This is a really powerful and significant thread. I've struggled with self image all my life. I was always the fat kid and it didn't help that I had 2 very slim and attractive older sisters. I was miserable, I've always been miserable about my weight. Now that I have lost almost 30lbs, I can see and feel the difference and I want to be happy...but that miserable feeling I had is like a security blanket that I just don't want to let go of...because I honestly don't know how to feel happy about my body...because I've never experienced it.

This thread has given me a lot of food for thought. I feel a sense of relief just being able to talk about it, I have wanted to post here about it but feel guilty sometimes because there are a lot of people on this forum who would give anything to have the results that I have had

Thanks for starting and contributing to this thread everyone!

I find it so interesting how we are so similar in how we view ourselves. I think for me it will be very important to be self aware and honest with myself to maintain my weight loss once I'm done but obviously I'm easy to fool haha. Weighing myself and taking pictures seems to be the only real way to be self aware so that will be my future plans. Denial got me here thats for sure.
I've lost 50 pounds now and am noticing different things everyday. I'm not even half way to my goal which is a scary thought but for once I actually truly believe I will get there...that makes a huge difference!

I take my pics once a week. I know that in one weeks time not much has changed, but when I flip through each pic it is AMAZING how much I have changed in 10 weeks.

After years of yo-yo'ing and being anywhere from a size 5 (12 yrs ago) to a 20/22, I see myself as being around 170 in my head. I hate mirrors and avoid them as well as pictures. Do I know I don't look 170. Def. Denial is a powerful thing. If you can't see it, it's not there.

Having said that, I remember the last time I really lost weight before I was pregnant with my daughter. I thought I looked about 30lbs more than I did.

I've been having the same issue. It's funny I thought I looked ok before, then I saw pictures of myself and was horified. Now I think I don't look so good, I still have a long ways to go! In pictures now I think I look big. It's so weird. Hopefully the next 20lbs will make more of a difference in how I see myself.

Just checked out your progress pics and wrote you a note...Wow...great job

I took some "before" pictures when I first started this diet. Mostly, it was a promise to myself that this meant there were going to be "after" pictures. That this time, this diet would finally work.

A while later, after the diet started working, and I started seeing my own face in the mirror again (I could write a whole post here just about that), I went back and looked again, to see my progress.

I thought it was going to cheer me up and make me feel like I had accomplished something.

Really, it just made me sad. Still does. To look back at that trapped, miserable person who felt like she had no way out of this hole she dug for herself... just made me sad.

I haven't taken the real "after" pictures yet, because I'm still not done. Some days I wonder if I'll ever feel like I'm done. But I'm still hoping for the day when I look in the mirror and am completely happy with the person I see looking back.

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I can really relate to this thread. Having been thin most of my life, I had a real disconnect with how much weight I had gained. Somehow, part of my brain just refused to accept it, even though I saw it every day in the mirror. Now on IP, like others, I'm having trouble seeing myself thinner again. I will put on a pair of smaller pants and be surprised when they easily button and zip. Wow, we really mess with our own heads, don't we? :dizzy:

Oh my word this is totally me as well! Its terrible!

Hmmm....interesting. I have not really allowed pictures of myself in the last two years (that's when I put on an additional 30 pounds) unless my body was hidden behind something (i.e. kitchen island) AND I could pose so my double chin would not be as prominent.

I've struggled with my body image my entire life so I can relate to everything you are all saying.

For me losing weight is as much as mental mind set as anything else.

I can relate. Although not super over weight, 30-40 pounds I never saw myself as 'fat' until I saw myself in pictures and got totally discouraged. Right now I am at a normal weight for the first time in years, with only 9 pounds to go until I reach my goal. I have to take LOTS of pictures to remind myself that I am now this. Yes, I really am thin omg! Crazy.

I think I am thinner than I think I am. I saw my parents over the past weekend and I haven't seen them since I started IP. They kept gushing over how thin I am. I don't see it. All I see is what there is still left to lose.

My mom and I went shopping for some much needed pants (for me). I was easily fitting into 6's (curvy cut, because I am CURVY) and 8 Petite (Curvy) and we were so shocked. My mom kept saying how great it has to feel, but to be honest, it felt surreal. I don't see myself the same way as others do.

And here I am, 11 pounds from my declared goal, and all I can think is, is 11 pounds really enough??? Will my stomach and hips look the way I want in 11 short pounds from now?

The mind is truly incredible.

Funny... how we can never see ourselves as how truly pretty we are :(

I never ever saw myself as thin or fit even though in my twenties, I had a good muscular body, with to die for biceps and to dream about abs, but still, I felt fat! I saved some of my clothes items from back then, and one of my skorts I had is so tiny! I don't understand how I used to fit in such a tiny item of clothing and still think of myself as fat!!!

Now I guess, at my age (38), I got more mature, I did get more realistic about my weight, and more aware that if I can fit in a small size dress it means that I am a small size indeed.

Still, I do not like my pictures, not 100% satisfied, it's not only my body, mainly it's my face! I feel my face is so big, I cannot find my beauty within it :( but will I happy be when I get to my target weight? I really hope that this time I will.

Looks like we are the same height and I have the same goals as far as weight loss and bottom line weight. However, I'm just starting and don't really have the belief that I could actually lose 50 pds! I've always lost 23-25 on every diet I try then start creeping back up until I do the next diet.

You are a great encouragement to me and someone I can relate to - thank yoU!

Corrie

Well pretty much all that all of you have said is how I feel - I don't even need to repeat it! The funny thing is when I do have those ridiculous moments of imagining a fat roll that doesn't even exist I am like wow I can't imagine what it would be like if it was before I lost the weight.

Of course, in reality we all know that we look better just have fleeting moments because we are paying attention to our bodies now We didn't see how overweight we were because we weren't paying attention to our bodies then.