Just wanted to share ladies! Let's be happy no matter what size we are.

I spent so many years of my life stressing about how I look and I'm just so over it now. Sometimes we are really so much harder on ourselves than we need to be. I missed out on a lot of things in my life because of I thought I didn't deserve it. Let's not hold ourselves our back and be happy and enjoy life. Just a reminder.

I am not happy at 200 plus pounds and the high blood pressure and high cholesteral that goes with it. I am not happy with trying to climb stairs and having to rest between each step. I am not happy having to find clothes to fit and wearing sweats a lot and to get "dressed up" in ugly elastic waist pants.No, I was not happy at over 200 pounds. I will not accept that I have to be happy at an unhealthy weight.

I definitely understand the meaning of your post! I think a lot of times we put off living because of our weight, when we should do something about it AND during the journey be happy and enjoy life.

I don't think OP meant accept and be happy being unhealthy.

Thanks for the post, caliyah! This is a good reminder to keep things in perspective and keep conscious of the fact that every individual is responsible for his or her own emotional state - regardless of size. And I know I tend to take better care of myself and make better use of my opportunities when I adopt a positive attitude and am kind to myself.

My partner and I went to a festival in the village last Saturday and she took some pictures of me. I had bought a new Ulla Popken top for the occasion and had a very good self image .. until I saw the pictures and gave them my usual response ... "Oh, I am so fat!". My partner replied ... "I don't care!" which I have learned to translate as "I love you just any way you are" (truth).

She loved me when I was thin, she loves me now, so many more lbs later. She loves me when I lose the lbs, and even when I gain them back and get angry with myself.

For me to not love myself any way I am is to call her a liar, to reject her feelings and diminish the love she feels for me. Who the heck would I be to do that? It is not that I view myself through her eyes, not at all .. it is that I love her and I trust her and I will not abuse that by derogating myself.

Yes exactly.

Sweety I did not mean this at all but I totally understand you. I just meant for us to be happy during our entire journey. I still mean for us to want to lose the weight but not be depressed the whole way and not denying ourselves happiness just because we don't look a certain way.

I have learned that I can be unhappy with my weight & still be happy with ME. It's the difference between body image & self image. YOU ARE MUCH MORE THAN YOUR BODY.

I think being unhappy with my weight, or even just unhappy in general actually made it much harder to lose the weight.

I think we're often taught that the only way to lose weight is to hate ourselves enough to succeed, but in my experience that doesn't work very well (and maybe that's why weight loss statistics are so dismal we're using the wrong fuel for our motivation. Happiness is a much better fuel than misery).

When you aim anger, hatred, frustration and unhappiness at yourself, it often sucks all the motivation right out of you. When you're not happy with someone, it's pretty difficult to find the motivation and energy to help that person, even if it's yourself.

It's ironic really that the only way I was able to lose more than 100 lbs was to not try to lose weight in the first place. I had to place the priority on things I had 100% control over (which was not the scale).

Maybe some people are fueled by misery, I just was never one of them. Misery just made me want to shut down and curl into a ball (and probably eat).

I agree I lose weight when I'm happy and not when I hate myself. I hate how much society wants people to hate themselves simply because they're fat. We are people first. We need to love ourselves for who we are. The weight will come off with self love and hard work.