Yes, true-I am glad that the photo was taken. My mom saw them and told me I was looking stronger and smaller-though I think I look like a cow, she saw that I had lost. I am just going to decide to be Ok with it because that's all I can do.
However, the most depressing think in the world is if you see a picture where you're sitting down!!!!!
So so sadly true. I have a pic from about 2 years ago where I was sitting down next to the Indian Ocean, and I thought I looked great at the time. I look at the pic now and it is one of the worst that was ever taken of me. However, 2 months ago when I was in Colorado with some friends, one of them took a picture of me sitting down in a very similar pose and I looked.... fine. Now that DOES make me feel better.
I feel the same. I just had some pictures taken last saturday at a family function, and I felt like I looked the same as I did at 210. But everyone said that I looked so thin, and honestly I couldnt tell. I think we have this image in our head of what we should look like, that it sometiems blinds the actuality of what we did look like, or what we look like currently, and it throws us out of whack.
Pictures and dressing rooms are my nasty nudge to face reality.
When I look at myself in a mirror, I always pose so it's the most flattering. And I'm never standing next to a thin person, which also makes a difference. Truth is, though, I can't pose all day, every day and thin people do stand close to me sometimes. Other people see me from all angles and see me standing next to people who aren't overweight.
I'm the only one that's ever shocked by how I look in pictures because everyone else has already seen it. I came to the conclusion that the only person I've ever been fooling is myself. Sad but true.
Dressing rooms? Ugh. Up close and personal in my underwear, there's no way to hide it, even in a mirror.
It's ridiculous how I sort-of "forget" how overweight I am and feel like I'm sort-of okay. I think I need the shock of a picture or the dressing room to remind me that I really need to do this.
Great topic! Funny how so many of us feel the same way.
When I had gone from 300 to 260 I was feeling like a champion. We went camping with friends and they are the kind that love to take pictures. Oh my ... I was not looking so wonderful.
I LOOOOOVE having my picture taken.
.... as long as I'm the editor!
This is why I am the queen of the self-portrait. I know exactly how to angle my face, tilt my chin and smile to make myself look amazing. Catch me off guard? I'm smack you.
Two weeks ago I went to a campaign event for a friend of my running for office. They had a professional photographer who stopped people and had them get together for portraits. Excellent. Stop. Pose. Tilt. Smile (or smEYES, as Tyra Banks would say). The photographer just gushed about how photogenic I was. Oh, thank you.
What I didn't know??? They had another photographer taking CANDID shots. Oh here's me talking! Or eating! Or sitting down!!!! NOOOOoooooo. Like 12 shots showed up tagged in my Facebook. ARGH.
So even those of us who love having our picture taken are still subject to feeling TERRIBLE about pictures.
It's so hard. I don't feel like I'm 261 lbs, but I certainly look it when I see myself in pictures. I look in the mirror and I have some special contacts in or something that makes me see myself at maybe 200lbs.
Haha! This is SO me! I both love and hate pictures. These days I am glad for them, because I look much better than I used to. I'm also glad for my old unflattering pictures for the same reason - it is such a big contrast! But some of it is the camera, or bad angles... A lot is the width of my butt! There's just no way around it. I don't let it impact my self confidence, though, because quite honestly I am beautiful even at a high weight. And my personality and actions are what makes the people around me love me. They know I am fat, there's no hiding it, but it's all so much periphery. Fat or skinny, my kids love me the same.
I focus on the good and take the bad for motivation to do better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goddess Jessica
I LOOOOOVE having my picture taken.
.... as long as I'm the editor!
This is why I am the queen of the self-portrait. I know exactly how to angle my face, tilt my chin and smile to make myself look amazing. Catch me off guard? I'm smack you.
Two weeks ago I went to a campaign event for a friend of my running for office. They had a professional photographer who stopped people and had them get together for portraits. Excellent. Stop. Pose. Tilt. Smile (or smEYES, as Tyra Banks would say). The photographer just gushed about how photogenic I was. Oh, thank you.
