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Conference rocks::weight_control

Title: Weight Loss and Maintenance
Notice:**PLEASE** enter notes in mixed case (CAPS ARE SHOUTING)!
Moderator:ASICS::LESLIE
Created:Tue Jul 10 1990
Last Modified:Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:933
Total number of notes:9931

191.0. "Head & Shoulders people" by RITZ::GKE (and the word is wiseacre) Mon Jan 11 1988 11:24

I was wondering if anyone else experienced what I have come to call "the 
above the shoulders mirror syndrome".

For years I have really only looked at myself in the mirror as being a 
person of head and shoulders.  Hair looks great, make-up is just right,
a little pout on the lips, tilt the head just right and good heavens there 
is a really lovely creature looking back.. Wonderful!  Now I can face the 
day knowing I look super.  But wait!... I forgot to look at the button in 
the front of my blouse straining ever more with the passing months, the 
skirt lengths getting longer to hide the knees getting covered over with 
flesh, the rear view that is none too appealing, the arms that I don't want 
to bear in sleeveless tops... goodness I really did overlook a bit more than 
a bit of me!

I came to realise one day that I was not viewing the total me.. the me that 
everyone else is subjected to... that is well more than a face and a set of 
shoulders.  I was at a party a while back and someone decided to put it 
all on video... when we later viewed the video I could have sworn the 
person everyone said was me was someone else.  I was fatter than I could 
have possibly imagined myself... I walked heavy, I had a few chins I did not 
know existed and from the back, WELL need I say more!  I was forced to 
view the total me.. The real me, and there was a lot more of me than I had 
EVER admitted to!  

At 5 foot nothing I fooled myself for years that I carried my extra 40 
pounds virtually un-noticed to the rest of the world.  I can run with the 
best of them, walk for miles and not get tired.  I have a surplus of 
energy.. goodness how could I possibly be a fat person?  

Not all of us will ever see ourselves on Video.. I am not sure I ever want 
to see myself recorded for posterity again, but I do think it is important 
to look past the head and shoulders thus avoiding a major shock in later 
times when we just happen to notice we are not *quite* that which we 
thought we were.

I am working very hard toward the image of myself that I always had.  A 
slim little petite 5 foot woman that walks lightly, has no extra chins and 
does not have a portable porch for a backside!  I wish I had never gained
those extra pounds or ever fooled myself into thinking that they did not
show but I did and they do, and now it is time to do the remedying.  Now
I am impatient to get to my goal, in a hurry to *slip* into that size 10,
dying for a time when people do not describe me as the plump, chubby, pudgy
or padded little women over there.  

I am very pleased for the support that this file is giving me.. I sit with
salad in hand every day reading it for my lunch time entertainment.  Dying
to be able to plot progress, speak from experience and be spurred on to 
the new me!  No more kidding myself, no more putting it off for another
day... the day is NOW and the remedy is already taking effect.

And especially... NO MORE THINKING ALL I AM IS HEAD AND SHOULDERS AND A 
TILTED FACE THAT ONLY SHOWS ME WHAT I WANT TO SEE!!!

gailann


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191.1TFH::LAPOINTEMon Jan 11 1988 13:3412
    hi this is great to think that other people do this.  mine is just
    the oppisite.  I have always been fat.  I now am within 25 pounds
    of my goal.  I was 215 pounds at the start (this time).  It is hard
    for me to look into a mirror and not see a fat person looking back.
    I still don't like to have my picture taken.  
    
    How does someone learn to reprogram the mind?  I am now able to
    look at myself in the mirror, but I still see the old me.
    
    Robin
    

191.2Your both rightWONDER::COYLEMon Jan 11 1988 14:2621
    I think everyone has trouble seeing themselves for what they really
    are.  I know I do.  I always kidded myself about how fat I was,
    and now that I've lost a couple of hundred pounds and am within
    a dozen pounds of goal I have trouble accepting the fact that I
    am not very overweight.
    
