I was looking through some old pictures of mine, and then some others on here. The "befores". I noticed the strained smiles and pain in the eyes. We were all hurting so much. That is one of the big gifts of the sleeve. Freedom from that pain when a camera is pointed your way, or your spouse sees you naked with the lights on, or your last pair of pants don't fit. Why did that pain send me running to food? It did. Than the guilt and self incriminations! I am still in the loosing phase, but somewhere during my loss that voice got nixed. I don't even mind my husband seeing me with the lights on! I want a ticker for that! Or maybe a parade.

Parade for sure.

Great post. I don't take many pics at all right now. I'm hoping to change that. I love pictures. My honey and I just got back from Disney. We go almost every year. And this year, while great, was more of the same regarding pictures. I took most of them. I'm in maybe 3? Face only of course. Meh.

Same here. In fact my before picture is actually after the surgery. I was very skilled at hiding from cameras. And pretending I didn't have a problem with food.

Great post.

Hey for me the big difference you can ACTUALLY see my eyes. I always thought I had ugly pig like too small eyes. i get complimented on them all the time now - turns out they were just hiding under all that fat!

One of the things I noticed on VST is a large percentage of folks who have some inoccuous picture for their avatar, but then, after a few months post op, they put in their real picture.

It definately signals a change in attitude towards the camera.