Body Image

Timothy over at Timothology  has been pondering the concept of body image.  He has been relating the dissatisfaction with our bodies  to the images in our media...the perfect images that we see in magazines and ads.  At the same time It is interesting because my friend  Sherry and I have also been talking about body image. We have been talking mainly about how we see ourselves and in particular our bodies.   I know that I have a very warped sense of my body image.  I don't see myself the way that I am.  When I weighed 315 pounds I looked in the mirror and I saw a 'normal' sized person.  The crazy thing happened though when I lost the weight...I looked in the mirror and saw the fat MaryFran.  Nuts I tell you!  The scales can be telling me that I'm losing mad pounds and I don't see it at all.  It makes it difficult sometimes.  (I can see it in pictures...I remember once when I was 'thin' I saw a picture of  this girl at his studio, draped over his board...I was MAD that he was posing with her...SERIOUSLY MAD.....until he gently reminded me that I had lost weight and that the girl in the pictures was ME!)  Soo how does one right these warped body image issues???

SOooo the last month has been a struggle with the weight loss.....I really haven't lost much...I've been sitting pretty steady at my weight.  That's ok...I'm doing what I need to be doing and I know the weight WILL come off.  (That said, I want it off NOW...ha ha ha).  But yesterday evening I was looking for a picture on my cell phone and low and behold I realized that I had two pictures of myself...same position....same outfit....roughly 1.5 to 2 months part.  Hmmmmmm  The scales may not be showing results but I do believe I can see a bit of a difference. 

Mid February 2013

April 4, 2013

I will admit to sucking my gut in during both of those shots!  ha ha ha

This morning I got out and ran.  This is my first nice weather run outdoors!  I felt naked without my umpteen layers of clothes!   My plan for improving my running?   I've decided upon this.  Right now I am going to work on increasing my distance.  Last week I was running 2 miles.  This week (today) I'm upping it to 2.5 miles.   I will run the 2.5 miles this week.  Next week I will bump it up to 3 miles.  I will run 3 miles every run next week.  At that point I will be right at the mileage I need for a 5k (OK who's counting those extra tenths....chump change).  I will then look at my time from my runs for the 3 mile week.  If I'm running the 3 miles in 45 minutes...then the following week my goal will be to run the 3 miles in 42.5 minutes.  And the following week running the 3 miles in 40 minutes.  Each week pushing myself to go faster.  This is my plan....lets see how it works! 

Body Image

I hate my body as it is right now.  Yet, I'm still quite a few (about 65) pounds lower than my highest ever weight.  I didn't hate my body at that higher weight.  I didn't lament about it. So I had a belly.  SO my thighs jiggled.  Big whop.  It didn't bother me.    I was comfortable in my own skin. I knew I was overweight but I was comfortable.  My self worth was secure.  I liked me for me.  I liked myself and I was confident in saying, "To hell with anyone that doesn't like me because I'm fat, I wouldn't want friends like that anyway."

I started losing weight simply because I wanted to.  And I found a whole new world.  I found a deeper level of confidence.  I found energy.  I found really cute clothes.  I was in my glory.  But was I happy?  No, for the first time ever I looked in the mirror and I saw a fat body.  Really?   I looked in the mirror at 315 pounds and I was at peace, yet when I looked in the mirror at 180 I saw a fat hog?  What came over me?  How could I not see it?    I will back up and say that I did see it in pictures.  There was  notable time when I was looking at a picture and I actually started questioning my husband about a thin woman in his studio and why in the world he had his arm around her.  Uhhhhh yeah, the girl was me.  So I could see that the girl in the picture was a skinny mini (I was and NEVER will be rail thin...but 315 to 180 is SKINNY)   Why could I not see it when I looked at myself?   My self confidence in myself was strong but my happiness with my body had wavered.

I maintained that lower weight for a while.  I was happy.  I loved the clothes I as able to wear and was amused to see that my style is totally different than I always thought it would be.   Fun stuff.  However, remember my happiness with my body had wavered and things were not copacetic within me.   I hadn't learned the proper life lessons needed to maintain my loss.   Looking back, it should have come as no shock that I gained weight.  I gained  lot of weight. I've got another mountain to climb to get back into my cute clothes.  65 pounds, give or take.  It's not pretty.  As my weight has increased so has my dissatisfaction with my  body.  My previous satisfaction with where I was and comfortable in my own skin when I was at that much higher weight did NOT return.   I honestly didn't expect it to.  I tasted what skinny feels like and I liked that taste.  I want that back.

As I lose the weight this time I don't know how I will combat this tendency that I displayed about not seeing myself as a thin person.  I don't have the answers.  However, I do now realize that fat is not the happy place of my earlier life.   

Fat is not for me any longer.  I'm choosing to live thin.  If I look in the mirror and see a fat chick,well so be it.  I like the energy, the confidence and the feeling of good health that swirled about me.  Body image is just that.....it's an IMAGE that my mind has conceived.  It is not a real thing...it's a perception.  I'm no longer going to be constrained to those perceptions!