I gotta let this out somewhere safe. Where I know no one will judge me or my hubby to harshly. But I am afraid if I don't let it out, I am going to start eating.
First off, I love my DH SO much. He has been such a rock of strength for me through some really hard times. He has always loved me no matter what. And accepted me for some of the dumb things I do.
But I have been working out so hard. My eating is a hit or miss some days, but I am seeing results. I went to the store today and tried on a size 16W and it fit. This is huge for me! I have been in 22W for years and years. All he did was just nod his head. I mean, I thought I looked so good, especially compared to how I used to. I ended up buying the 18's just because I still have too much tummy flab... :P
Anyhow, then we are walking out of the store, and there is this skinny girl walking in front of us and I see him looking at her. I know that's such a guy thing, most of them do it. I came home put the pants back on, and the XL shirt I got from American Eagle that actually fit, and he didn't say anything. Just kept doing what he was doing. I stopped him and he just shrugged his shoulders.
It really hurt my feelings. It makes me feel like I will never look good enough to him, for him to turn his head when he sees me. I know that he loves me, but after being married for almost 7 years, I wonder if I have just killed any physical attraction he had to me.
I could be totally over reacting (probably) because I think TOM is here. But it really hurt my feelings. I'm trying to talk myself off the ledge because I honestly felt like giving up right then. But I'm trying to make myself realize that if I'm not doing this for me, its not going to work. But it still hurt....
OK thanks for letting me let that out...go back to your lives citizens...

Sad to say theres eye candy everywhere you go. . Its human nature to look at other people. I do it to my husband, does it make me a bad person? No, Im a harmless flirt. He knows who rocks my world && who is # 1 in my eyes. Its just normal to look at other people. I assure you he meant nothing by it. I flirt with people infront of my hubby && my hubby will do it to me. We are secure && know that looking with your eyes is harmless.


You are ok babe, hes supporting you && LOVES you. Dont read too much into it

I don't know what may be going on in his head, but there is a dynamic that goes on with couples when one member loses weight or changes in some way that upsets the "balance."

keep doing what you're doing for you, looks, health, self esteem. you two may have to work out some bugs, but don't let it stop you.

PS yes, he's being insensitive and not so nice, imho. at the same time, guys don't always get how much this stuff means to women.

big **hugs**

One, men look at as once, the day they fall in love, and never look at us again. Whatever weight you were then is likely how he "sees" you, so any change (plus or minus) he really doesn't notice.

Second, even if he does notice the difference, would you really feel better if he gushed about how much better you look? Wouldn't that just make you wonder how he was feeling before, that he's so excited now? Men know women are "weird" about weight, and they often just say nothing to avoid saying the wrong thing.

Thanks for all the support. DH and I talked, so I feel better now. It was mostly just because I feel like he hasn't been cheering me on. I try to be a cheerleader for him in his job, schooling, any way I can, but sometimes feel he doesn't do the same for me.
He's gonna try harder...I know a lot of this is TOM because I get like this every time, but I never realize until after lol.
Thanks again for listening to me vent.

you know, there's a scene in a movie I absolutely love, where a bunch of guys are playing pool and a ridiculously hot girl in a skimpy dress comes in and they all drool. One guy is chalking his pool cue and says "You know, somewhere, there's a guy who's tired of f**king her" LOL it's so true!!! Dudes LOOK on occasion, super model girls' boyfriends LOOK - it's human nature (heck we do it too -- anyone watch True Blood?? OMG the guy playing Alcide??? ack!!!) don't let it get under your skin. Smack him on the back of the head next time if it'll make you feel better!

Okay well let me be the ***** then

I call that story "a red flag"

Now it may not be that he's manipulative and controlling or an emotionally abusive person, but when you see ONE red flag, you should check the list and see if you find more, if you find MORE than one, THEN you've got a problem on your hands.

No one should be with someone who makes them feel bad about themselves. EVERY woman needs to watch the movie "He's just not that into you" as it debunks a thousand fallacies that we're taught to believe. Seriously, put YOUR feelings and YOUR gut reactions FIRST! Don't ignore them, don't rationalize them away with "he's just a man, men do that!" NO! don't DO IT! Listen TO YOUR GUT and YOUR FEELINGS! Do NOT rationalize them away!

And EVERY WOMAN should read this list, the ENTIRE list. I'm serious. Read it.

Most Comprehensive Red Flag List EVAR (the filter won't let the site go through, you'll have to replace the stars and manually type in the "b" word to see the actual list LOL)

Time to be a heartless *****. Don't waste your time with a loser who can't appreciate how damned amazing you are. And my husband would be f-ing dead if he looked at another woman obviously while walking beside me, because he'd better f-ing know how damned lucky he is that I walk beside him in public in the first place.

btw...why do YOU blame YOURSELF for HIS douche-behavior?

HE was the one looking at another girl? HE's the one not cheering you on? How is that YOUR fault? How are YOU responsible for making him a douchebag?

Again, how is it your TOM's fault that he hurt your feelings?


I see you taking a lot of responsibility here, when its NOT YOUR FAULT!


and listen to your feelings. Listen to your gut. Don't ignore them and then go and excuse his bad behavior.

and seriously, read through the ENTIRE red flag list and just see if there's anything else that jumps out at you. You deserve to be with someone who both loves you and ACTS like he loves you, not just SAYS it. I'm not saying he's not that person, I'm just saying, you ought to be sure.

