distorted image?

Honestly I think it a learned thing and little things that are said in the past the hurt stay with us longer. At 210 I loved myself (as of new years) but when I was younger I didnt apperciate myself when I was 140, cuz I was the "fat " on of the group. Now my "lil" friends say how jealous of me back then when we went shopping because I knew what would fit me and just buy it at the store and it would look great while they had to try on every piece the store had. Because they lacked the confidence. I am now at 195 and I still love me for who I am chunck and rolls and curves and all. But I am on a mission to better myself build myself more confidence to be a better person.

You are your worse critic and until you get ahold of that nay sayer you may never be happy so Change it dont let that NAG get the best of you because you are a beautiful person inside and out.

Well, I have the opposite problem: I look in the mirror and see an 21 your old man who looks pretty good! (I am in my 50's and still overweight) When I see a picture of myself it becomes more real.

We just need to realize that our senses are filtered through our personalities, beliefs and experiences to create our perceptions. I remember a psychology class demonstration of a dance floor where the class was given an assignment to watch a film clip and count the dancers for a brief time. People were coming on and off the dance floor and it was kind of hectic to count. More than 1/2 the class did not see the gorilla character cross the dance floor bright as day!

Yes, I think most women do have a distorted body image......For me, growing up in a household of six sisters who were all TINY like my Mom was tough! I was the "big" one at 5' 7" (one of my sisters is just 4' 11" and my Mom is 5' 0"). As a teen, I was a runner and had a tall, thin runner's body.....yet, my family always teased me that I was the "big" one!

So, as an adult, I can see that I am not fat....but, I just see fat on me. I see myself as the big one, and that makes me feel "fat."

I think that we can redefine our own perceptions of ourselves though! I'm working on that everyday!

I was always the biggest girl in my class as a child. Not heavy, just very tall (5'9" by age 12). But I always remember looking at the legs of the girls sitting next to me and then at my legs and seeing that my legs were so much bigger. It took me a long time to realize that my legs are always going to look bigger (no matter how thin I am) because I am a bigger person. If my legs were a thin as a girl who is 5'3" at my height, I would look like a stork. Now I try to focus more on the proportion of my body and that has helped.