I remember years ago when I was dating my husband I felt compelled to tell him that I was really a fat girl in a temporarily thin body! Previous to meeting him I had dieted and exercised my way down 100 pounds! He didn't care and still doesn't and we are happily married even though my prediction came true!! I am so excited to get sleeved and to lose this weight hopefully for the last time but I wonder if I will always self identify as a fat girl in a temporarily thin body??? Does anyone else have worries like this?

I'm very worried about it. I think that is a large part of this mental journey and I will have to face it at that point. I will continue to view myself as fat even though the scale and mirror don't reflect it. I am hopeful there are some techniques I can use to assist me during that time. I also hope I will be able to recognize that I am doing it just as you did.

I am, and always will be, a fat person. I've never known anything else. Even if I change physically, I haven't changed mentally. It's how I self identify. I will always have to fight against my body's natural inclination, which is to be overweight. You know, though, it doesn't worry me. I was happy fat. I was okay with myself. Now that I'm losing weight, I'm okay with that too, even if I don't recognize the person in the pictures I take now. She is, in many ways, a stranger to me. I am the same person I've always been, even if my body changes. I think, above all else, what's best for me is to just be okay with whatever happens. If being fat was the worst thing that ever happened in my life, I've had an exceptionally blessed life.

I remember years ago when I was dating my husband I felt compelled to tell him that I was really a fat girl in a temporarily thin body! Previous to meeting him I had dieted and exercised my way down 100 pounds! He didn't care and still doesn't and we are happily married even though my prediction came true!! I am so excited to get sleeved and to lose this weight hopefully for the last time but I wonder if I will always self identify as a fat girl in a temporarily thin body??? Does anyone else have worries like this?

I am scared too. I lucked out, in some ways, - I met my husband when I was really heavy then I got thin and then heavy again. If I met him thin I would have said the same thing- that I was really a fat girl! LOL

I think it will always be on the back of our minds especially for us that have yo-yo'd a lot through life. I am thankful for the surgery and I am soooo happy I can't eat as much as I did. I just try to stay positive and really in-vision my future as thinner. But I can totally relate to The Gamer- when I look in the mirror I'm like, "Who are you?" But yes, I feel I am the same person as I have always been.

Life is such a journey with all its experiences! I love it!

Someone asked me the other day how I was going to deal with being thin. Well, I am only 19 days out from surgery so I feel like it is way too soon for me to worry about. Even so, the question confused me. I finally realized why. Since I gained weight, I think of myself as a thin girl in a temporarily fat body. I still have trouble believing this will work. Especially since I think I am in the dreaded 3 week stall. The scale has not moved in 4 days. I am just pushing on and waiting to see what happens.

My self identity has always been that I am a "big" girl. One of my earliest memories as a child at the age of 5 was worry that I was too big for my dad to pick me up and carry me into the hospital when I was hurt and needed emergency attention! Why in the world would I be worrying about my size when I was so young and hurting!! I need a therapist to figure all this out . I just know this has been a lifelong demon of mine that I would like to finally be rid of!!!

Tannak,

Did your mom diet all the time when you were growing up? My mom did. She was always dieting. I don't ever remember that she was overweight. She just thought that since she weighed 112 pounds when she was 20, that shoul never change. One of my friends was obsessed with her weight. She lost a bunch of weight at 15 and then just struggled for the next 30 years to keep it off. Needless to say, two kids and it was a losing battle. Her daughter, who is now 24, grew up with a mother obsessed with her weight. By the time her daughter was 7, she was obsessing about her own weight. It was heartbreaking to hear her crying and saying she was fat. My friend and her daughter were sleeved four months apart four years ago. They are both great today. I think our mothers are the biggest influence on this issue in our lives. That and TV.

My mom was thin when I was a kid. She's would encourage me to lose weight all the time. The more she forced the issue, the less I was inclined to do what she suggested. Now, she's in the same shape I am. She's financing this surgery because she knows how much I want it. Sometimes I wish I would have cooperated with her suggestions a LONGGGGGG time ago

As Far as how I see myself, I think I'm in denial about just how big I am. So seeing a skinny version of me will be even better! LOL

I grew up in a normally dysfunctional family my mom and dad were both overweight and occasionally dieted. It was not an obsession for them. I was one of six kids born right smack in the middle and the only one overweight as a child!! My brothers and sisters all struggle with weight as adults but none of them but me experienced this as a child!! And I am the largest of all of them as adults . It sure will be nice to reverse things for once in my life!! I would love to be the smallest of them all . With the sleeve this just might happen