My mind is playing awful tricks on me.
I went shopping last week and got a bunch of cute tops. They looked great in the store and also when I tried them at home after the shopping trip.
Today, I wore one of the tops to go out to meet my friend and looked in the mirror and all I see is a ugly/fat person staring back. I feel awful....

Just yesterday, I was at home in a battered jeans and an old t-shirt and looked/felt very pretty.

Have any of you had anything similar happening?

You bet! I swing wildly from seeing ugliness in the mirror to seeing progress. Just this morning I got off the scale and thought, "I wonder when I will really start to lose weight."

I can still wear my size 24 capris (stretch waist) even though I wear size 18 jeans. This makes me crazy. It probably also leads to the strange thoughts.

Have you ever seen the Seinfeld episode with the skinny mirrors? I feel like that a lot of time so I definitely get what you're talking about. Once I bought this dress that I thought I looked so wonderful in, when I was in the dressing room but then when I brought it home yikes!

Just hang in there because the skinny looking days make it all better.

Definitely happens to me! I have had days I get dressed look in the mirror and think WOW! I look awesome. Then a hour later I see my reflection and just feel fat and miserable. Some days I still have full days where I feel like I am still morbidly obese, yet I know I am not and I just cannot shake it.

I even have some days I crave being fat again (I used to have a bmi over 40) I often wish my fat was a suit I could wear at will. No I hated my fat self physically, but my fat self had an easy life as she could sit out and not participate and pretend not to care)

mind games. The fat may be gone, but the mind still plays games with me.

I detest skinny mirrors. I almost want to lug my full length mirror from home with me to the store. The other thing that aggrevates the heck out of me is vanity sizes. A brand at Wal-Mart does this. I am a size 10 (barely) and a pair of 8's fit me. So then I have this false sense of feeling great until I go into another store and can barely pull the 8's over my thighs! That is what creates my bipolar weight loss moods. Up and down. But to snap out of it, I put on a pair of pants that were tight on me in January and I remember how far I have come!

Oh yeah girl! I have those every 2 min lol. I made it my New Years resolution was to always look my best by dressing well. Because when you look good, you feel good! I truly believe that. I've always dressed well,but some days I didn't feel like it because I felt fat and ugly! It's a work in progress, but when I get dressed up and I know I look good, you can't tell me anything. WE are so hard an down on ourselves!--which is why I have also resolved to learn to appreciate the good.

YES. Oh my, yes!

I don't talk about my "fat" times as much because I so relish the "skinny" ones, but I think everyone's prone to them. They don't usually last me a day, though--more like a few hours. I stave it off with doing other stuff that makes me feel beautiful or strong: giving myself a full mani/pedi, dyeing my hair, or lifting weights.

You are very wise, though, to realize that it IS just a trick your mind's playing and to remember that you had a gorgeous day only yesterday. That means tomorrow you're due to feel magnificent again.

Oh god yes! Like some of the others said, sometimes the difference of one mirror to another like a dressing room to home, or just the difference in an hour. So many things affect how quickly it changes. Somebody even mentioned their `bipolar body image`(or something like that, I can`t remember the exact wording, sorry) & I know all about that. I AM bi-polar. And it`s rough.

Anybody need somebody to talk to about things like distorted body-image I am here. I may be yound but I`m intelligent 7 self-aware & full of advice.

my keyboard is going through a rough patch so some things will be off...like the 7 in the last line should have been an AND...lol

I'm having one of those days. I felt so great about my weight loss so far, and I was having skinny day after skinny day, but then bam. My son's birthday was yesterday and of course there were pics, and wow...yeah. The person in those pics is not the person in the mirror or the skinny person I am in my head.

I knew I wasn't skinny, but for some reason, those pics really messed my head up. I thought for sure I was skinnier than *that*.

I guess we just have to pick ourselves up and keep going so we can put days like this behind us permanently.

um, 34 weeks pregnant, and i feel both all the time, and feel very insecure. i long for onderland again. But i tell myself--you are pregnant, go easy on yourself...but then i remember how good i looked in the 180s...k

NOthing new, i would think i actually looked good until the TOM rolled around....girls have to LOVE hormones.

Ohhh yes, approaching dysmorphism in terms of extremity. It helps if you have a "rock," a solid stable thing to keep your too-creative mind in check when you're having a fat day. Wearing your most flattering outfits on days when you feel fat can make it better, too. But I know how it is - on the worst days, I can convince myself that I am bigger than before I even daydreamed about losing weight.

I hate those days! And vanity sizing plays a big part in it for me. I bought a pair of French Dressing black slacks in a size 16 at Clothes Mentor the other day, which was a huge deal, I don't know that I've ever been in a 16 since probably Jr. High. Then I went to American Eagle, and bought size 16 jeans...amazing days...
Then I tried a 16 on in a few stores, and couldn't get them past my thighs! Super frustrating, but something as simple as that can put me in an awful mood!

I have these days at least once a week. And the they are even worse after I go shopping. I feel like I will never be able to fit into anything cute. And that I will look fat and frumpy in EVERYTHING I wear. It drives me nuts!

Yes, I have those days, actually I am having one today. Even though when I weighed this morning the number on the scale wasn't a bad one. Its just like I am so very aware of my belly today. I'm sure it doesn't help that since we are moving I went through a bin of clothes that are ones I hope to fit in some day or do but they would look better on 10lbs less. Plus I have keepsake clothes, (things from highschool that friends had signed) and when I see how small they are. Oh Boy.