I am a little curious at to how I will look if I ever get down to my "healthy" weight. I look now pretty much like I thought that I would, smaller than I was but still fat. I really can't imagine myself any smaller. Body image may be a problem for me. At my age and based on how my skin is doing now, there will be lots of loose skin.

What I am really curious about, is how I will feel! I feel so good now, compared with how I felt for many years that I can't imagine feeling even better. Well, I guess I can imagine no knee pain. :) I read the posts by Robin, Lori Bell, and others about how fabulous they feel. Hope I find out. :)

Heck yeah, ditto again! I'm already down just past my old "fat" size of high school and college and I do not feel "fat". I'm telling you, I feel blessed to have been fat because now I actually know what being fat is. :rolleyes:

I have to just close out of those threads. :( I feel the same way and I remember that I could have been one of them.

There was one several months ago where the girl kept turning down any advice on a lifestyle change and said (I swear) "I just want to lose the weight (like 20 lbs) as quickly as possible and then go back to normal" and several people were like "NOOOOOOOOOOOO, it won't work like that" and she was like "Well, it crept up about 5 lbs a year, so once I get to goal I will just diet off 5 lbs once a year" and I just wanted to shake her--or really, shake myself, 15 years ago. So frustrating.

It's tough. Obviously being a little bigger at that age makes you feel JUST HUGE....I think a lot of people who end up with food/eating/obesity issues are girls who are tall and busty and have figures more like adult women when they are younger-- they're actually normal sized, but compared to their still immature skinny peers they feel huge, start worrying about weight/dieting, and end up with issues. Sigh. I wish I knew the solution so that nobody would have to feel that way. It's misery.

What I wouldn't give to weigh 150 now, the weight that in high school I considered OBESE.

Again, exactly how I feel! I like to say I had 'reverse anorexia' (not to make light of the serious disorder) because I thought I was thinner than I actually was.

Right now, I haven't been this weight since my teens, so I have no idea what my body will look or feel like once there's another 45 pounds off. I can't wait, though! And KNOWING, not just hoping, I will get there, is an amazing feeling in itself!

Or, alternatively, they give up because they think anything over "skinny" is "totally, morbidly obese": my "what's the use?" point back then was about 180. It made perfect sense: 180 or 300, it's all the same, right? If I couldn't be a size 6, boys wouldn't like me--and I agreed that they shouldn't, I was so ashamed of myself--so since I was doomed to a life of celibacy anyway, I might as well have cake. God I was stupid--and a big reason for that stupidity was that I was so ashamed of my weight that I could never talk about it with anyone, and lord knows the stupidest ideas develop when thoughts just revolve around and around in your brain and never get aired out for others to see.

Yup. I could have written this myself, word for word.... no internet around in those days. I was the only "fat girl" I knew. Oy!

I thought 150 or 250 what's the difference, I'm FAT UGLY and UNDESIRABLE at either weight, but one includes all-you-can-eat TWIZZLERS. Oy!

Wow, I hadn't figured that out, but that's the conversation that was playing in my head once I put on the 100 lbs the year I turned 30. I knew it would take a tremendous amount of work and time before I could get back down to "dating weight" and frankly the treats were more appealing than getting back into dating which had led to a lot of heartbreak in the past.

So with that attitude, I did not date for 18 years.

Now coming full circle back to the original post on "who will I be"?, I have found that the weight loss has brought male attention back into my life. In fact, got into a pretty serious relationship at the 50 lbs. down point. And it's been every bit as difficult at age 50 as it was in my 20s. But haven't been tempted to replace men with all-you-can eat yet.

However I do have to confess that this is one of my fears about putting the weight back on. Right now I'm enjoying everything about my new body and fitness and can't imagine trading it in for the old model. But lingering fear if I don't find lasting love will I turn back to food for comfort?