Who else has developed silly complexes that are in some way correlated to their weight?

Mine are:

-Food shopping: I get self conscious buying all this diet food... lowfat frozen dinners, that Dannon fit yogurt, energy bars, fruits, veggies, sugar free this, fat free that, meat with "95% LEAN!" on the packaging with a big red sticker... I can sometimes see the cashiers just roll their eyes and think, "Oh... another of those poor sheep buying into America's dietary consumerism" OR, in not so many words, "HA! That fatty mcfatfat over there is trying to lose weight! !!!"
BUT, the funny thing is, I would be just AS self conscious buying JUNK!

Now, I know that most likely, the cashiers at Publix don't give a rat's derriere what I'm buying; they're tired, bored, and hate their jobs, but ****, if *I* had their jobs, I'd watch what everyone bought out of morbid curiousity!


Clothes shopping: Ironically, my clothes shopping complex isn't quite as severe, because I've been told I have a great fashion sense. Still, I get the same thing as I do with food, but with clothes: if I buy tight clothes, I think, "oh god... I HOPE the person at the checkout desk isn't thinking, 'ummm you're too FAT to wear this, go back to the plus sizes, you big ol' hippo!'" but if I'm buying baggy clothes, I wonder if the same checkout person is thinking, "Uhh.. you FRUMPY BIATCH!! Maybe if you LOST WEIGHT, you wouldn't be buying such uuuuugly, baggy clothes!"


Socializing: I've gotten a little bit better about seeking out socialization since I've started losing weight (after I got fat, I could only socialize properly when drunk!), but I still have a long ways to go. I'm not comfortable going out and meeting people just yet, but I'm increasingly gaining confidence - which is more than I can say when I first started posting here!

I USED to have a complex about scales and I was deathly afraid of stepping on them, but since my weight loss, I no longer fear the scale!

Now, by no means am I saying complexes are rational or healthy. I also fully realize that what they are is just that: complexes. At the same time, I know many of us have developed weight-related complexes that may be quite ridiculous... this is the thread to share them!

When I was at my heavier weight, I never thought twice about running into the store in sweats and t-shirt or sloppy type clothes. I now have to have a shower and dressed nice and make-up even to go pick up a gallon of milk. Losing wt. definitely made me always want to try to look the best I can. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, just a silly little quirk I have now.

On grocery shopping: I like it that I have tons of healthy food in my cart. I try to hide DH's chips, debbie cakes and chocolate covered breakfast bars down under the other food so no one will see them. LOL. I actually wish sometimes he'd go buy his own Junk so it isn't in my cart. LOL.

I looove the contents of my grocery cart. I feel so good and virtuous with my red peppers and salmon and Kashi Go Lean waffles. I put everything up on the checkout line with PRIDE. I smile when the cashier has to look up eggplant or crimini mushrooms or shallots. I am constantly comparing my cart to other people's carts and feeling like a WINNER!

Does this have to do with weightloss issues only?? If so, I guess i have had a issue with going out to buy clothes, but now as i get smaller, i'm having more fun with it.

But one thing I can remember about my life that sticks out in my mind...when i was a teenager and i lived with my grand parents, i used to go grocery shopping with my grandpa every saturday (he needed a younger pair of eyes to read the prices and eventually when i turned 15, to drive him to the store). Well...as a young teenager, i had to buy tampons and such. I would walk around the store and pick up a box of something to cover all 3 exposed sides of the box and something to put on top of the box so no one could see them. Then i would run and drop it in his buggy and run for the door. But once i got older and had my first kid, i got this perverse pleasure out of shopping for tampons and looking for the youngest boy cashier or bag boy i could and proudly deposit my goods on the checkout belt. I don't know why that gave me such pleasure...but it did!!

Have you ever read John Updike's (I'm pretty sure it's his) short story titled A&P? It's all about a cashier noting other people's purchases. Would be right up your alley!

Seriously! I love seeing pineapples and berries and bananas - makes it look like a party in my cart with all those pretty colors! I self-checkout my stuff but it makes me happy to know that I'm not buying junk. Now the sight of those squishy hot dog buns makes me slightly ill.

LOL lumifan... I had a complex as a young teen about tampons, too! I didn't want anyone seeing them... and buying tampons embarrassed me. Now, I think that's one of the silliest fears ever!

Glory87... I have pride over my groceries as I revel in the fact that I'm not buying any junk, but I'll have much more pride once I lose all my weight. Then, I know people won't be thinking, "HAHAHA FATTTY!" -- rather, if they think at all, they will think, "Well, that's why she's IN SUCH GOOD SHAPE." booyah! I can't WAIT for that day.

lilybelle: When I was thin, I made sure I looked my best every day, even if I was going nowhere at all. It was just a "me" thing... I HAD to be ALWAYS CUTE. When I got fat, I stopped caring, but now I'm starting to care again. My problem is that looking good takes time and I have to be at work by 7 AM *yawn, yawn, YAWN!!!!*

Hee, I just Google searched it and am going to read it right now! Thank you

Lumifan, LOL, your post reminded me of my teenage daughter. If she needs tampons she will actually duck down in my vehicle while I go inside the store to buy them. LOL, my DH has 5 daughters and he often gets stuck going to buy them and it doesn't embarass him at all.

