Who is that?

Anybody else experienced this? When I was walking into work tonight I was watching my reflection in the door and had the sudden thought of "Oh my Lord - you're still huge. You don't look any different." Mind you, I'm 4 months out and down 80lbs since surgery and 115lbs since my highest last year. Any other day when I look at myself I can see the difference and I can feel the difference but sometimes my brain still doesn't get it. In my head I still see myself pre-surgery and for some reason, the way my reflection was tonight, I could really SEE it. So - that made me very sad for the rest of the night, even as I was putting on my previously too tight lab coat. I couldn't zip the labcoat pre-surgery - now I could use the next size down plus I've moved down a size in gloves. Like I said before, I can see that the coat is too big and see that the gloves fit better but my head just isn't caught up to the rest of me yet. What do you do when this happens? Has it happened to anybody else? How do we get our minds to catch up to our bodies?

Hi Sarah, Great job on your weight loss! You must be feeling better. I too have these weird moments. I call them my "anorexic moments". I still see my old self in the mirror even though I'm down from a tight size 18 to a size 10. I'm trying to do a lot of self talking and remind myself of comments others make to me. In the last week I've seen several people who haven't seen me since before the surgery. They literally did double takes to recognize me. I'm also trying to remind myself of things I've tried on that fall off or hang on me. It seems to help a little. No doubt I can still point out every flaw in my body! I guess it's all part of the journey. The psycological part of the process is the toughest to prepare for, in my opinion. Keep well! Betsy 237/165 (woohoo today)/150

I experience it all the time. In fact today I said that I felt bigger now than I did a year ago. And I am down 112 lbs--70 since surgery! I think that I didn't realize how big I actually was and now I am hyper aware of what I need to lose. And I keep thinking that I am an incredibly slow loser. And how I still need to lose another 90 lbs and that my window of opportunity is shutting. My doctor told me that people who have always been big have a harder time seeing themselves as "normal" sized, while people who have been "normal" sized accept it more easily. I don't know if I will ever see myself as normal... As for what I do when these tapes run through my mind is pulling out the tape measure and seeing Irrefutable evidence that I am smaller. I weigh less now than I did when I was in 8th grade--at 215 lbs. And while I am not a person who has any pictures of myself, I am beginning to see the logic in having pictures to help document the transformation...So I guess I will have to give in to having my picture taken a little more often. Ginny

Ditto to all of the above-I feel like I still look like a fat pig in pictures even though I am down 60 pounds! I feel thin in clothes tho. Maybe it's because I never let my pic be taken at my highest!!!! Sharon

Know how you feel - most days I can see the difference - I'm down 107 lbs (71 from surgery) and I feel great about myself and everyone tells me how good I look. I still have a ways to go. But when I looked at the pictures from vacation we were on a few weeks ago I said OMG you're still huge. This process will take awhile to get us to goal but we must celebrate how good we look along the way as well cause every one of these lbs that we loose is a blessing to our bodies and our minds. Congrats on your success and be proud!!! Carolyn