Anyone else have this problem. In my mind I'm long, sleek and thin, but when I look in the mirror, I'm still heavy, though not as heavy and not as swollen looking. I can move now, though I forget that I can. I don't know how much weight I've lost but I'm ready for a wardrobe change. I feel great, but I am appalled when I look in the mirror. Am I the only one?

Dear Leasmom,
I know what you mean-but how great to have the bloating and swollen ab gone! ! ! ! YOu must concentrate on the good things happening to your body-try not to look at the scales-use a tape meaure-it tells the real story-I have people who are saying -you've lost alot of weight(only I know it is not as much as they think-and not as much as I want)

remember feeling thin is ALMOST as good as being there!

Yes, I know what you mean. Me, I don't realize how big I'm until I see a picture of me. Even the mirror isn't as realistic as a picture. I feel much thinner tough.

I'm not depressed about it, just surprised that my own image doesn't match the mirror's image. I have people surprised that I've lost weight as well...my clothes are hanging off of me, I love it. I can't wait until that image in the mirror matches my own.

There are days that I feel SOOOOO thin UNTIL Ilook in the mirror or see a picture. I always tried to avoid the camera but I can't get away from it on christmas or my birthday. and then my Mom shows me the pictures and I just want to burn them. But the good news is that the changes I have made in my life and the way I eat are gonna help me change the way I look and feel, and thats what I focus on.
This old body is only temperary, I'am gonna have a new one soon!!!

Stephanie

I am right there with you. I feel much thinner, then I look in the mirror or see a pictue and almost cant believe that it is really me. Then I think that I am doing something to change all that and that some day I will be able to look back on those pictures and say remember when.

You know how 'normal' sized people often talk about how they feel fat even when they're not? It's like a part of their self image is damaged. They can look in a mirror at 120 lbs. and see someone twice as heavy. No matter how they appear, they will always feel fat.

I think that when we notice that we're not carrying around quite as much weight, we feel good in our bodies. Our self image registers positive changes and we might feel relatively 'thin'. But when we see ourselves in the mirror or photographs, we are confronted with the visual reality that we are still fat.

In my way of thinking - this is good. Our psyche is healthy enough to take in input from a variety of sources: How we feel vs. how we appear. And while I'd like to appear AND feel more slender, I think it's way better to feel the changes of weight loss. How I look is not nearly as important as how I feel, you know?

Plus - so many people are unattractive because they feel ugly. Have you ever noticed that when you present yourself as good looking, somehow you are? It's better to feel good than it is to look good, because feeling better leads to looking better.

Crazy logic, but I think it works.

XOXO Monika

Funny you should ask that. Today we went fishing and my wife took some pics of me with the digital cam. I couldn't figure out why I didn't notice in the mirror this morning that I looked so fat in what I was wearing, I mean, I thought I looked good. How big I must have looked 15 pounds ago! I almost deleted them, but then I decided that I will be more than happy to see those pictures later when I loose more weight. I'm just going to let it inspire me to keep going. Hang in there!

Your story touched a nerve. For a long time I considered my weight and size to be barometers of my worth. As I grew larger, I saw a monster in the mirror. People would tell me that I was good looking or sexy and I thought they were nuts or must be "chubby chasers".

I was in therapy and discussed this with my therapist and she gave me an assignment. She told me to look out the window while I was on the bus on the way to work, and count the people who I felt looked great. I did this and to my surprise, I didn't see any stars or any scars...just people.

That said, I feel like I'm long and lean. I lie in bed at night and rub my stomach and notice the rolls and bumps that are gone. I rub my thighs and notice that the "mugwumps" (those fat deposits at the top of the inner thigh) are really melting away, and I hold up my arm and there's not so much jiggling.

Am I a different person. Am I prettier...sexier. Probably not. But now I see a healthy, active, positive person who will never be as fat as she was yesterday and will one day reach her ultimate goal.

It's funny....I just entered something in my journal a few days back in regards to this....it's from a journal that I started nearly two years ago when I first started Atkins. It's about not feeling like the reflection we see or sometimes not even recognizing the image we see. Take a look at my journal post titled "Stranger in the Mirror" when you get a minute.

I think as we re-shape our bodies, we need to find a way to re-shape our thinking too. I sometimes have a hard time accepting compliments in regards to my weightloss, because my mind won't accept it....strange huh?

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.

250 on the way up feels quite differently from 250 on the way down. When I was slowly gaining weight, and hit 250 I felt awful. My stomach felt bloated and I felt yucky. Now on the way down, I feel so much better at that same weight. Why? Because my stomach is smaller than it used it be...it is tightening up again, and that gives a whole different sensation than that bloated feeling I had previously. It is not just a psychological feeling. It is real. It is the feeling of a shrinking stomach instead of a stretching one......

I use to do that too! I finally decided to lose the weight and I took a long hard look at how I really am (full length mirror). I look once a week now and see the changes that are going on and say to myself, "You look better than you did, so be proud of what you have accomplished." I don't look great compared to what I WANT to look like, but I think the honesty has helped me deal with my eating problems.

I know what you mean. Last time I went to the doctor the nurse weighed me. She started with the bottom weight at 200, then moved to 250, then to 300... when she finally got my weight she said I didn't look as big as I weighed- didn't know whether to take it as a complement or insult.
Last summer I lost about 60lbs and was down to 294 (it was a low fat/high exercise diet and you know how well those last). I went off it and managed to gain about 20lbs in 6 months before I started Atkins. I lost most of the weight I gained back and I'm back down to 298. I know I'm only 4lbs above my low weight now, and I feel almost the same size wise as I did then, but everytime I look in the mirror I think that something's not right. I feel like I should look smaller. I know 4 lbs isn't enough to make me that much larger. I guess it's all in my head.

Man, I thought I was huge then but I wasn't, I was thin, even though on the scale I was 235. I didn't look it. Recently I looked at pictures of me and I look like a little head on a huge body. I think now I'm starting to look proportionate at least, that's something to be happy about.

I keep going down the stairs like before, side-ways or sitting and asking my daughter to do things for me when I can move now. It's my mind that hasn't caught up to the fact that I can do it now. I don't ever want to look like I did before, like I could die at any minute at 370 lbs.

I want to feel good about myself, and I agree I should look in the mirror and count my blessings that I am smaller, even though it's not what I want to stay at, but I am smaller and that's all that counts.