Am I missing something?

I had surgery September 7th, 2007. I have lost 152 lbs and although I have a BMI of 35 and have not reached goal yet, I feel awesome and almost completely normal and fit. I am missing something though. My confidence and esteem have grown leaps and bounds and I have been out there looking to get noticed. Have I become an attention ***** I mean I get some compliments from some people that knew me when I was super-morbidly obese, but most people act like I'm the same person and ignore the fact that I am half the man I used to be. They sure had no problem pointing out my obesity to me before surgery. I have heard it all. The "unitentional" insults, the jokes and all of the other BS that we had to put up with when we were at our heaviest. Now that I have lost so much, it seems that the people that are aware that I had a RNY bypass, just don't want to mention my weight loss or compliment me. Of course I probably cheated in their minds. They probably think I did this for vanity reasons and not for health reasons as I always point out. Maybe I'm not used to being normal weight and I expect a little praise or compliments from the people that knew me before, but it just isn't happening. I get more compliments and get hit on from people that did not know me before. So how do you all deal with this? Am I expecting too much? It took a lot of weight loss before I even started to notice it in the mirror and feel better about myself. But now, I look in the mirror and I'm like "Damn, I look good." Is that conceited? Or is it that I should feel good about my appearance now and I should enjoy it? Anyway, like I said before. Losing weight doesn't solve all of our issues like self esteem. Just looking for some input on how you all are dealing with this aspect of your weight loss.

I've noticed this too. Some people just seem really hesitant to compliment me on my weight loss. I think some people see it as 'cheating' and that you didn't lose the weight 'the old fashioned way' or 'the hard way', as though having life-threatening surgery and all that comes after isn't hard. They have no idea. They think we took the easy way out, so it's not 'real weight loss'. It's like we didn't earn it, so don't deserve to be complimented on it. If they only knew. I understand how you feel completely. I run into people who haven't seen me since before my surgery but know I had it, and they'll say nothing! It amazes me. I look like a different person, and I almost died from complications, and they say nothing. I eat less in a day than they eat in 1 meal, but I don't earn their respect because I chose to treat my weight problem with a treatment that actually has a snowball's chance in hell of success instead of running like a rat on a wheel for the rest of my life and achieving nothing but more suffering. I've also faced flat-out jealousy from some people who are still struggling with their weight. I don't think it's conceited to want to enjoy the changes that you're going through, or to expect friends and family to be happy for you. I'm enjoying the hell out of wearing little clothes again, and I have to be careful to tone down the sexiness of the clothes I buy, lest I end up looking like a dead teen-ager (I'm 43). Enjoy it! And don't let the *******s get you down! This is a huge change you're going through, and a really wondrous journey (I know, I'm experiencing it too, and it's really neat!) Tracey