Almost at your goal? What do you see when you look in the mirror?

I had a very rude awaking today.  I was at todayshow.com and was looking at before/after pictures of people who had lost over 100 pounds using diet and exercise.  I came across a picture of a woman who lost 144 pounds and now weighs in at 164 pounds.

She looks fantastic.  Very thin.  Well I’m at 160 pounds (5’6”) and I think I look much larger than I think I really am.  So I start rationalizing.  Perhaps she is taller than I am or the clothes she took the picture in are slimming.

Then it occurred to me, I am much smaller than I used to be.  I started at 226 and I have lost a total of 66 pounds.  Perhaps I look better than I think I do.

After all, when I go shopping and pick up a pair of pants in a size 8, I always think, these will NEVER fit.  And guess what, they always do!

Anybody else have similar thoughts or issues?

Original Post by bairn:

ps. Also: I assume I am the biggest girl in the room unless someone is quite noticably overweight. I found myself doing this this morning. There were 5 girls there including me, one was a little overweight, the other three were not, just nice, pretty, normal-sized, probably all of them were a UK12. I just subconsciously assumed they were smaller than me. Thinking about it objectively, I was at least a size smaller than everyone in that room.

Does anyone else do this?

 i think about this all the time. i have definitely had moments where i look at someone (usually a person i know) and think "my god, i hope i don't look like that" and sometimes i'm even tempted to ask someone else just because i feel like my own mental image of myself is so distorted. i try to avoid that though because you'll inevitably get the "oh no, you look way better" from anyone who cares about your feelings - so why put someone in the position of having to reassure you. but it's amazing how drastically my opinion of my own appearance can change from one day to the next. i'm glad to hear that it happens to all of you too because it certainly makes me feel a bit crazy! haha

It's so strange that you are all talking about mirrors as your thoughts are mirroring my own, quite literally. At my heaviest, I was about 350 and a size 24 or at least that's the last size I crammed myself into. I haven't weighed myself since I got down over 100 pounds and kept losing as I didn't want to live my life around a scale, spent too many years doing that, and instead I want to go how I feel.

Currently I'm at a size 8/10 and bought my first skirt in a 6. Very excited! However, I agree with you all that the "fat girl" mentality doesn't just melt away like the fat.  It stays with you and I also check out other people while I'm in a group surrounding and see how I measure up!

One of my "friends" keeps telling me to cut it out and that I'm smaller than I think. Look in the mirror and really see me but I don't! I think I spent so many years as the fat friend, the comic one, that I don't even know who I am. Still working toward that goal. Good luck to everyone and I love this message board, it's inspirational.