Changing my mindset

I've lost 70 lbs in about 15 weeks. 

I get at least one compliment a day.  Most often, I get more.  People tell me how amazing I look.  How beautiful I look.

I've just purchased my first pair of jeans from a non-plus sized store.

However,  I still am shocked and disgusted when I look in the mirror.  I don't really see the weight loss.  I still see a horribly fat person. 

Does this eventually go away on it's own?  Maybe I should get myself a nice therapist. Anyone else deal with feeling like this? 

I had a therapist tell me once that it took 2 years to readjust our body image, and that seemed to be true for me when I lost weight in my late 20s.  I do this "self talk" thing where I tell myself that I look better than I think I do, and that one day I'll be able to appreciate it. 

I think it's worth getting professional help if we start making decisions based on that distorted body image.  Fifteen weeks is *nothing* in time, while 70 pounds is a big, big difference in size.  I know I'll need time for my mind to catch up.

 I put my fat clothes on and look at pre-op pics when I need a mental adjustment. 

Along with all the other gread advice here, I think there is also another component - just where you are in your life process.

I spent 20 years morbidly obese. I saw pictures of me from every event and cringed. I avoided the camera and hated looking at myself. Oddly in the mirror I had a more "normal" reaction to me, I knew I was fat and was more interested in how I felt my clothes looked. Now naked in front of a mirror you just did not find me doing that. Ever.

I find I have to look at pictures. I see myself better that way. I have a normal reaction to myself in pictures now because there is such a huge difference between then and now. But in the mirror I'm analyzing every bit of loose skin, dimpled skin and remaining fat (thighs, butt and arms).

So maybe if you look at yourself in a different manner you can find a way to see the reality through the thought process? But I do think that I had gotten way past caring what others thought of my weight, and so I stopped beating myself up. I was more concerned with how I felt physically than how I looked as time went on. That might be why I can see myself now without the head games I played for years?

I think the best thing you can do, is find a way to be realistic. None of us are going to end up modeling swim suits on the catwalk. But all of us will feel better internally and that will in time help us see the external in a better light.

 Thanks guys.  Patience is a virtue I seem to be lacking these days.....gotta keep my head up.

Kat,

I have the same issue... my therapist can't believe that i really don't see a difference when i look in the mirror.  there are some days i think i look smaller in my clothes, other days the same, but when i look at my face it always looks the same to me.  what helps is taking pictures.  each month on my surgiversary my husband takes front, side and back pictures wearing the same outfit.  not much difference from surgery to month 1, but from surgery to month 2 i can see a little bit of a difference.  i'm down 60 pounds since sept. 1st (pre op) and everyone is telling me how great i look, am down to a size 18 pants, but i still feel exactly the same.  think it's totally normal and i've read that it's how anorexics can think they are heavy due to body dysmorphic disorder.... take pictures, they do help!