Interesting thread and interesting problem. I've had the same problem, but more with regard to photographs than mirrors.

You are assuming that the image you see in your head is false and the image you see in the mirror is a true representation of how you look. In fact, it is possible that your view of yourself in the mirror is what is distorted.

The way I perceive myself looking in the same picture often varies over time. I have pictures from when I last weighed 240 or 250. I remember looking at them at the time they were taken and hating the way I looked. Today I look at them and I think I looked good. Which is correct? Do I look horribly fat or do I look good in those pictures? Was my perception of myself distorted then or is it distorted now?

I remember being in a Mexican restaurant a few years ago. I was sitting there thinking how good the waitress looked -- lots of curves which were really high-lighted by what she was wearing -- when the person with me said, "How can someone so fat wear that outfit?" We looked at the same woman and saw her very differently. Whose image was distorted?

If you ever get an opportunity to see it, there was a movie out last winter (small production -- played the artsy-type theaters) called "Real Women Have Curves." The lead female role in that movie was a young woman who clearly weighed at least 200 pounds. After the movie, my husband (who, fortunately for me, has always liked curvy women), remarked on how gorgeous she was. However, part of the plot of the movie was that this woman's mother was obsessed with her fat which she thought made her ugly. Whose perception of reality was right? Was the woman beautiful or was she ugly? Was she too fat or was she curvy and sexy?

If the way we feel inside is different from what we see when we first glance at a mirror or a photograph, I don't think we can just assume that our first impression from looking at the mirror or the photograph is correct.