I had finally found that magic balance of wanting to eat junk food and eating healthily.”
However, with gyms around the country closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, Jasmine began to comfort eat while spending increased amounts of time at home.
The presenter continued: “I lost my motivation basically. I started comfort eating because I was feeling down.
“So yeah, it was scary to share that post, but my integrity is really important to me, and when I read some of the comments on it, I was in tears, I was absolutely…
However, Jasmine is keen to focus on herself going forward and find a balance where she can enjoy meals without overindulging or being deprived of certain foods.
She explained: “You can’t deprive yourself your whole life, it’s not sustainable.
“You can’t force yourself to do exercise you can’t enjoy because it’s not sustainable.
“So much of it is about mindset. You have to love yourself regardless of if you have a few extra pounds or not. That’s the bit I struggle with.”
Jasmine has found it tough over the past year after lockdown stopped her from being able to film episodes of A Place In The Sun, as she reflected on being “virtually unemployed” in a recent Instagram post.
Jasmine typed: “For the most part, mine is a job I can’t really do from home.
“So I welcomed having some VO to record today in my little home studio, as I’ve been virtually unemployed so far this year!
“Unless you count being a (lousy) teacher during home-schooling!”
A Place In The Sun continues on Channel 4 today at 3pm.
