When did you look in the mirror and see the person everyone else sees?

Like all of us, I get lots of compliments on my weight loss and I'm thrilled that friends, family, acquaintances see the difference in me.  But when I look in the mirror, I still see the "old" me, the prior to RNY me.  I look at my hips and thighs and think, "How is it possible that I will fit into these size 10 pants!?"  Then after I put said pants on, I can see, somewhat, that I am smaller!!  But I still don't think that I look like someone who wears size 10 pants!  Please tell me I'm not the only one? 

Oh you're certainly not the only one. It's called body dysmorphic disorder. Check my OH blog for my take on it.

Annie, I had my RNY the same day you did . I am a slow loser I think. I am 3 pounds from the goal my surgeon set but not my goal. When I look in the mirror I can see the loss in my face and neck area  but the rest of my body looks the same to me. I've lost 78 lbs and still see myself as I was. I know I look thinner to many people who compliment me so I must look different to them. 

I feel ya. 7 years out and I still struggle with it... seeing and FEELING the size I am are two different things. I see the difference in pictures, see it in old clothes versus now clothing, but still am unable to look at someone else and say we are similar in size. I went on Ricki Lake last year and talked about it.

End result... basically I believe I will need to live in this "new" me body just as long as the old to retrain my brain. It has gotten better but I'm still not completely there yet. There's hope for us ;) I also have a theory that if you gained weight later in life and remember being smaller as an adult it's an easier mind transition... just a personal theory based on chatting with people not scientific at all. I was always the chubby kid, more developed teen, overweight/obese adult I never knew anything else.

My best to you on this emotional part of your journey,

Michelle "Shelly"

thank you for the replies!! I'm glad I'm not the only one.  :)  Shelley, I think you hit the nail on the head - we were overweight for so long that it's hard to see the new us!

Thank you all!!! :)

Yup - it takes a while for us to "morph" into our new selves.  I think for me that happened when people stopped bringing it up!  I mean, I so wanted to be normal and have who I am as the focus, not how I look physically.  As long as people brought that up (even though they were purely complimentary), I felt uncomfortable.  I'm just past 5 years out and it's only recently that I feel like the person I see in the mirror - and that's such a wonderful feeling finally!!

After losing the weight I went and bought 4-5 full length mirrors and place them all over my house. I had ton walk by the, towards them all the time--seeing my new normal reflection in the mirrors finally helped my brain register the "new me" . the mirrors were 10-15 each so the whole set was less than one hour shrink therapy. Money well spent.