1066 All Stars

End of week 7 - 18th October

Starting weight - 12 st 4lb

Last weight - 11st 8lb

New weight - 11st 6lb

Comments

* With the discipline of the regime restored, 2lbs have been lost, leaving me just 3lbs from my end of year target.

* Yet somehow, I was disappointed. I'm not sure what numbers I expected to see, there was just some indefineable sadness. This is perhaps a legcay of mental illness, looking for the negative in anything positive. It may also have been exacerbated by the moment I looked down to look at the numbers and saw my gut still hanging out.

* I am being too hard on myself, I understand that. I have come a long way (baby). The fact that there is still some way to go does not detract from the distance already travelled.

* I had cause to think back on my experience of therapy recently. I met people in truly awful points in their life, people who had self harmed, attempted suicide or suffered terrible loss. The temptation at the time, which some of you reading may have, is to think, 'what have I got to complain about, these people have it much worse than me?' But that is to miss the point of mental illness. Just because there are degrees of illness does not negate the illness itself. One broken leg may be better than two broken legs but your leg is still broken and needs to heal. Everything is relative. I had to learn to accept and to give myself permission to be ill. Only then could I begin the path to recovery, a path that I continue to walk.

* And remember, the journey is always easier if the burden is shared.