Your Mental Size

I've heard many times that people who are trying to lose weight sometimes have a hard time because their mental size of themselves is larger than their target weight.  They see themselves as overweight, so even if they lose the weight, they return to a larger size due to mental image. 

I've always been relatively thin.  Not too thin, but never pudgy or overweight.  I could eat whatever I wanted.  I didn't appreciate that until I hit thirty.  Then things slowed down with my metabolism or maybe I just got more hungry.  I thought at first that my pants had shrunk, but no, I had gained weight.  I never even owned a scale until I was over thirty.  I had to figure out what my target weight was even suppose to be.

I went on a diet, did a good job and at a certain point realized I needed to stop because I was losing weight in places I didn't want to lose weight.  So, now I know what I should weigh to be a healthy right-sized person.  But I don't weigh that now by a good number of pounds.  I'm not fretting over it, it'll come off, it's doable.  It's just not what I currently weigh.

Back to my point of what your mental image is of your size.  I've started exercising using the Kinect on the XBox.  I do these dance things and at the end it takes a picture of you in the "finishing move" which is all kinds of silly, but hey, it's exercise.  Every time I think "who is that fat person in the picture?  That's not me!"   I'm thinking this means my mental image of myself is lower weight than I currently am.  If so, hopefully not only can I lose the weight, but I'll be able to keep it off. 

The Big Boy Update:  No napping for me. Yesterday he refused to nap.  This happens with one nap of the day sometimes, but never two.  He just didn't want to sleep.  This does not bode well for later in the day when he's out of energy, hungry and melts down.  But last night he pushed through it at the restaurant, spent a lot of time trying to interact with the baby at the next table and didn't fall asleep on the way home for his final bottle of milk and bed at his regular time.  He slept an extra half-hour this morning.  Ahhh, the quiet morning.  So rare.  So treasured. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Not the thumb!  She's found her thumb several times.  At first, they indicate they're hungry by trying to get anything into their mouth.  Their hands find their way there commonly and lots of sucking sounds are heard while they try to find the milk.  Eventually, the baby finds a thumb.  The first time it's so cute.  The baby looks so blissfully happy that something just the right size for sucking is now in her mouth.  But I'd rather her prefer a pacifier.  That can be removed later.  She's getting more skilled now with her hands.  She seems to prefer the middle and fourth fingers.  She cried this morning before breakfast and then stopped.  I should have known.  When I went up at nine, she was happily sucking on those two fingers.  I woke her up (she smiled) and carried her downstairs.  Before we were even at the bottom of the stairs she had the two fingers back in her mouth.  So we're at high alert for pacifier insertion opportunities now.