Does our mind ever really see us the way we truly are?

Diane, You have lost an impressive amount of weight in only a year!  I love your new avatar, you look so beautiful!!  This journey has been one of pure amazement.  Wow moment after wow moment, change after change.  I think maybe it's just been too much for my beady little brain to adjust to.  I look at people on the board, like you, and see your before pictures or even jus****ch as the avatars change and am AMAZED at the changes in people, not just in looks - but in the confidence level.  I LOVE having this board to turn to.  Those that haven't been MO and haven't been through a lifetime of dieting and haven't been through WLS have NO IDEA what we have been through and what we continue to go through.  Losing weight is fun, it's healthy, but it's also a psychological process.  People don't realize that when you are telling them that a guy whistled at you or someone called you a tiny little thing, you are not bragging, you're just stunned that people would actually do that! Congrats on your losses to date and on you still losing!! Debi

Debi,

You are exactly right. No one but someone who has been on the journey can understand how these things affect us. No we are not bragging, we are in stunned shock....and I don't know about you, but somedays I still don't know how to react. Deep inside the fat girl is saying ya they're just teasin me, or being sarcastic. Like I said before... it takes a while to change a lifetime of conditioning for our brains.

Thanks again for posting this

Thanks for responding.  It's good to know we aren't alone.

You are doing a fantatic job!!!  You are looking hot, hot, hot!!! Once in a while I see it, but it is really hard sometimes.  I still look sometimes and seem large.  So I just put on my "big" pants, and then the bulb lights up. So I'm waiting to catch up too!!!   XXOO

Barb...talk about HOT!!!  You have the looks and the personality!!!  Thank you for the compliments.  People like you are my inspiration!  You are always so sweet and so comforting and so encouraging. I hope to meet up with you sometime so I can give you a big old thank you hug! Debi

Boy do I know what you are talking about.  I have looked at pictures of myself lately and I think I'm not that thin and my shoulders and arms aren't that small so I go to the mirror and back to the photo and it doesn't connect...I know I'm smaller but the degree is no where close to where I know I am.  My weight loss has slowed down so maybe I will have time to catch up mentally.  I look at jackets I wear now, on the hanger and know they fit but not in my mind.  Size 10 jeans fit as do medium jackets in some brands.  My DIL called me tiny today.......my husband says the same but don't see it.  At 5'9",  tiny has never been a word used to describe me.....one of my coworkers told me I looked taller too..  I told her the weight must have been holding me down. Glad to know the head will catch up someday.  I'm so glad to have this place to come to......I don't post often but am ususally reading and going  YUP know about that too.  Thanks to all of you for making this journey easier. Bonnie

Bonnie, It just never stops surprising me how many of us feel the same things and think the same things.  I always thought I was the only one.  Now I wonder why I ever thought that?!!  I am so happy for you.  You are doing a wonderful job working that tool.  You are so close to goal already!  I liked your comment about the weight holding you down...It was so true, not just physically, but emotionally too. I look forward to watching you continue to shrink! Debi

Debi,    Oh, I know how you feel.........I still see the fat person.......I hold up my clothes and wonder, How do I get these on their so small.........    I see pictures of me and say, That's me? I just don't see it......All's I see is fat.........    I mentioned to my hubby I need Lipo, my belly is so fat, He keeps telling me it's skin......... Kelly

Hey Kelly, Your husband is right.  When I had my plastic surgery for my god-awful hanging gut, I asked the surgeon how much fat he took.  He said it wasn't fat it was skin.  When we're looking down at it, it looks like fat to us, but more than likely it is skin.  When I had a handful of that glob, it seemed like fat to me...but it wasn't - it was just the excess that used to wrap up a 300 lb person!  For most of us...there is no place for that excess to go - it just hangs around making us think we're still fat! We're not!  Call it battle scars!

Kelly, I do the same things with my clothes.  When I shop I always bring several sizes in to the dressing room because I just can't believe that the smaller one will fit. Debi