None of us gained 100 (+) pounds overnight. Some of us have always struggled with weight. For others, it sort of slowly crept up on us.
I remember when I first broke 200 I was in a state of disbelief. (I'm 5'9") Now I am well over 250 and regret that the 200 shocker didn't motivate me to try to lose the weight right then and there. In fact, I think I would look pretty good at 200 now.
I remember running into an old college roomate once. We used to share clothes and I couldn't believe how small she looked. I asked her if she'd lost weight--she hadn't but I had gained a lot and was about 220. I could not believe that we used to wear the same size. I think that was when I realized how big I was getting.
Right now my "gosh, I'm really big" moments come when I pull my jeans out of the dryer, when I see myself in pictures, and when I look see how wide a chair seat is and I leave no room on the edges when I sit down.Sometimes I'm just amazed (or in denial) about how much space I really take up.
What about the rest of you? Do these moments motivate you or do you feel you're in some denial about your size?
Photographs have been my greatest shocker. Also, I loaned my sister my winter coat, as her spring one was too lightweight, and she put it on OVER her spring coat and wrapped it instead of zipping it! Or how about those comments from co-workers who think they weigh less than you and are surprised to hear that you wear the same size as they do? LOL my neighbor has told me her sizes before and we are exactly alike in every way possible, yet she has hinted at my heaviness (she doesn't know my sizes are the same). Well I hope she looks over her shoulder as I keep going!
I would have to agree with pictures being the biggest reality check there is!! Also, my son has mirrored closet doors in his bedroom. Sometimes when I am reading to him on his bed I catch my reflection sitting down and cant believe it's me. Maybe this is a good thing that I dont accept it. The last one is when I go clothing shopping. Have you ever looked at the waist band on a pair of jeans and think they are huge and cant fit--and they do?? Man--how depressing is that??
I've had *WAY* too many of these moments lately. My trip to California to visit my sister.... sitting in the airplane chairs, and going to buckle the seat belt. It fit.... barely. Remembering a time when I had extra belt....
Sitting in the dressing room at Prada in Beverly Hills... watching my sister try on a Prada skirt (and then buying it for $450)... and me knowing that I'd maybe fit a calf in some of that stuff.
Going to Bloomingdales at Fashion Island in the Newport Beach area (where my sis lives), and watching myself in the mirrors trying on clothes.... and wondering when I got so huge that all the clothes started to get matronly instead of stylish.
I agree with the clothes out of the dryer. If I fold my pants in half, they look about as big as my husbands. He is always picking up my pants off the chair to fold them and I grab them away so fast it almost knocks him down, because it hurts to see how wide they are.
My neighbors wives are all about 100 pounds, and they all get together in the summer to swim. I just can't put on a suit and go over there. It is just too humiliating.
Pictures kill me. I will look in a mirror and think I look ok, and then see a picture and realize I look like my mother, old and obese...and I don't want to be that way....makes me so sad that I didn't care enough about myself to stop this from happening.
I'm afraid to sit in a lawn chair...The bathtub feels tight....I have to move the steering wheel up as far as it goes before I can get in the car....
There are just too many. I hope someday, I can post about when I realized I was 100 pounds lighter...
Catching sight of myself and not recognizing me. having eight sizes of clothing in my closet. My wedding rings no longer fitting me. Not getting x-rays because I am to heavy for the machine and won't go to the jumbo sized one 35 miles away. and on and on and on.
Pam
I see them every day, sometimes more than once. In the mirror, not being able to get through a crowd easily, my reflection in windowpanes. All of those I see as little reminders for me to keep motivated. As long as I don't fall back into the mindset that this is how its gonna be, I will overcome it.
I like this thread, it makes me think. Pictures is one, though there are few pictures of me, they are only taken without me knowing. Like Lorelie, I too read at bedtime to my daughter with a mirror across from the bed. Sometimes I sit there and can't believe it is me. One I have experience too frequently is bumping into someone or something when I thought I had plenty of room to get by. I believe I am in denial of my hip size or something. LOL, thanks.
My "Gosh, I'm really big moments" are mostly in the form of photographs. I hate having photographs taken because it's always such a shock looking at them. I can't really believe that the person in the picture is me.
The day I reached 200 pounds when I was 15 or 16 was a moment. When my mom had to take 2 dance costumes in order to make one that would fit me some years earlier, that was a shocker. The costumes didn't come in a bigger size. The day I reached 250 a year and a half ago was another shocker. Then there was when I found it painful to buckle the seat belt in the back seat of a car, ditto for airplane seats. And each time I had to go to the store and buy bigger clothing that was a shocker. I always figured the clothes I had got smaller because they shrunk in the wash somehow. Nope. It was me.
I think pictures are the unanimous decision, but this year when it was time to start wearing shorts again (to work outside, not in public!), and I couldn't get in them!
Also, I used to be able to wear my husband's shirts - remember when that was all the rage? He's got one I dearly love, and I asked if I could wear it to work a couple months ago - he said "sure thing", but the shirt didn't, I couldn't even button it.
when i walk past a windowna dn wonder who that fat person is then find out it is me!!! Or look ikn the mirror when i get dressed. trying on clothes is my killer I always hated that. even when i was thiner.
I will agree with the pictures though I hate to see them! even now with all that i have lost it still is a firghteneing thing. or i grab my sides or gut! llok at the thights or arms, hhhmmm i have to many of thos emoments still!
1. This weekend I had a garage sale and sold most of the clothes I've been hanging onto in the hopes that I would someday fit into. I decided that if I ever could fit into them again, I'd be 90 years old and dressing like a 20 year old. As I got them out for the sale and refolded them on tables, I saw how small I was and at the time, thought I was fat. I had skirts that today the waistband wouldn't fit around one of my thighs. Not only did this tell me how fat I am, but how ugly the clothes I wear now really are.
2. We have shower doors that one door is glass and the other is a mirror. I always keep the mirror door moved to the side where I won't see myself even walk into the bathroom fully clothed. I just look in the mirror above the sink to put on my makeup and keep telling myself that I "still have a pretty face".
3. I don't even try to buckle up in the back seat of our car. Why embarass myself further?
4. I don't go to concerts anymore because the last time, I nearly got stuck in the turnstile.
5. I don't bend over to pick things up, I kneel down.
"Gosh, I'm really big!" moments
