What a great thread, I love it!

Originally Posted by lumifan4ever:
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. :o 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!!:lol:

-- OMGosh how funny!!

I totally have hang-ups.

One of them :
I have to look good to go to the gym. I don't really wear makeup there, except a dab of concealer if I need it, but my hair has to be done, I have to be clean (yes, just to go sweat) and all in all 'cute' and put together. If I'm having an off day where I'm bloated or went up a pound (and it shows) or am deep conditioning my hair, then I prefer to drive 18 miles to the next gym location where I don't know anyone. My Mom is even all aboard on my complex and reminds me not to talk to anyone or make friends at the 'other' gym.

NightengaleShane - yes, that is a wedding picture. My partner and I had our commitment ceremony April 21st...I love so many of the pictures that I want to keep changing my avatar :-)

You guys made me laugh!
(Especially you mandalinn82, with that tampon story!)

Anyhow here are my "complexes"
1. I think people are staring at me constantly or talking about me. I've always been this way, even when I got skinny on Atkins a few years back. It is worse now I'm fat.:(

2. I'm 19 and I still hate buying tampons!:o I've got over it a bit since I went to Uni last September and had to do it myself instead of getting my mum to do it.

3. I get paranoid the assistant is judging me if I buy clothes...I'm a UK14 but I feel much bigger and that the assistant is thinking "yeah right, they're going to fit you fatty."

4. I hate going to anny food places/restaurants because I think everyone is thinking "you're too fat to eat there." One day I bought a Diet Coke from MacDonalds (nothing else!) and I swore people who saw me walking around with the cup were looking at me thinking I was a big fat MacDonalds addict!

5. Even though I'm a big lass, I still love to take care of myself and I never leave the house without make-up! I'm like that whether I am skinny or fat.

I probably have WAY more but I'll quit boring you with them!

:lol: :rofl: :lol:

Who woulda thought that weight loss could lead to mental illness??? ;););)

Jay

Great thread!

I don't have the grocery store complex. I'm one of those people who doesn't give a rat's behind what anyone else is buying, so I just assume they feel the same way. It took me until my 30s to get like that about things. I don't know -- I just finally came to terms with the fact that usually people really aren't looking at you, they're just thinking about themselves. We all know that, but to actually believe it when you're out and about -- that took me a while. That's usually how I feel now, though, in most situations. I had to get to that point in order to run in public. Now I'd run in front of anyone, I don't care how I look.

But yeah, I wouldn't ever feel proud about the contents of my grocery cart, except in the sense that I'm glad they're contributing to my weight loss. It's not like a "wow, I hope everyone's looking at my veggies so they can see how righteous I am" situation. :lol: I'll tell you what I don't care for, though, speaking of tampons -- having my students ring them up for me. Eek. Small town living.

I still have a bit of a complex about going into regular-size departments or stores to get clothes. It's not that I feel like other people think I don't belong, really, because again...they're not looking! It's just that I don't fully believe I belong yet, so I'm a bit lost. I got used to shopping at the same few places for years and now I'm kind of overwhelmed (or will be, when I'm not so broke that I can't afford new clothes anyway).

I remember when I was carb loading for my first marathon I looked at my shopping basket and felt like I needed to tell everyone that I don't normally eat that amount of cake!

One complex I no longer have is that I'm now quite happy to wander round anywhere in lycra/shorts. If I've been for a run and need to stop for something on the way back home I'll quite happily wander round the supermarket drenched in sweat with skintight lycra shorts on. Of course when I do that I always end up bumping into someone I know...

I still sometimes feel like people are looking at me when I'm buying/trying on clothes thinking that no way is that going to fit, but it's not as bad as it used to be.

Clothes.

Since I was 14 or whatever, when I first dropped half my bodyweight I've been a size 6 US or 10 UK, maybe one size lower or higher depending on shop. So mostly, I'm buying a UK 10/US 6.

But I still want to die in clothes shops..I feel like, I'm nowhere near hot/thin enough to even contemplate spending valuable time and money on decent clothes.

urgh

emily
xxx

Hi all,
I"m new here, but this thread caught my eye and made me laugh! When I was younger, I had a hangup about buying bras. I would get so embarrassed, especially when they saleslady had to pull out the old measuring tape. Right now, I'm slowly getting out of my complex about buying clothes. I realized recently that I literally went years without buying anything but t-shirts and jeans.

I STILL have the complex about walking into stores all sweaty post-gym. I don't "glow" - I sweat more than most people do during exercise - and I hate hate hate walking into some retail establishment all sweaty. I have to carry a sweatshirt in my car to cover up my back sweatiness whenever I have to go in somewhere. Its just so icky! If for some reason I don't have something to cover up with, I panic that everyone is grossing out over my sweatiness.

In the old days I was SOOO embarassed about my shopping cart. It was pitiful and I felt such shame. I would look around me to see if there was anyone I recognized. BUT NOT ANYMORE. I don't care who sees it. I've got the healthiest cart around. And it gives me such pleasure and I am overwhelmed with pride. I know that sounds overly dramatic - but that's just how I feel. I can't get enough of lookin' at those veggies, the fruit, the skim milk, the Fiber One and Kashi Go Lean Cereals, etc. People can actually learn a whole lot about nutrition just from peeking into my cart. I LOVE it.

I used to always want to look cute when I was thin, but I also liked wearing sweats and stuff to class because I looked cute in them! lol.. now I wont wear sweats out because I look like a lazy fatty in them :eek: lol

on the subject of buying birth control, I remember the first time I went to the family planning center and filled out the papers when I was 15, I lied and said I was born in 84 instead of 85 lol :lol: Then everytime I went in to get refills they would ask for my birthday so they could find my file.. probably confused the crap out of them lol

one complex I have recently is borrowing peoples stuff.. I was at my parents camp with some friends the other day and after swimming I said I was cold and I should have brought a sweatshirt.. my boyfriends friend asked if I wanted to wear his and I declined because I was afraid it would be too small! lol

Originally Posted by NightengaleShane:
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! :lol: :lol: :lol:!!!"

:rofl: Yeah, I have that exact same train of thought. And I also use the "fatty mcfatfat" in different variations... so that made me laugh.

Oh, and there is a solution to buying tampons! )get one of these. You might laugh, but two of my good friends who initially recoiled at the thought are hardcore converts, and they're promoting it right along with me. :lol:

(Never had an issue with tampon-buying complex personally, and never had to buy condoms either- however, there was that one time I had to buy 5 cans of whipped cream for an ice cream social and the guy in front of me made osme pervy comment about me and my friend- so now I have a complex about buying whipped cream! This was years ago now! :dizzy: )

Also, I love that Updike story, and Soulbliss has a good point.. but I won't get into that, or my dorky English major will come out... and I've been doing a pretty good job of containing her. :lol:

I love this thread!