My weight loss has kinda stalled for the last couple of weeks (which, I think I'm getting back under control again but that's beside the point), and I realized that I can't picture myself thin. My goal weight is the weight I was when I was 14 and felt like a huge cow and I just can't visualize myself being at that weight now. I had a hard enough time seeing myself in the 180s or getting down to the 170s. Does anyone have any tips for overcoming this? I know visualization can play a huge role in helping people get to their goals.
I don't try to visualize myself at a certain weight because I have never been thin so I just don't know what my body will look like. So I try and picture myself doing things I will be able to do when I am more in shape. Like, fitting into air plane seats, wearing cute jeans, going back-packing - things of that nature.
Yeah...that's a great idea. I think my problem is it bothers me that I can't picture myself at goal. It's like it makes it feel unreachable or something...
This is something I struggle with everyday. I go and look at pictures of when I was at my goal weight and sometimes I look at them and I'm like wow I look so SICK.. I am so used to my face being rounder and chunkier that when I see it at goal, it scares me. Plus that was like 6 years ago so I look a lot younger. I agree with you rockstar, if I constantly think about how I will look at goal it makes it seem so far away. I tend to focus on wow my arms look smaller, oh my stomach looks smaller, and of course I am not as winded as I was the first time I stepped on a treadmill.
I've reached a plateau too ... I think my body just LOVES being this size. I haven't weighed in weeks, but I really feel stuck these last two weeks or so and this is the size/probably the weight where I've plateaued before. I'm trying to figure out how to blast through this. It's so frustrating!
I also can't picture what I'd look like thin -- I've *NEVER* been thin, even as a little kid. The last time I was really a health weight for my age/height, etc. was infancy.
I have trouble picturing myself thin too so I picture seeing a lower number on the scale or the tape measure (not the final number I'm shooting for, just a pound or an inch at a time) and I picture myself putting on and zipping up the smaller sized pair of jeans I want to fit into - not what I will look like in them but what it will feel like to step into them, pull them right up, and zip them without having to lay down on the bed to do it.
instead of focusing on the weight - focus on how much healthier you feel... that in itself is a huge accomplishment. sometimes you can lose inches without losing too many lbs. good luck, we can all use it!
I don't think there's anything alarming about that. I could never imagine myself thin. It was just impossible for me to visualize it. I think that's why I had so much of what I like to call, "shiny new car smell".
It really just makes everything more fascinating when you get to goal.
I know what you mean. I think it's completely normal to feel this way!
I haven't been thin since I was 6 years old. I have NO idea what I'll look like when I reach even 150 lbs! I don't think I've been that small since middle school.
I totally understand what you mean.... Though, there are a few tools that might help. I LOVE looking at the virtual model weight loss feature... It puts you side-by-side with your current self and your future lighter self in any cute outfit you like
It's still hard to imagine that's what my body would look like -- but it IS inspiring... I think they even now have a feature where you can put a picture of your face on the virtual model too!
I have some pictures from two years ago when I lost a bunch of weight..and that was about 25 lbs higher than my current goal..and when I see those, I honestly feel that I look great!! Which makes me sick to think that I let my weight get so out of hand so fast..but my point is, if I did it once, I can do it again..and I LOVED the results then, so this time, it will be that much sweeter. I can't wait to look hot again!!!
As someone way out of my 20's, but who only got close to thin once at about age 17, I can completely relate to not having a "thin" body image to visualize, but as many have said - I can visualize doing things I used to do, or even was never able to do.
I always wanted to go horseback riding. I always backed out of girl scout troup horseback riding events because my mother would talk me out of it, telling me how stupid I would look on the horse, teasing me that the horse would go swayback... Looking back, I now know she was afraid that I would get hurt, and she wasd desperate enough to use any low down tactic she could to keep me from going. The sad thing is that it worked, but it worked too well, and for a few years I was terified of doing anything that might make me look stupid (except swimming, I loved it too much to give it up, even though the walk to the water sometimes felt like a deathmarch).
Visualization IS a powerful tool, but it isn't your ownly tool. Also visualization doesn't have to be realistic - as long as you don't have your heart set on something that you can't obtain to the point that you'd never be happy with what you could achieve. So if visualizing a superbod helps you get to your own version (even if no one else would see any similarity between the two), that's fine too.
I haven't weighed in the 130's for like a decade! and that was before puberty had even completely had its way with me so I too have no idea what I'm going to look like when I reach that goal.
But I'm actually really excited to see what I'm going to look like at that weight! It's sort of a source of inspiration to me that I'll be smaller and healthier than I ever have been in all of my adult life when I reach my goal weight.
I don't really know what to expect either. My current goal is what I weighed early in high school, when I had a completely warped body image. And I suspect my body will look different at that weight now (over 10 years later), especially since everything's a bit...lower .
I can't picture myself thin.
