Does looking at pictures of yourself when you were healthier make you happy or sad?

It used to make me sad to look at pictures of myself when i was a little girl before i became obese.  Since I've been big for as long as I can remember I used to always feel so detached from pictures of me as a little kid, before I was big. 

But lately when i look at those pictures I start to feel connected to that little kid in the pictures and I feel a sense of excitement.  Its kind of like "Whoa! Thats me!  Thats not some other healthy, happy person.  Thats me.!"    I sort of  feel like I need to honor that healthy person that I once was and start taking care of myself.  Its been an unexpected form of hope for me.

Has anyone else had this feeling when they look at baby pictures of themselves, or pictures when they were younger?

I look at pics of me when i was 16 (now 28) and I get sad, because I never knew how gorgeous I was! I thought I was fat back then ( I wasn't)......if only I had known what I was going to get to kg wise! I don't think I made the most of being healthy at all, I was always worrying what I looked like to other people, always upset I din't fit into the tiny clothes that my friends did - they were TINY TINY people! Regrets? i've got a few...

I look at photos of myself as a little girl and I sense the happiness reflected in her face. I look at photos of myself as an obese and terribly awkward teenager and hope that I will never look like her again. I look at photos of myself in present day, slender and pretty(?)- it's the only time I haven't felt like me. I don't quite know her yet, but I have a feeling she'll be happy too.

Jessicasbc,

Being a dinosaur at 44 seeing myself as a child seems like a whole and I mean whole lifetime ago.  I was thick as a child, not really fat but definately husky and during high school i got really big. However, the summer before college I lost a ton of weight and looked really good.  Lean and tan with a full head of hair lol.  Then as I got older the weight piled on and I got really heavy again. So I would have to say I look wistfully at my college days and happily about my child hood.  It is the recent pictures that have made me want to change so much. 

My recent pictures make me want to change too, especially when i compare them to the older ones.  it can be sad to think "look at what ive become", but its nice to see the happiness and health that i once had in the younger pictures.  im like vron, the hardest pictures are the unbelievably awkward teenage years.  im actually a lot prettier and happier now than i was as a teen even though im the same size.

I was always a healthy but well rounded kid. In the pics from my last year of secondary school (the year before I went to uni) i was really slim and had a great figure though - I was a uk 8-10 (at 5"0') which was slim but not skinny, and I was confident enough to wear tops that showed my belly stud, though at the time I felt I should lose another stone. Really its kind of depressing now - I looked good then, but I remember the work it took me to maintain that weight, and I had to constantly monitor my weight, as my natural weight is about a dress size bigger. The pics of me in my first year at uni are more realistic - I looked healthy and slim at a size 10-12, and thats what I want to be back at now.

So overall bad!

Makes me very sad. Sad that I let myself slip...for over a year. I think of how much energy I used to have, how good I felt and how good I looked.

Original Post by gg80:

I look at pics of me when i was 16 (now 28) and I get sad, because I never knew how gorgeous I was!

 Amen to that.  And from my advanced age of 44... even looking back at photos of me in my twenties and thirties the same applies.  It means I have a new philosphy which is to appreciate myself the way I am, look after myself as well as possible, make the most of the positives, enjoy the moment and not nit-pick the small stuff ...  I'll never look better than I do right now.

I was never skinny.... Looking at skinny pictures of my friends makes me sad, but gives me motivation :)

I feel the opposite. I was always overweight as a kid. Now when I look at pictures from back then (especially the teen years), I can't believe it's me. See my profile pic for an example!

ya, im talking about pictures from when i was really really little, like ages 1-7.  i was 200 lbs by the time i was 10, and 250 by the time i was 16, so i definately dont find inspiration in those pictures.

neither, really, although when i look at pictures of me in my early 20s, i wish i'd appreciated myself more.  i thought i was fat long before i actually was fat.

i look at myself and i'm saddened because even then i thought i didn't look good and i wish i had!