[Thebeautyandthegeek]

I started losing weight in august 2010 and since then I've noticed that I haven't noticed anything really change about myself. In that time I've changed my eating habits drastically, started a new job and got a personal trainer that I see 3 days a week. I've also lost a little over 30kilos- in pounds I'm not entirely sure what it is, Ive hardly noticed my weight loss- everyone around me has hardly noticed and I'm left feeling like I'm still at the place where I began and I hate that place, more than anything.
I see ads on tv or read articles on the Internet about how people have lost that amount of weight or less as they're so happy and proud of themselves- I feel like I've hardly accomplished anything and it really sucks. It really really sucks.

I'm just trying to remember how far I've come but Its so hard.
Anyone else in my boat?

[Focused Lani]

Congrats on the loss and hang in there. At the beginning it can be hard, but you are a THIRD of the way to your goal in such a short time! Just think another 30kgs and you'll be so close to that 100kg mark you'll be able to taste it I always feel like nothing is happening until I hit the 120s. You are doing so well, and I know what it feels like to have lost excessive amounts of weight and people will say, your face looks a little thinner! LOL Keep up the awesome work

[elisaannh]

I felt that way for a long time. People didn't notice, I still felt as huge as I had been, and I felt even further from the end than I did in the beginning....which makes no sense at all.

I also had this weird way of thinking. I remember after having been well into my new diet, having lost like 40 pounds, and walking into a truck stop to use the restroom, and seeing other overweight people with handfuls of junk food waiting at the register. What poppped into my mind, was that at my weight, no one would think that I was in a different "place" than them. They would assume I was still eating massive quantities of food. So being "thinner" didn't really put me any closer to being thought of as a person who is working hard on weight loss and changing how I eat!

I then realized that there is a lag time in seeing ourselves as having lost weight and accepting the new things that it brings. Suddenly, things will dawn in my head, like, wow, I can clip my toenails! Or wow, I don't knock things off the table with my butt anymore! Theses are those victories we can't boast about in public, but they are just as important to us as it is to find we can fit into smaller clothing.

A really huge change for me was to try on my wedding dress and find it just hung on me! Most brides wish they could fit into their wedding dress again, I get to relish that it is too big!!!!

It will come for you too, and it will most likely be in weird ways you would not have even imagined. My mother still thinks I am hiding a terminal illness because I have lost weight. Sigh. The whole journey can get very strange indeed.

[Thebeautyandthegeek]

Thanks for your posts girls, I feel encouraged

[fcuser10395743]

Remember also that you may well have been wearing and awful lot of stretch clothes and cover-ups so that people can't see what size you actually were underneath all that drapey cloth. You may be occupying much less of the space under that big T-shirt, but who will know that? It doesn't mean you don't look any different. Large sizes don't tend to be made in a fitting style, it's all lycra/spandex and jersey fabric in a sort of a tent that you can hide under. It's hard to see that your clothes are marginally less stretched than before because they have been designed to just accommodate. As a general rule there are also larger gaps between large sizes for this very reason, not sure what Oz sizes are, but in UK there is more difference between a 22 and a 24 than between a 12 and a 14 because virtually none of the clothes are fitted. Once you start dropping sizes they'll come off faster and faster.

But the biggie is that your next 30kg will be a much larger %age of your body weight than the first 30kg, so you don't have to think OMG I'll lose another 30 and nobody will see anything, all of a sudden it will start to click. Your first 30kg was 19%, the next 15 is 12%, the following 15kg 13% and so on, so for every kg you lose the next one is all the more important.

AND let's not forget you already achieved that vital first step (starting at all) and the vital first step for health which is shedding that initial 10% which makes the most significant health difference. You've done it, you're doing it, you will do it.

[Thebeautyandthegeek]

Thanks so much! You're making a so much sense
*interesting sidenote. - after seeing your ticker I wanted to check out your profile, I saw you're from Scotland and reread your post with a Scottish accent. Lol!