I think that this is something that perhaps I will always struggle with - at least to some extent. These thoughts are ones that go in and out of my head. There sometimes, and very prevalent. And other times, I barely think about it. Social media has a huge role to play, for me personally and for many others. Things that I found refreshing or helpful during recovery with regards to a body image focus:

• deleting social media accounts that do not serve a purpose or a sense of enjoyment. For me, this meant removing fitness accounts, accounts that showed calorie comparisons or ‘fat loss swaps’. None of these were adding to my life, only in the sense of filling me with guilt, anxiety and comparisons.

• Body checking - STOP! Or at least limiting. I was advised just to stop during work hours to start with (small steps) - why should I need to do that and who has time during a hectic work day? Once this had become a reality, stopping all together became easy or at least easier. If I ever find myself creeping back into doing this (during stressful times it comes), I remind myself it is adding nothing to my life. My body has not and will not change throughout the day and worrying about this will only lead to me feeling worse about myself.

• Focus on something that reminds you it doesn’t matter what your size is - I see lots of these posts which really resonate with me. When you talk about your friends, what do you say? They’re skinny? Thigh gap? Are these things you even notice on other people?

Even this week, this has been a focus on my mind. I have been cross (why am I thinking in this way? I thought this was done!). A reminder from Sue and Mandy over email was all I needed to pull me back on track. It is not worth living that life, I was never happier or healthier when I was smaller. I try to focus on all the good things I have in my life that I didn’t have before.