How she does it: This plus-size Yogi tells us how she overcame body image issues

Sha Halim (@shaturanga) has had issues with her weight all her life and isn't afraid to admit it. The 30-year-old will even share the numbers on her scale.

"I've always been a fat kid. Let's start with that. The heaviest I've been is 119kg and I now hover between 93 to 96kg," says the security guard. She adds that she was teased about her weight so much when she was younger that she stopped socialising altogether for a bit.

But her current openness with it doesn't mean there are no more struggles.

"Even though I've come to see that I am much more than what meets the eye as I grew older, I can't say I love my body 100 per cent. I still have bad days with it sometimes."

What has changed, though, is that she doesn't let it have a hold on her anymore. In fact, she has cultivated an identity as a plus-size yogi.

For her, it's about the journey, not the destination

Sha was very quickly intimidated when she first started going for yoga classes in 2013 because there were "no similar body types". That observation alone nearly made her give up, but she decided to stick it out when she found that the pros of her practice outweigh the cons.

"Yoga allows me to create a more mindful headspace during that one hour. There are no f**ks given and I just move the body and steady the mind," she says.

"Yes, I can't fold forward without my chest and belly fat suffocating me but that doesn't stop me from practising. It's a practice, and just like in life, things are never perfect. Also, to me, yoga is not goal-oriented but a process."

And she knows a thing or two about goals that can make things go awry. In a bid to lose weight, she cut out carbs completely and only consumed protein-this led her to be diagnosed with gout in 2016.

To spur herself on in her pursuit of yoga, she adopted the mindset of a "rebel" and made peace with being perceived as a "misfit".

"Over time, I learnt that you may be doing the same pose as the person next to you but it will still look different because they are different bodies. It's like comparing an apple and an orange."

How to prevent weight issues from getting in the way

Unsure about giving something a go because of your weight? You might want to take a leaf out of her book and learn to drown out the noise.

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"I used to get looks of confusion when I tell people I do yoga because the belief is that bigger people are downright lazy and don't move around. At the end of the day, people are still going to judge people, so I no longer care about what they think."

It might also help to find someone in similar shoes to be inspired by. And if it's also yoga that you're interested in, Sha considers fellow local plus-size yogi Amanda Koh (@unapologeticallyamandakoh) a "badass".

"Amanda focuses on technicality and provides options for different body types, like, 'If you can't do this, try this and I'll tell you why.' I like that approach because it teaches you that slow progression is still progression, and there is always a sense of hope."

Her biggest piece of advice, though, is to lean into accepting yourself as you are.

"Acceptance will come when you learn to embrace yourself as you are and what's most important is what you bring on the table with this one body you have. Life is actually long if you think about it, so just take it slow and steady."

This article was first published in CLEO Singapore.