Like you, Karen, I still look in the mirror and see the fat lady. I've been fat for a long time, and, before then, even when I wasn't fat, my perception of myself was that I was. I have lost weight all over so my overall shape is still similar to what it was, even though it is smaller overall, and that is part of it. But also, peoples' self-images are notoriously inaccurate, like the anorexics who look at their little bones in the mirror and see only blubber. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for my perception to catch up with the actuality. I have gone down four clothes sizes in five months. I do suspect that there is a perception, maybe only on my part, that one isn't really "thin" until one looks like the six-foot tall ectomorphs in the fashion magazines. I never will.
You know, you never realise how alien those girls look until you see them in a photo with a normal person in the frame? They only look normal next to eachother. Next to anyone else, they look quite strange. I saw a photo of two models walking along in front of a little old lady once, and at first glance it seemed as if they were a long way ahead and she was way off in the distance. Then I looked at the paving stones on the ground and she was only about two feet behind them.
Zan