When I was younger I was always terribly embarassed to buy contraceptives. But, as I got older, I was no longer embarassed. I was more proud to show that at least I was being responsible where birth control was concerned.

Count me as another one who loves my healthy, variety-filled cart. I primarily shop at a really friendly, community-oriented grocery store where the people know me pretty well, so they ask me what I'm making with some of the weirder items (shallots, fresh ginger, and cactus when they have it...). I bake cakes for friends often, for birthdays or whatever, and THAT is when I am embarrassed, with my basket full of chocolate and cream and butter and powdered sugar :-) I always feel like saying "Its not for me! I swear! I'm baking a birthday cake!"

I had to buy condoms this weekend (I was baking a cake for my sister's bachelorette...it required condom decoration). Sarah and I really don't have to worry about birth control obviously, so it was definitely an unfamiliar (and embarrassing, for me) thing to do.

Tampons I've never had an issue with. My mom always did, though. Apparently she was at the grocery store with my dad (world's biggest stockpiler of on-sale items) and asked him to grab her a box. He comes walking back up the aisle with 6 big boxes, all tucked under his arms, and yells "they were on sale!" all excited. She was mortified.

LOL! ME TOO! In fact, I believe I HAVE done that before, but it was in some sort of context (a question about an item I'm not eating, or how I'd like it bagged or with that, in which I replied, "yeah... it's not mine anyway.")

LMFAO. That's just plain hilarious.

PS: That wedding (looks like it anyway?) pic in your profile is beautiful.

I like that story but I wouldn't say it is "all about a cashier noting other people's purchases" at all. It has an underlying message, certainly, but even on the surface, it is mostly about the teen aged grocery cashier checking out 3 young girls with the acuity and brutal honesty a teen boy possesses, creating a story in his mind about the girls.

Yeah Soulbliss, I just read the story, and I have to agree with you. He notices the girls a lot more than he notices other people's purchases - and on top of that, the impression I got was that the story had a message about conformity, consumerism, and today's normal society of "sheep".

Nevertheless, I liked it.

You ladies are too funny! My complexes?

1. I still feel like a big girl sometimes, so when I'm paying for a size small shirt in a store, I'm always waiting for the cashier to say "Did you pick up the wrong size? I'll go get the big one for you."

2. This one is a little gross. I 'm ridiculously concerned with my bowels. "Hmmmm..the scale say 170, but I haven't been yet so I'm really lighter, I'll re-weigh after."

3. I'm am now a card carrying member of the "Gotta Be Cute" club too. I don't have to have my makeup done, but I don't generally walk out the door in just whatever anymore.

4. Strangely enough, I'm more self conscious now than when I was bigger. Then I assumed noone was looking cause I was ginormous, now because I feeel better and think I look better, I worry about people looking at me.

I have complexes!

Re the grocery shopping, I, like Glory always feel immense pride when I show up at the register with millions of veggies, tons of lean protein and yogurt and fiber. Recently though we've started going to a different market for our produce first (we eat so much produce and it's much cheaper at this other store) and then going to the supermarket for everything else. I feel a bit embarrassed unloading 80 pounds of meat and fish, boxes of kashi, yogurt etc and like, one bunch of scallions that we forgot to get at the other store. They must think we're part of some anti-vegetable movement

I didn't realize this was a complex of mine, but I had a bit of an incident last night. We were out at a bar with friends and I started chatting with a woman I've never met before who's opening a new boutique in town. I was asking about the clothes and stuff and she asked if I would model for her. I said no and felt mortified (and it actually turned into a very uncomfortable scene...); but my first thought was, 'christ, I'd have to be the plus sized model!' I don't know what was wrong with me but I got a bit freaked out.

On the clothes thing...I have to be wearing appropriate clothes! This is new to me, I've just started being obsessed with this recently...

If I go to the bike shop, I have to be in bike clothes. With my bike shoes on.

If I'm going to a dance lesson, I need to be in "dance lesson clothes" (black slacks, nice shirt) and dance shoes.

If I'm going to get lunch with my hubby, I need to have "lunch clothes".

If I'm meeting my friend at the Bay to walk and then we're going out, I'll actually wear my walking clothes (with shoes), and pack a bag with "after" clothes (and shoes! Can't wear walking shoes with "after" clothes!) so I can change in the restroom!

This is totally new to me. I never used to care what I looked like, what I wore, who saw me in what. And I certainly never had special shoes to wear for different activities! But now, watch out for me. I'm surprised I don't have several bags with me every day, for every single thing I do!