Jornal de Cwti21, 10 jun 19

You look great! 

😳whoa! awesome job...u look great👌 

great job you look amazing 

You look great! 

You look great! 

looking good! Congratulations 

How much did you lose and how long did it take you?? Thanks 

Thank you all! Yes it is strange getting use to new body! Some days I still feel really large and I'm trying to shake that, trying to get use to buying smaller clothes is strange too, I keep feeling surely this won't fit me and then it does? So odd. Yes, I plan to stick with the low carb lifestyle. I'm going to try raising how many carbs I have, (healthy ones, I miss sweet potato and quinoa) And see if I can still maintain that way. I'll never go back to regular sugary sweets, they make me feel sick now and are way too sweet! People don't even know how much sugar is in everything until you've weaned off! It's crazy! Ive lost 95 lbs since February 2018 :) almost to goal! 

Sounds like you are thinking this through. I found that when I lost a substantial amount (150 pounds in 2 years) it was the head part that was hardest. First trying to 'claim' the 'new' body as the new normal. Much harder than one would think. I am not a mirror person however I had to spend a lot of time getting to know my new dimensions and see myself as others did. There was also dealing with the people around me as they too were processing my new dimensions -- some were gushingly supportive and others were angry about the change. I found the easiest to be the ones who acknowledged the loss and then got on with our friendship. Strangers were the worst as it became extremely apparent the differences in how I was treated as a grossly obese woman versus a woman of a healthy weight. I am the same person and deserved to be treated well no matter what my weight. I often felt cynical about that piece! Please spend the time getting comfortable in your new skin. It is way too easy to gain it all back so that things are familiar again. 

Carol, how strange to have people be negative! Must be from a place of fear or jealousy, depending on relationship. You've done incredible and I definitely understand what you're saying, I feel same way. Thank you for your words. I have zero intention of gaining back, after this long the food I eat is just my way of life and I can't imagine eating how I did before because I look at food so differently now. I agree that it's strange how people treat others depending on how they look. We should never feel like our worth depends on how we're treated but I definitely felt it. At 260, I didn't feel like I mattered, everything else was more important and I was invisible, to myself and others. 

The people who were negative were mostly responding to the change. They were trying to process how they saw me and trying to fit the 'new' me into their version of who I was. Lots of people do not like to see change. Also they sometimes see that my change somehow reflects on whether they need to make changes. Truly they get to own it. It had nothing to do with me! Likewise the gushers just saw the physical change and did not see what the underlying changes were to get the physical change. No problem -- it was again about their own journey and not really about mine. When I began the first weight journey I was 320 pounds. There were so many reasons I needed to shed that weight not the least of which so I could physically do the things I wanted to do. There was also the obvious need to lose it to be a healthier person and of course I wanted to look nicer! The interesting part for me was that the reasons for losing and keeping it off changed as I lost the weight. I felt so physically empowered - I could bend over to pick things off the floor, I could go down stairs at speed, I could breathe better, I had greater stamina, I could (and did!) run half-marathons and the list went on. Those became the concrete reasons for keeping the weight off. This time I started at 270 (a variety of reasons why that happened none that matter in the long run other than to acknowledge that it happened). This time I know how to lose it and I have a clear idea of what the positive physical changes will be. In many ways it has been much easier this time around! In my world, I have 50 more pounds to get to goal. Then I will re-assess if I want to lose more or not. I wanted to acknowledge the mental part of losing a lot of weight and how I want for you to do the 'mental' work so that gaining it back is less likely. Many people who have not lost as much weight as you have are unaware of how much a person has to integrate the weight loss into one's self-concept and in many cases re-write pieces of that self concept. The pieces around how you look, how you physically fit in the world, how you choose to eat etc etc so you are mentally supported to sustain the loss over time. 

Thank you Carol for your eloquent responses, so much respect to you!