I now have a "Normal" BMI, but now what?? I'm still not satisfied!

 For the past 7.5 months I have been so excited to hit my goals and milestones. Now one of my important goals has been reached, to have a normal bmi, but I'm not truly satisfied!  I mean really I am a size 6, and that's not even good enough, not that I want to be a size 2, but maybe it's because my other goal of wanting to get to 130 is still 19 pounds away. I am afraid once I reach that I still wont be happy...then what? I think I have intentionally not done anything about my 1.5 month stall for this very reason. Does this make sense? I have been really thinking about it a lot as of late, I have decided to do the things necessary to get out of this stall, ie, exercise again and up my water intake. I need to face this head on, I believe it will make me stronger. Once I get there I guess I'll take it from there... Has anyone else been at this place in their journey? What has helped you get through this?

...Or maybe it's because the journey AFTER goal is one of self acceptance. Your body doesn't NEED to change anymore but your mind probably does.

This is why we vets preach all that mental mumbo-jumbo. You'll never be satisfied with your body until you acknowledge what you were dissatisfied with in your life. That is the real hunger you were probably trying to feed with food and now that you have lost the weight, it's probably the reason you can't feel as if you are finished.

My therapist has been invaluable in this process for me. I feel like I KNOW what I was trying to compensate for and now I can be happy with the fabulous new body and life I have.

I wish the same for you.

Thank you and you're right! I too hope I get the that place sooner than later. Maybe it's time for a therapist, who am I kidding it's been that time for years! 

The mental part is much more difficult than the physical part.  I have been in a place lately where I KNOW therapy is necessary.  I strongly suggest you consider talking to someone about what you are going through too.

I am down 93 lbs since August and I had a very difficult time with surgery.  I feel the same way, which is why I started seeing a therapist last week.  Good Luck

It is fairly common to struggle with reaching a point where you can accept the size (and appearance) of your new body... and, as Nik pointed out, it often really has nothing to do with weight or clothing size.  As a licensed counselor, I have seen a lot of people who think that they would be much happier with themselves if they could just lose 10 or 20 pounds... and then tyhey lose the weight and discover that the lack of self-aceptance has nothing to do with the weight.

I am 4 years post-op and have really struggled with accepting that I will NEVER be a single digit size.  I simply don't have that kind of body.  I have 36DDD boobs and very muscular thighs (which, at least, balance out my chest and keep me from looking like Dolly Parton!).  Deep down, even though I knew it wasn't possible, I still wanted to be a size 8... and since I am NOT, I sometimes have to fight against feeling like a WLS failure (which I am definitely NOT, since I lost 185 pounds and -- more importantly -- have been maintaining it within 5-7 pounds of my lowest weight for seneral years).  Sometimes, for some people, the intense focus here on weight and clothing size can be psychologically unhealthy.

Some questions to ponder: Is there something "magic" about being 130 pounds? What does that reprensent to you?  What would NOT getting to that weight mean to you?

As some of the others have said, counseling can be invaluable in the effort to find self-acceptance that is independent of weight/size.  It can also be very helpful in addressing other emotional/psychological issues that contributed to your obesity in the first place (because those issues will probably pop back up again eventually, and can threaten your maintenance of the weight loss).

Lora

 Funny thing Lora is that I never discussed a "goal weight" with my surgeon, this magical 130 came from the morning as I was about to go into surgery. One of the nurses wheeling me into the OR asked me, what my goal was, up to that point I had not thought about it at all... so I laid there a second pondering it, and 130 came to me, so I blurted that out, now it is stuck in my head! I know that my body may not allow this to happen and I will have to accept that. Getting to that point is my next journey, that of which will hopefully make me stronger. I know therapy would do me good but then the "perfectionist" side of me is holding back thinking I can handle it on my own. I know the hardest part will be to just do it, but I do not want to jeopardize all this hard work I have done thus far... I will get there!
Thank you ladies!

I am currently in the same situation.  I only have 5 pound til my goal and I've been in a stall for a few months now.  I try and look at it that this is really the only stumbling block I've hit in a year, but it still causes me grief, anger, self pity.  What happens when I reach it. Will I finally be completely accepting of myself?  I too have decided to get back into the necessities of things to see if it can help.