Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

[burtonator]

This is my second time around on atkins... I ended up gaining most of the weight back but since I'm familiar with Atkins its easier for me to do the plan this time around.

I also learned from my mistakes and I'm planning on going into OWL as soon as I'm close enough to my goal.

My major problem is that I've been overweight nearly all of my life from when I was about 15. Not a TON mind you but never the correct weight.

My biggest worry is that when I loose the weight I won't know who I am... 35" was my waist measurement at my peak last time around.

It felt REALLY strange. I think this is why I didn't really notice that I was gaining the weight back because it felt MORE comfortable.

How long does it take the mind to adjust to your new body?

This is essentially a self image problem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_image

Any ideas?

[adreliluc]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

I have this same problem... It's like I can't get the "fat girl" out of my head... I'm always surprised when I slide through a space or into a seat w/ out even touching the sides... I always stop and say to myself "omg, i just fit through there!"... lol... Funny and sad really... I don't know if I'll ever see myself or be comfortable as a smaller person... In ways I'm actually afraid to be smaller... it's weird!

[killerbombshell]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

Well...I'm still fat. But I'll get back to you on that in about thirty pounds!

[Elizellen]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

This is something we sometimes refer to here as 'wearing our fat goggles' - we just cant see that we have morped into a differently shaped person sometimes.

The mental adjustment takes some of us longer than others, but hopefully we will all get there in time.

I am constantly asking my DH things like 'is that lady over there as big as I used to be?' or 'am I fatter now than that lady in the red dress?' (I hope no-one hears me LOL)

One of our members posted about being surprised to see a skinny lady wearing the same hat as she was - only to realise it was her own reflection in a shop window!!

It is very difficult to automatically go to the correct rail in a clothes shop, as those smaller clothes look much too small to fit me, but I know from the labels of my current ones that I AM a size 14/16 now, not a size 32 any more, and I even wore a size 10/12 leather coat today to prove it!!! (why cant clothing manufacturers stick to the same sizing ranges!!! )

[k5commando]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

I don't think I'll ever adjust to it. I'll always see myself as fat. I still look in the mirror and see the old me, sometimes I'll look at photos and be really supprised but the brain never changes how it sees my body in the mirror. I'll always be the fat kid!

[Richt]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

I still have my fat goggles on. And still love looking in the mirror to realise that I am not that fat anymore.

Its turned me quite vain, this weight loss stuff. I love looking at myself now.

Which i suppose just makes up for those years when I dreaded seeing photo's

[Analog6]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

It is REALLY hard to discard the fat goggles. Just yesterday 3 of the ladies who come to me for training said they can really see a difference in the past few weeks - darned if I can! But my clothes are gettting looser so I guess they are right. I don't know if I'll ever see mself as slim.

At one of the 'big' shops I go to, called Be Me, the aleslady told me last time that I am geting too small for their clothes and will have to go to the regular sized outlet! Oh Joy!

[Elizellen]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

Woohoo!! Aint that great, Odille

I remember clearly how I walked out of 'Evans' (a plus-size shop) with a soppy grin on my face last year after the assistant said "Sorry, you need a smaller size than we carry here".
I had been shopping there for over 25 years!!

[sombersusie]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

hello burtonator! I can totally agree with what you are saying. I have always been overweight, as a child, as a teen, although i did slim out slighty during those years, my weight ever steadily increased until i finally hit 339 a couple years ago. Even then i really didn't think i looked that bad when i was looking in the mirror. (it was the pictures i hated to look at) I thought i was comfortable too.
Losing weight does kind of scare me. I had never lasted on a diet longer than the day it started, the only way i was able to lose weight was excersising like crazy, of course that never lasted. This is the first time i'm commited to it and it's actually working. I've still got my fat goggles on though, don't know when they'll come off....

[doeskin]

Re: Getting comfortable with your new self? How long?

It is very difficult to automatically go to the correct rail in a clothes shop, as those smaller clothes look much too small to fit me

I do this a LOT. I'll immediately go to the Larges. Or I'll hold a shirt up to me and tell myself "nah, it's too small, it won't fit". But when I eventually make myself try it on, it feels so good when it looks great!