I'm re-posting this as a separate post in honor of Ailidh, who inspired me to write it because she's starting to get noticed, and who told me to put it up separately. (Good going, Ailidh!
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After you 3FC members have lost a certain amount of weight & your ticker starts migrating ever rightwards, you can expect the people around you to begin to notice & start complimenting you & asking you questions. This could start happening at 10 pounds down, 20 pounds down, 50 pounds down ... it's hard to tell. Your mileage may vary.
But when it happens, it occurs in predictable stages. By my counting, there are seven, to be exact. If you drew it on a chart, it would be u-shaped & would follow these stages:
Stage 1) The observant notice & say something.
Stage 2) The less observant notice & speak up.
Stage 3) The truly dim & tactless notice & have their say, coming up with remarkable things you'll likely want to share in the forums with us.
Stage 4) Even the self-centered notice.
Stage 5) It's a general topic of conversation at your workplace, school, church & etc. Sometimes you're in on it; sometimes you're not. But know that there's buzz out there about you.
Stage 6) A backlash begins. At this point, you look so good that you shake up the social pecking order. Some people start to feel threatened & competitive. Catty remarks may ensue. You may also want to share those here with us.
Stage 7) People get used to your appearance. They may forget what you looked like before. If a picture of you turns up from beforehand, people will marvel, but generally, the compliments & remarks will die down. (A big secret: You may actually miss them. You may wonder why they're not as frequent as before.) You may think you've been forgotten, but you haven't been. You have simply entered local lore at the office & etc. as a sort of phenomena: The girl (woman) who lost LOTS of weight. Your day will come again: Wait till New Year's resolution time.