Every once in a while somebody talks about seeiing a photo that slaps them upside the head, blows away all the nice, comforting denial, and makes them see themselves as others see them. I've had a couple of those: one was a photo taken by my office mate, in a park in
Bangalore, India. It was hard to admit that that shapeless blob was me. Then there are today's photos. This is AFTER losing 35 lbs, mind you. I don't have any at my highest weight. But I think this will do as a before shot. I may have one less chin, but I have DEWLAPS! And no neck, my jowls run all the way to my collar bone (you can't see it, but I'm sure there is one). I look so surprised, you'd think I'd seen it before it was taken. Anybody else see a photo that insisted you haven't visually changed as much as the bathroom miorror seemed to say?

Shellie, you are selling yourself short. Those pic's are not bad. Go check out my before pic. in the Goal section. OMG, I had no neck, just a huge triple chin, bloated round face and looked like a humpback whale. You have very beautiful eyes and pretty hair and look great .

As for seeing disappointing pic's now, it still happens sometimes. But, it's usually my hair looks messy, or my fat arms are showing , or my make-up isn't perfect. I don't think I'll ever be 100% proud of how I look, but I am 100% sure that I look better than I did in that Goal pic. BTW, I still think my belly looks fat in my avatar pic.

I think you look great Shellie!! I dont have any current photos, I just refuse! I catch myself in a full length mirror in macy's the other night! That is exactly what happened to get me back on program. I looked horrible, old, tired and fat! Its time to get to what Im suppose to look like

I agree with Lily, you're being to hard on yourself.

And Lily, you don't look like you have any belly at all.

I think we all judge ourselves more harshly than we should, we tend to look past whats good and focus on what we hate. I think we're more likely to focus on the positive in others.

I am always disapointed in photos of myself, I guess I do have some illusions that I look better than I do. In my head I'm thinner and better looking, so I'm always super dissapionted when I see the truth.

YES!! The one in my avatar. I had no idea I looked like that.

I was utterly appalled, shocked and realized in my mind, I am still thinner...but ONLY in my mind. I have the reverse of anorexia.

Tomorrow morning, I go back on induction and I will chew my fingers off before I will stay so big. I was so red in the face, simply from getting dressed, in that picture, I look like a tomato!

We can do this, Bouncing.

You guys all made me laugh, and get a grip on my stupid ego. After all, self condemnation is nothing but ego run riot, in a negative direction. When I posted this I thought I was looking for other people's experience, but now that I look back, maybe what I wanted was for y'all to pet me and say "There, there, it's not all that bad!" Ah, yes, more will be revealed...

Taking thumb off space bar and putting back in mouth, with sigh of satisfaction,