My before picture is one of me at the zoo with my son. I wore one of my favorite sweaters and thought I looked really nice, but what I looked like was a big lumpy whale. The pictures are starting to look better, and that's what I have to go by, because obviously my eyes are telling my brain that I look better than I do lol.

Oh I can definitely relate! Like some others have said - " I have been living in denial" and I had to laugh at the "I look like a beached whale" because I can't tell you how many times I have said that !

In fact, my last pictures taken the 1st week of June were one of my "ah hah!" moments. I just thought to myself I am too "young" to keep going like this. If I look that bad in my 40ies what is it going to be at the 50ies????

I never could "see" myself either when I was heavy but now I have the opposite problem. I look in the mirror and see fat, even though I know I'm not. And then I see a photo of myself and am amazed at how much smaller I look than my mental picture of myself. Sheesh, this weight loss stuff is complicated! :dizzy:

Oh man, I'm the opposite. When I see myself in photos, my thoughts are usually, "I'm that thin? For serious? Is this picture DISTORTED? DO I REALLY LOOK LIKE THAT?" However, seeing myself on video camera makes me nausious and want to starve forever. The video camera, I've found, is MUCH more mean than regular photos - it adds, in my case, 10, or sometimes even 20 pounds. Seeing myself at my highest weight on tape made me realize "I need to lose weight... NOW! Especially if I want to continue to pursue acting!"