Have you ever hid from someone because of your size?

(Jennibc) #21

These were from regular cameras and not phone cameras. I’d been hiding from cameras for a LONG time!

#22

Ah yes the days of rolls of film and printed photographs :slightly_smiling_face: I guess we’d only really know if we asked the photographer. I also reckon it was the lenses and, in reality, you are not as you perceive the lenses perceive. It is a shared malady of modern times.

It still depends on the lenses. Some of the short lens cameras :camera: were only 28mm.

(Ellen ) #23

Hahaha. Mine too!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #24

My problem is the opposite. For decades I’d look at myself in the mirror and see myself at my college weight, even when I was well over a hundred pounds heavier, and all of it fat. Even photographic evidence to the contrary never fazed me. So I just expected people to see what I saw, and it was never an issue.

These days I am still fat, but I don’t worry about it. I may not look like a walking advert for keto, but I know what this way of eating has done for me. There is a woman at my church, who is just as fat as I am, and she turns out to have had the same experience as I on keto. Sure, we’d both love to be thinner, but we are so grateful for how much fat we’ve already lost because of this way of eating.

Richard made a statement at Ketofest 2018, because he’d heard a remark about a friend of his, who has been on a ketogenic diet for years and is still quite large. One of the attendees spotted this man and said something to the effect of, “What can he tell anyone about keto?” Richard pointed out that his friend has dealt with severe health problems by eating keto, and he has lost an enormous amount of fat in the process, so actually, he can tell us quite a bit about keto.

So these days, when I’m out on errands and find myself dismayed by all the fat people around me, I make a point of thinking to myself that perhaps keto has already made the same amazing difference in their life that it’s made in mine.

(back and doublin' down) #25

@PortHardy Heather, the OP had me sad, then the later post was so emotionally healthy! WTG! and all the follow up posts by everyone resonated deeply.

While I don’t recall ducking into another room to hide, I do know there has been years of avoidance. Avoiding photos, removing ‘tags’ on social media so acquaintances wouldn’t see me in family photos, avoiding social situations if I wasn’t 100% sure who would be there, reunions of many kinds. Then there’s the fears of putting myself out there, fears of rejection, fears of going clothes shopping because I didn’t want to try on clothes and find they didn’t fit.

When I wanted to try out for drum major of my high school band, my parents told me I was too fat for the drum major outfit. I know now they were afraid for me, afraid of the possibility of ridicule, afraid to see the spotlight on their ‘fat daughter.’ (I won the position anyway, btw, and had a great time! even though there was that one time during a half time performance that my pants ripped.)

The other side of this has been the awareness that many of the fat shaming people from my past also ended up with weight problems. And my high school memory of them no longer applied. And some that may have remained thin have health problems I wouldn’t trade my fat for.

We all have our own journeys. You are doing you in a healthier way, feeling better about yourself, and you aren’t hiding from yourself - which seems like the best direction ever!

Thank you for launching this introspective thread. Another mentioned the harm of shame. Shame works just like trauma on the body, throwing us into a more ‘fight or fight’ mode, which slows digestion and increases cortisol, all messing with fat loss. Shame = I am bad. Guilt = I did something bad. Processing that shame,moving it from “I am…” to guilt “I did…” creates potential for forgiveness and release.

Forgiveness works when there’s a compensation plan. Keto is my way of paying back to my body, doing the best I can to help it heal from my following SAD guidelines and torturing it with bread and sugar.

Here’s wishing you openness and pride in your accomplishing!

#26

Just wanted to say I get it… I totally get it, I think probably for different reasons for many, but certain circumstances definitely ignite a flight or fight response in us! I once dove into the middle of a clothes rack in a store to avoid coming face to face with someone lol (my poor mom outside the rack was like “uh honey, where’d you go?”). Then I heard his voice, “ok well nice to see you again too…” wasn’t as stealth as I thought :rofl: