Flip flopping body image...
 

I am about six weeks into this most recent journey and think I have been doing very well. This morning, I did my weekly weigh in and found that I lost 6.2 pounds this last week, which was the most since I started :carrot: I tried on a pair of what I call my in-between jeans (the jeans I bought once I starting gaining back the weight I lost several years ago) and they buttoned! Just last week I still felt i had an inch or two before I could do that. So here I am dancing around my house doing the happy dance.

Here is the issue. The last week or so, I find myself staying at myself in the mirror, clothed or unclothed, it doesn't matter, and thinking that I am starting to look so much better. That doesn't seem like a bad thing except that I am far from thin. For many years I hovered right around 195...then went to 209...then to 179 and back to about 195 until my latest sedentary job brought me all the way up to 224, the largest I've ever been. Even after today's weigh in, I am still at 206 and not even back to the weight that I hated for years and years. However, I still look in the mirror and think, hey I don't look so bad. I am afraid of being over confident. Never having any confidence, it doesn't take much for me to feel like I am going over the edge.

No one else seems to notice yet anyway. I asked hubby yesterday and he said yea I notice, you seem more spry (which of course made me laugh) So why do I notice it so drastically?

The longer I have typed, the less sense I think this makes so I will end it here. Thanks for reading!

I'm far from my goal weight as well, but I know what you're talking about. I was looking in the mirror and thinking that I'm starting to look better. My smaller "motivation" jeans fit me yesterday when I tried them too, and I tried them like 2 weeks ago and they didn't even seem close.

It's okay to be proud of how far we've come, you know, especially if this time we are setting ourselves up for a healthy lifestyle, and knowing we can maintain when we get to our final goal. We can say, I look like THIS now and I'm proud. It's not my goal, but I'll never be THAT unhealthy again. :)

Most likely it's also because you are working out and taking care of yourself so while you are at a larger weight you are probably more fit than you were at a slightly lower weight. :)

Better than looking at yourself and hating your body right?

I've only been back on track for seven days and I already feel great about myself. I think this is one of the reasons I fall off the commitment wagon so frequently, because I don't hate the way I look. I think what's going to keep me going this time (HOPEFULLY!!!!) is trying to focus on how much better I will look at goal.

Every now and then the fact I am overweight really does smack me in the face though. But yeah, most of the time I just feel damn good about myself when I'm being well-behaved!

I do this. It has nothing to do with the way I actually look, but the way I feel. When I am happy and confident and know that I'm doing a good job, I actually think I look skinnier. Then on the weekends when I have a few pieces of pizza and feel fat, I look in the mirror and I'm like, "Bleh, I look so fat! I feel so gross!" In reality, I hadn't gained or lost anything from the day before.

I think confidence and esteem are a balancing act. You have to feel good about yourself and what you are doing if you're going to keep doing it. But I understand there is also a concern of becoming complacent. And that some people's only motivation to lose weight is because they previously hated themselves. (like dayoneagain) I think I finally got serious when I realized that the only way to keep feeling good, to keep from hating my body, was to continue what I was doing. Not too mention, losing weight because you hate yourself is a really bad starting way of thinking. It should always be because you LOVE yourself, and know you deserve better.

Personally, I think it's great that you look in the mirror and see that you look so much better. It means that 1) you ARE looking better and 2) you are FEELING better. And it's that second one that really matters. Just keep up the good work, you're doing something right!

I think this is an incredibly positive development. Is it possible to get overconfident and slip back into unhealthy ways? It's more than possible. It happens. But it also happens that people don't see the positive changes in their bodies, get discouraged, and give up. I tend to think chances are far better for success if you can like yourself and your body as you are progressing through your weight loss.

Personally, when I started really focusing on healthy eating, I didn't worry about weight loss or the related changes in my body. I knew these things would come, and I was so happy about approaching weight loss the right way that I was ecstatic even after the first week.