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Old Sat, Jul-12-03, 07:07
liz175 liz175 is offline
Lowcarb since 7/2002
Posts: 5,991
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 360/232/180 Female 5'9"
BF:BMI 53.2/34.3/?
Progress: 71%
Location: U.S.: Mid-Atlantic
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I think a lot of us go through this. Part of the issue for me is the focus I am putting on what I look like, plus all the changes in my body. I've managed to spend much of my adult life ignoring what my body looks like. Now, all of the sudden I am focusing on it, so I find myself more dissatisfied than I was when I weighed 90 pounds more than I do now. Also, I have gone through greater physical changes in the last year than at any other time in my life except for adolescence and each of my pregnancies. Losing 90 pounds has been a huge physical change for me and I find myself focusing on my body a lot as I try to figure out what its new size is (I never know where I will fit and where I won't fit or which clothes will look okay on me versus looking awful on me). All this focus on my size makes me more dissatisfied, even though objectively I look much better than I did 90 pounds ago.

One thing I have been consciously trying to do is look around in public places and appreciate the range of body sizes and types. I see women all the time who are beautiful and exude self-confidence, even though they are larger than society considers "normal." I see skinny women who look positively unhealthy. (Of course, I also see fat women who look unhealthy and skinny women who are gorgeous as well.) Realizing that weight is not the sum total of the image we project is very important. Also, realizing that what we consider "normal" is in fact not normal -- most Americans are overweight -- helps as well.
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