What I didn't know??? They had another photographer taking CANDID shots. Oh here's me talking! Or eating! Or sitting down!!!! NOOOOoooooo. Like 12 shots showed up tagged in my Facebook. ARGH.
So even those of us who love having our picture taken are still subject to feeling TERRIBLE about pictures.
I have the very same issue and at times I have wondered whether it was something psychological too, or if anyone else seemed to notice the discrepancy. When I take my own photos through my webcam or digital camera, I seem to look to myself more similar to how I see myself when I look in the mirror, with my face making more of a heart shape and my eyes seeming big and bright.
When other people take photos of me with a camera, my eyes seem squinty and my face looks big and square, as well as my body looking way wider than I thought it did. To me, the two versions look so different that I'm not sure which one is the way I really look most of the time. I'd feel really down when someone would remark that I looked good in a photo that looked really horrible to me, because that's not what I want to look like or how I want to be remembered. I always (to me) look like someone that doesn't want to be there.
Someone I knew in person asked me if I doctored my own photos, but I don't and I'm not intentionally trying to make myself look thinner than I am as a means to deceive anyone, so I don't really get it. Maybe it's the lighting and the fact that by myself in front of my cam, I feel much more comfortable and expressive, rather than in public where I'm thinking about how fat I'm going to look in the picture? lol
Taking my measurements and weighing myself doesn't phase me too much because its all just numbers and feels impersonal, but if I dwell on my photos too much, I get depressed and ashamed of myself; so when I take progress photos, I'll have a glance and quickly file it away, because I don't want to be too embarrassed to go outside.
i didnt read the responses (yet), but i was just thinking this! yesterday for easter i took some pictures with my husband and daughter (her first easter) annnnd looked at how i DONT have a chin/neck (when i doooo)? looked weird in the pictures. i was in the bathroom here at work washing my hands, looked in the mirror and couldnt help but think-why doesnt the picture look like this??? ugh. its really annoying
I feel the same way it feels most people on here feel about pictures. I will get dressed nice, think I look great and them BAM someone takes a photo and all of the good feelings are shot. It is 20x worse when there is someone smaller in the photo with me. Then I just feel like a gigantic ugly blob. In the past (shamefully) I have combated this by making sure there is always someone heavier in the photos with me (i have lots of heavy friends) so I look better by comparison.
I am jealous of anyone who is good at self portraits. I try and they look horrible or I just completely miss.
I combat this horrible feeling by just accepting it, strange as it sounds. If I look that horrible in the photo, I probably look that way in life and the only thing I can do is lose weight.
Yes. I hated seeing pictures or catching unplanned reflections of myself on the way down. I was FEELING so much fitter that it just killed me to see the same fat rolls on the body. It was particularly discouraging when I left the smallest plus sizes and started buying "normal" size clothing. My mental attitude was "woo hoo" as I entered dressing room with my size 18 clothes and pretty "boo hoo" on the way out even when sometimes I found the 18s too big.
Even now sometimes pictures can really give me a reality check. Yesterday I was on a long bike ride to celebrate the Easter holiday. Many pictures were taken. Loved the ones where you can see my face and smile, but most of the pictures were of my back and butt while I was biking ahead of the beau on the trail. NOT flattering. I now know where those extra 20 lbs are.
My sense of self is completely distorted. Sometimes I see pics of my old self and I just love my cute round face other times I'm horrified by how fat I look. Current pics throw me for an even bigger loop. I feel great, wearing smaller clothing, getting compliments and I see the pic and I feel whalish. I don't know how to dress myself, I don't understand when I look good. My self esteem is out of whack. I figure once I have maintained for a while I will be able to get a better sense of reality but who knows. Great show 'How to Look Good Naked' BBC version address peoples misconception of themselves all the time. If you haven't seen it you should take a look.
Good news! My friend Jonathan took a picture of me, and though it wasn't the hottest picture ever, it was better. I'm definitely making progress and with that, I am satisfied
I am just going to decide to be Ok with it because that's all I can do.
