[etherence]

I posted this on the Intuitive Eating board, but I realized this was a general thought I had:

Hello all, I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed your time with your friends, family and yourselves.

I have always noticed that when I "feel fat" I examine everything else in my life as a negative. When I am feeling fat, then I don't feel pretty, I don't think I'm good enough, I start comparing my career choices to other people, blah blah blah...

But when I feel "skinny" I feel like I can take on the world! The day looks bright, everyone is on my side, etc etc.

Why can't I just be a person, and not fat or thin? And how is that how I feel with regards to weight determines my mood so much.

Thoughts?

[Thighs Be Gone]

Same goes for me--I would agree w/most of what you said. Also, though, I still feel fat. I look at the scale, I see the sizes of my clothing but I can't help but to think I am still obese. I wonder daily how much more will it take before I feel thin.

[shrinkingchica]

Originally Posted by etherence

And how is that how I feel with regards to weight determines my mood so much.

I think its the other way around. I think its your mood that is determining how fat/thin you feel. Because really, does your weight vary by more than a few ounces day to day? No. But can you be happy today and sad tomorrow? Yes. Is that because you are sooo much thinner/prettier today? No.

Everyone has good and bad days but we (in our society, but especially us "dieters") come to associate thin=good fat=bad so much that it gets internalized to the point where feeling good=feeling thin and feeling bad=feeling fat. Fat and thin are not feelings. Nor should these subjective determinations have such hold over us that they affect our daily outlook and psychological well-being.

[MariaBrown]

This is human psychology, when they feel fat they tend to feel lazy and when they feel thin, they feel to be active and agile.

[PhotoChick]

I think it's hard for those of us who struggle with fat to see beyond that.

I think we all need to realize that everyone struggles with these feelings, whether they're fat or thin. Thin people struggle with it when it comes to feeling attractive or not, having a good hair day or not ... whatever.

We who are fat tend to make our fat the focus of our problems, feelings, issues, etc. But everyone does it ... everyone has something in their life that they can use to focus their feelings on, blame for their problems whatever. We're just "lucky" (*wry smile*) enough to have something that's visible to the outside world.

.

[Icecat62]

It doesn't matter what weight I am, I always feel fat. Once you've been fat for a long time, you may like me, feel fat forever. I've weighed 240 and I've weighed 129 and I still felt the same. Right now I'm at my perfect weight of 155 for my height of 5'8" and I still feel like I'm fat, even though I'm not.