Self Sabotaging...

Dietgirl24's goal weight seems fine for her height to me. I once weighed 92 pounds and I am 5'6"! (I was in a ballet company and couldn't gain weight to save my life). 5'2" is quite petite so I am sure she will look normal and healthy, not too thin at that weight.
 
I can't believe how I associate with your comments, txgardenia. I've always had a weight problem, but have always been told I 'have a great face, and would be so much better if only I could lose the weight' - you could be a model!. Well, over the years I've lost the weight, only to attract comments from men. One time, I was walking to the bus stop and some bloke from across the road commented loud enough for me to hear "look at the tits on her", I went home, feeling sick and cried and thats when the binging began and 3 stone later ..... Another diet, another comment from a bloke in work on a night out "oh yea I recognise you, you walk past with your arse and tits sticking out, hoping we'll look at you". Sniggers all around, I left, cried my way home, started binging. I can promise you, I have never worn tight clothes or stuck anything out. In fact I've always hidden away in loose clothing! Unfortunately I do have large boobs, which have been commented on since schooldays (unhappy thoughts of a 14 year old me boiling in a cardigan in the middle of summer). Now im 15 stone and have to deal with comments like "hey fatty lady" from a couple of teenage boys. It never ends. I'm still trying to work out my thoughts and feelings and realise this has been going on for 27 years! Thanks for a thought provoking threat, you got me thinking........
 
what an interesting thread. I've not read the book but I agree with the hypothesis. Being large offers some protection from unwanted attention. I was a thin teenager and young adult then I was attacked by someone I thought was a friend and I used food to comfort and in my subconscious I thought if I'm fat no one will want to do that to me again. It became a security blanket. As I got older I lost weight and started trying to put it all into protection. I met a man and thought I could carry on. It wasn't to be and my ex was physically and mentally abusive. I had the strength to get away but I turned to food and my weight has boomed and I'm now seriously overweight and unhealthy. BUT I feel safe because men won't want me. Slowly I'm getting a grip on these irrational fears, I know there are a world of men out there who wouldn't care less what you weigh and fat isn't really any protection, I know that unfortunately bad things happen to good people. However how do you break over 10 years of that mind set? Think I'll start by visiting the library and getting a copy of that book.
 
My friend recommended the book to me but I've not been able to read it yet. I get the idea though and I think it's true for me too in some ways. Being very overweight has made me feel safer when I'm out and about, with the stupid (and I know completely false) idea that because I see myself as fat and ugly nobody would dream of attacking me for example even if I'm walking across a park in the pitch black, that kind of silly thing. When I was thinner I had a couple of occasions where I was followed (really obviously, once by a car and once by someone walking who stopped every time I stopped) walking home and had to run to a public place for safety.

There is also a feeling of strength even though in fact I am very unfit, for example when our car got stuck in the driveway because of a dead battery at 17.8 I managed to push it out over a lump caused by a tree root under the driveway, at 15.8 I barely managed it and we almost had to give up, I had less weight to throw behind it. Part of me wants to be 8.8 as I'm supposed to be, part of me is afraid I'll be a weakling.

Also, I was a size 18 already when I got with my partner and have never been smaller than that in the last 3 years so I'm worried about being slimmer than I've ever been before, going back to dressing in a way I only did before when I was single and also getting attention for the first time in years. I worry my partner will get jealous and the comfortable relationship we have will be unbalanced because, for example, right now I never go out socialising at all, my partner is quite a homebody and so am I, but when I was thinner I was the life and soul and only started hibernating as the weight crept on and I was scared of bumping into people I knew :(

So many reasons to lose it though, I guess I will just have to adjust.
 
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