Its never OKAY for someone to hurt you. And its not just "him being a man". That is NOT an acceptable excuse for hurting someone else, especially someone who loves you.

I don't know, I would probably chalk it up to TOM, too. I know I sometimes get super-sensitive at that time and make a mountain out of a molehill. I also think a lot of times men can be pretty dense. If I want my DH to notice something getting smaller, I say "Hey, look, don't my feet look littler? They were starting to look like your mom's feet!"

In a way it would be nice if he would notice every little change my body makes and go on and on about how great I'm looking, but on the other hand, he didn't make comments on every little pound I have GAINED since we've been together (a lot!), so I guess I prefer to think of it as someone else was saying -- when he looks at me, he sees ME, not how many pounds I've gained or lost recently. And if I need his reinforcement, I just ask. Now if he responded "whatever fata$$, you look the same to me!" THEN we would have a problem! hahaha

Yeah I guess I just think too highly of myself to think that I should chalk away 25% of my life, my feelings and my sanity to "oh, thats just how life is, during that 'time' of the month I can't trust my feelings or my sanity". Life isn't that long, I need to know that I'm a reliable source of recognizing my feelings 100% of the time.

Besides, if you don't respect your feelings, no one else will either.

if respecting your heart 75% of the time works for you, thats fine. Thats your choice.


Granted, if I want to jump the mail guy out of horniness, I'll blame THAT on my hormones, but getting POed because my man acted like a douche bag, MY HORMONES don't affect HIS BEHAVIOR, nor am I going to excuse his behavior with my hormones.


As women, if we always make excuses for them and always rationalize away being hurt.....they'll keep acting the way they act and keep hurting us over and over and over again. I'm personally no longer "okay" with being hurt by someone. Especially repeatedly. If I'm hurt by someone now, I look for patterns.


Bottom line: if you feel he's gawking at other women, he probably is, are YOU okay with that? (and NO do NOT excuse it as "he's just a man", there is NO excuse good enough for hurting and humiliating you!)

If you feel he's ignoring you? He probably is, are YOU okay with that?

Did he hurt you? Are YOU okay with that?


My dad always told me that a woman determines her level of respect that she receives from her spouse. Are you OKAY with how you're being treated? and more importantly, if you tell him you're not okay with it, does he stop?

I think you hit it for me. I think when he looks at me he's not saying "oh look how much smaller her arms are, or look at her waist". He just sees me. Which is the same for me. Like when he complains that I didn't notice a long nose hair the other day lol....I just don't critique him like that either. But I critique myself whenever I look in the mirror.
As for the other comments, I would be really sad if I gave up on a marriage because my DH did something like this. He has a good heart. But he is human just like everyone else. He gets tired, he gets cranky, he says things he doesn't mean. I also do all of the above. TOM does make me VERY onery. Every time a few days before it starts, I start freaking out about everything...and it makes it worse with PCOS I think because I don't have regular ones. So they hit harder and my hormones go all crazy, probably more so then others.
I'm glad most people could see that yeah maybe even though his comments or attitude were not the best, I still love him. And the other thing I didn't mention was this all happened after I had been snapping at him all morning and complaing about everything that I wish was different in life...so I'm lucky he didn't say something a lot more rude! And I'm not excusing his behavior. But after being chewed out for an hour or two I am not sure I would have not said something rude to him if the roles were reversed.
Anyhow, I would be happy to let this thread die. I love my hubby, I just needed to let out feelings that I was feeling.
Thanks for giving me a place to do that!

I'm guessing he's noticed and likes...but he's not going to make a big deal out of it. If he was super-excited about the loss and you regained a few pounds, you're going to make yourself crazy wondering if he finds you less attractive. Men are oblivious to a lot of things, but weight is one of those things where most of them tread lightly with comments period.

I know you said you would be happy if this thread died, but I had to chime in (sorry!). My TOM turns me into a paranoid crazy lady too (and you don't even WANT to know how nuts I am when I preggo and full of hormones 24/7!). I get really upset over things that make no sense ... We drive past a girl running in short shorts? Dh was staring at her, checking her out, gotta call him out on it now! Never mind he was looking at the radio at that particular moment and never even saw her. Dh didn't realize that I painted my toe nails a different color?! Initiate complete melt down! Never mind that I've been wearing socks and he hasn't seen my toes yet, or that I only painted them one shade lighter than the shade I was wearing before... lol I always end up apologizing to him once TOM is over. After 10 years of this he just laughs and says he loves me no matter what. That said, it's good you talked. Maybe he wasn't aware you needed such vocal support. Some women get upset when guys say "Wow, you're looking so much smaller!" Or "Those pants make you look tiny!" like "What, I looked BIG before?!".

And I agree with the conclusion that everyone looks at other people, I do it, and my dh does it. It's not just man's nature, it's human nature, it's how we're hard wired.

I would hate it if every time I didn't say what my husband wanted me to say that he ticked off a mental checkmark indicating that I had done another red flag behavior or if I looked at a handsome man he did the same. Simply looking at another person is not a red flag behavior in my book. We are far less likely to notice all of the less attractive people that our partners look at because we are not threatened by it, but they still look. People look at people. Part of being in a relationship is being able to resolve those things.

The original poster was clearly just venting about a normal thingin a relationship and it seems weird to me to jump to the conclusion that this is indicative of a failing relationship. If this were a pattern of constant, purposeful attempts to make her feel bad, that would be another story.

I'm glad you guys could talk about it and work it out in a healthy way.