Do you let it show, or do you hide some of yourself because of your thoughts/fears etc. about your outer wrapping?

What are some of the ways in which you are fabulous?

People who don't know me well think I'm stuck-up. What I really am is painfully shy due to the weight. I've spent years trying to avoid being the center of any attention. Heck, my husband and I eloped because I didn't want 100 people staring at me all day at a fancy wedding.

My fabulousity includes a wicked sense of humor and my husband says I'm too smart for my own good.

When I'm just me I will avoid and hide. When I'm at work I get to be the balloon lady and being shy won't work.

My fabulousity includes being creative and off beat.

I do hide with clothing, huge tops and baggy pants to hide the tummy area. Sometimes, my clothes are not long enough to hide my outer appearance. I just make the best of it with my clothing choices daily.

My fabulous thing about myself.. is my good hearted nature of helping out disabled people. Take it from my mom side. It makes me feel more confident on caring for those who depends on me.

I am incredibly shy in new situations. My close friends disagree because once I am comfortable in someone's presence then I am extremely outgoing! But...on my own, in a new situation it's enough to cause an anxiety attack and I have been known to skip events all together in order to avoid feeling so shy and uncomfortable.

Cris

Oh....and my fabulous thing is that I have a great sense of humor and a good heart.

I'll answer my own questions.

I have hidden my inner fabulosity in various ways, but am letting it out a lot lately and just being myself. The one area I still hide my fabulousness from is men. And I am determined to change that. Funny, I hid my fabulosity because of feeling fat and unworthy even when I weighed 160.

My fabulosity comes out in these ways: quick, dry wit; sometimes unorthodox way of looking at the world; good coach/support person.

Robin crawled into my brain and used my answer! *giggles* But yeah, that about sums me up. Painfully shy...I attend as few of my husband's work functions as I can. When I do go, I feel horribly out of place and I know I come off distant and bit**y...but it's hard to come out of the shell you've been hiding in for years.

My inner fabulosity is my intelligence and humor. My husband's always telling me I'm the smartest person he knows and asking for ideas on work things. And I l-o-v-e making jokes...especially watching TV or movies and picking things out.

Shyness is one consequence I've been lucky enough to avoid. I suppose it's because I work in academia, where at least in theory we care more about minds than bodies. I've done a good job of learning to forget what I look like when I'm with people--if I didn't, I couldn't teach. The down side of that is that when I see a photo or unexpectedly catch my reflection in a mirror, it's a big shock. I don't imagine myself fat when I see myself in my head.

Anyway, I think I pretty much let my fabulosity out! I'm a good teacher and a good listener and a pretty supportive friend. What you see is what you get! Except for the skewed body image, I wish I could wave a wand and make everyone's shyness go away like mine did a decade or so ago.

The only place I was every really shy, was with men. I think though, I came across as so overconfident in the rest of my life, and my idea of flirting was so subtle, it was completely lost on the men I was aiming it at. What I often assumed was rejection was sometimes just cluelessness.

A case in point was a guy I worked with, who I would socialize with in a group. A couple times I asked him out without the rest of the group, I meant it as a date, and thought it was obvious (he was VERY shy). He never did catch on that I liked him, but I assumed that he had caught on and was rejecting me politely.

I met my husband through a personal ad, and since we both saw each other's photos before we met in person, I was a lot more comfortable
expressing my interest in him. Funny thing though, I heard through former coworkers (I'd gotten a new job) that guy #1 was obviously disappointed when he heard I was getting married! Well, it wasn't like he didn't have his chance.

Last summer my husband made me realize how frumpishly I've been dressing. One day, mostly because it was laundry day I put on my last clean nice tshirt knit tunic, and a crinkle cotton skirt that came to my ankles (I didn't have any clean slacks), and sandals. I pulled my hair into a french twist, just to get it off my face. Hubby made a very appreciative comment and asked why I didn't wear dresses more often. Since then, I've bought and made several skirts, and it's really nice to feel so feminine again.