    I have no idea when the transition from not seeing all of the fat
    to seeing what isn't there occurred.  But, apparently, it has.
    
    I think every once in a while we should look at ourselves on vidio
    tape.  If I had done it years ago I may never have reached the highs
    that I eventually did.
    
    The reality seems to be that my vision of myself is always behind
    the truth.  I never seem to realize how fast I was going up or down.
    The solution is, obviously, getting to goal and staying there long
    enough for my mind to catch up.
    
    -Joe
    

191.3Me, Too!SRFSUP::TERASHITACalifornia GirlMon Jan 11 1988 14:5815
    Yes, I, too, was of the "head and shoulders" syndrome.  Until, during
    one of the shopping trips forced upon me by my husband, I caught
    a rear quarter-view of myself in the dressing room mirror.  "Yeech!",
    thought I, "Where did that *stuff* on my thighs and rear come from?"
    
    Only within the last couple of weeks, though, have I stopped looking
    at the weight I have lost (40 lbs.) and begun to see again what
    is left to get rid of (another 40 lbs.).
    
    So I guess I go back and forth.
    
    Anybody else find that to be true?
    
    Lynn

191.4It's physical perspective tooHPSCAD::WHITMANAcid rain burns my BASSTue Jan 12 1988 09:3330
Gailann,
	I suppose this note should be in the 'last straw' topic, but it's also
appropriate here.  I'm 6'1" and during the summer weighed in at 242 lbs.  My 
ideal weight is around 185 or so.  This past summer I caught my largest bass
to date and wanted to get the fish on tape.  During the summer my 'uniform of
the day' is a pair of shorts and a tan, no shirt, no shoes.  Anyway when I saw
the video I was very disappointed, whoever it was holding that bass had a gut
that severely upstaged the star of the show.  Who was that fat man (and why
wasn't he masked;-)??? 	

	Since then I have lost about 25 lbs or so.  Now to get to the point,
even now when I look at my self (without a mirror) I cannot see the girdle of
fat around my middle even though I'm looking for it.  My thighs are not fat.
Since working on my abdominal muscles, my pot belly doesn't hang out.  I think
I look good, however, standing in front of a full length mirror in the 'uniform
of the day' I see the bulge, the slack folds around my stomach that I cannot
see from the top down (without a mirror).  How many of us shave, brush hair,
apply makeup, generally attend to personal grooming in a full length mirror,
it's always in a mirror at eye level.

	Your point is well taken about the limited view of ourselves, 
unfortunately I believe it's less appropriate to people in this conference than
to those out there who are overweight and refuse to believe it.

			Thanks for the insight,


							Al


191.5Mental changes lag behind physical ones.SQM::AITELEvery little breeze....Wed Jan 20 1988 10:1614
    Gailann, if you're not a writer, then there's good talent being
    wasted!  That was beautifully written, and it struck home with me
    also.  It took going down to the ZK wellness center, walled with
    mirrors, to get me on a diet.  Now I bounce between looking in the
    mirror and seeing that bit of a tummy and frowning, and looking
    in the mirror and grinning from ear to ear because there's this
    slim woman looking back.  Currently I'm concentrating intensely on 
    getting my abdominal muscles into shape.  If I do, I will be
    able to make my goal of being ready for the Ms NH bodybuilding
    competition in Concord this summer.  THAT should burn the fat image
    out of my psyche!
    
    --Louise

191.6MARVIN::JUBBThu Apr 21 1988 08:5617
    Hi Gailann,
    
    I know just what you mean, that it is easy to judge your looks just
    from the face in the mirror.
    
    I tend to get fed up with the fact that when I put on weight (at
    present I am about 10lbs overweight, and 5'1") it goes to my face
    FIRST, so a little extra weight has an uattractive effect.  However
    I suppose that at the same time I notice the effects of putting
    on weight fairly quickly, so I have never (touchwood) gone more
    than 14lbs overweight.
    
    (Doesn't stop me being envious of my sister, though, who can gain
    a few pounds without it showing in her face at all!)
    
    Ali