These thoughts came about after reading a post on a forum where someone was upset… a friend of theirs found an old photo with them in it before their weight loss and contacted this person saying something to the effect of… ” I just found this aweful pic of you on my facebook album and you would die if you knew it was on here, xxxxxx, you look like ****”.
The poster then went on to talk about how it was a group photo with all these other people they knew, all smiling, and there they were “hiding” back in a corner and how “bad” they looked. They remembered how much they didn’t want to be in the photo at the time, and how sad it was to see that photo now.
Then the original poster talked about how they had posted an update photo to show friends and family their progress, and how this “best friend”, the one who brought this other photo to their attention had never commented on it at the time.
It can be difficult for people, especially those who have never battled a weight problem, to know how they are supposed to react when we lose weight like this.
Think about it… how many posts do you see form folks who are told by someone how good they look after losing the weight and are hurt because they feel they’re being told they weren’t a “good person” when they were fat. Almost as many posts by people getting upset because a certain friend hasn’t given them a pat on the back for losing the weight.
I think sometimes we put people around us in a no-win situation.
Our old pictures are a double-edged sword. On the one hand we can look at them for inspiration, they remind us of how far we’ve come and give us a huge (pun intentional) reminder of a place we never want to go again.
On the other hand, for many of us they are an ugly reminder of a time we were not in a good place in our lives. They stir up those old feelings of loneliness, awkwardness, depression, and more.
It is harder at some times than it is others, but I choose to wield that first edge as much as possible. I keep before pictures on my phone, I have a book of before and after that I show at meetings I volunteer at for my surgeon. For the most part, I don’t hide from where I was… I’m not saying I’m proud of those pictures, but for better or worse they are a part of who I am, they are part of what made me what I am today.
image credit: HubPages
Exactly! The before pictures are a statement of who you were in that moment.
Rob – could you ever imagine looking like you do now? It’s surreal. The pictures help me wrap my brain around how things have changed.