Opposite journeys - same destination.

Well good afternoon to you my lovely audience. I hope you're all well and coping OK on your bikes in this vile weather. It's been pretty horrific so far this year and I think we're all feeling that right now. So here's a cheery post covering a great day out I had this bank holiday weekend, to watch my long-time best friend Rachel achieve a brilliant goal.

The reason I'm writing about this event is because I feel it's not just important for me to cover my weight loss

I don't know who the other people are..
..they haven't signed model release forms! 

progress, or fitness goals, it's also important to cover both other disciplines and also other people's struggles and achievements. In this case, where I used to struggle with binge eating and weight control, my best friend Rachel has suffered with anorexia for a very large majority of her adolescent and adult life. I thought this a good opportunity to write about how well she has also been doing (eating-wise - we were basically polar opposites!) and cover this, as I am aware that eating disorders plague the world of cycling, especially in young riders who find they are under pressure from so many influences. This worries me and I think it's essential to highlight that it's not just good for people to keep themselves from putting on too much weight - it's also highly important to make sure you don't let obsessions turn into problems. Eating disorders are a real and very prominent issue and we should all make sure we keep our eyes open for any signs of them taking hold both with ourselves and our friends.

Yay! MEDAL! 

So there's me, a formerly relatively obese party animal, on the train to see my friend Rachel - who has been training to run the Bupa 10k in London. This is a huge achievement for her, like me she has struggled with confidence and like me she has struggled with food, control, anxiety and depression. We're kin, we started at opposite ends but once I step off the tube to see my girl, I see we've landed in exactly the same place. Nattering away as we both scoff a hearty Italian meal the night before her run I feel overwhelmed at how she has significantly and flawlessly head-on combated her problems and blossomed into an extremely fit, healthy and beautiful woman. I feel humbled to be sharing this achievement with her and proud of both of us for making such wonderful differences in our lives. We're both about the same size for the first time ever (albeit she's probably somewhere around a metre shorter than me...) and we both look damn good.

The morning of the race my girl is all nervous, confidence waning and panic setting in I try to comfort her and assure her that these feelings are normal - embrace them! And embrace them she did while she panicked about reaching her target time, she not only smashed it to pieces but also passed tons of people and came out of it feeling great! This is what I love to see, there was once a time when I shunned sports as a nerds game, I was so wrong. Seeing how healthy activity can highlight a persons inner "glow" (no reference to EPO) is amazing, knowing that any human being is capable of anything they want to achieve and watching someone so close to me do that is pure perfection.

So I would like to tell my best mate Rach that I am so proud of her, and that she can and will go on to achieve so much more. Don't let your demons take control, rather use them and do everything you can to make your life better, because you can. The only thing that stands in our way is our own minds, so don't let that happen, take charge and be awesome.

I was going to put before and after pics on here of when both Rach and I were struggling with ourselves, but you know what? I think I won't - because the past is best left on that shelf, we are who we are now and we are happy - so why not just share that, and look to the future instead.

Well done sis, you're awesome.