As a person who didn't go through life heavy - was pretty normal weight until I was in my 40's - I don't have the emotional component when I look at my before photo. And I didn't "see" that overweight person in the mirror - only in photos, which always shocked me! It was a photo of my DH and I, plus his 2 siblings and their spouses that really motivated me originally. Now, my two SILs are TINY women, both around 5' and 115-120 pounds. I am never going to be that little, but it sure made my 5'4" 240 pound self look a lot bigger!
I soooo do not want to go back to being that person. ( I do also recognize that I'm always going to look bigger than my SILs, but hey, what can you do? )