Surprising advantages/perks of losing weight page 3

[341gerbig]

I'm not afraid of sports

I don't have to cross my arms over my stomach when I sit in public

Im friends with a lot of active people, excited for not being afraid of sports.

Weird question, did you not really know what to do with your arms at first?

[canuck416]

I am excited about how my clothes fit, I get a kick out of how people look to me for dietary and fitness advice, I love that I'm 60 and can still go to the track a run intervals that most 20 year olds can't do, it's great that the arthritis in my shoulders is gone, that my blood pressure has dropped from 130/90 to 105/78 and most importantly I love the energy and vitality I have for life.

[Paleobird]

Clothes shopping is fun and I can go into small boutiques and the clothes fit even though they top out at large. Yesterday I pulled 5 dresses, praying one would "be big enough" and ended up with 3 that looked great, one too small in the bust,and one too big. That the word "medium" is on my clothes is just strange feeling. My domain used to be XL, better if there was a XXL.

Oh, definitely. The little boutiques where the salesgirl is always a size zero and the largest thing they carry is maybe a 10 or a 12 would never have been someplace I could have ventured before. Recently I saw a cute black leather skirt in one of those stores but they only had a 4 or an 8 on the rack so I asked if maybe they had some more in the back because I now need a 6. It turns out they had one 6 but they had to take it off the mannequin in the window for me. Fit perfectly. Being the same size as the mannequin? Really? Yay!

[Sambo712]

Im friends with a lot of active people, excited for not being afraid of sports.

Weird question, did you not really know what to do with your arms at first?

Not really, I just realized one day while I was sitting in lecture that I wasn't covering my gut up. My hands spend a lot of time in my pockets nowadays.
On the same note, before I would start my day I would always try to see if my pooch was visible in the particular shirt I was wearing, and if it was really bad, I would change. I was even afraid of some fabrics because of the way they hang. Now my pooch is so minimal that I don't worry about it, and I know that in a few months it won't be noticeable at all. It feels like you'll never get to a point where you start to be happy with your body shape, and when you do, you just can't believe it! Good luck man, keep it up!

[namelesswonder]

I can never find my size in clothes that I like in the store. I guess there are a lot of size M/6 (or shoe size 9) women out there with the same tastes in clothing as me.

[EagleRiverDee]

Like several have said here, I enjoy that I seem to have more respect and people seem to like me more. There's a definite stigma attached to being overweight and people make some assumptions, IE that overweight = lazy. In my case it was medical- Hashimoto's thyroiditis due to allergies to the CW diet- and since changing my diet and going on replacement thyroid hormone the weight is slowly coming back off. I can't wait to be back at a totally healthy weight to enjoy all the benefits I know are coming- less joint pain (or none, maybe?), more energy, hike longer distance, less foot pain... airplane seats might even start to feel comfy. Mm, naahhh, that probably won't happen. But the rest, yeah.

[Unicorn]

More energy to blast through the evening routine with the kids: dinner, homework, bath, reading, load of laundry, more reading, cuddles, bedtime, clean kitchen, prep lunches...

When sitting in meetings and I need to get up, I can sidle along in front (or back) of the rows and not worry about having enough room.

Seeing the curve of my jawbone back by my ear.

My eyes are more clear and sparkly when my face is thinner.

Above all, the confidence. Meeting someone I haven't seen for a while and not having the "Please don't notice me. I look like crap and I don't want you to see. Crap, now I have to smile and fake it". What a relief!

[magnolia1973]

Above all, the confidence. Meeting someone I haven't seen for a while and not having the "Please don't notice me. I look like crap and I don't want you to see. Crap, now I have to smile and fake it". What a relief!

Yeah, I always feel like I look good these days, even if my hair is wreck.

And photos.... I like my pic taken now. I always say "oh wow, I don't look fat". I used to always look fat in photos.

[Kata]

I no longer loathe clothes shopping the way I used to. I still hate it, but it's not depressing like it used to be. I realized I wasn't chubby anymore when I put on a dress that was obviously too tight, but it didn't look bad. 25 pounds heavier I would have looked like a sausage and it would have ruined my whole day.

[trekfan]

Great topic! Let me share:

1. Clothes Shopping is enjoyable. Good lord, I have dreaded/hated clothes shopping since I was 9 ... it was always "Well, what can we find that fits you?" and then the long walk of shame from the dressing room back to my mom, where I tell her the pants/shirt/shorts she picked out for me don't fit for they're too small.

Now, I shop and pick out clothes I've never been able to wear. Small size shirts (which are actually kinda big on me), size 28 jeans (from size 40, a really tight 40, last summer), and I buy stuff in the teenage boys section because, frankly, that stuff fits better than the young men's stuff (which just seems to be bigger on me all the time). I don't endure a walk of shame from the dressing room anymore ... it's a walk of victory. The dressing room ladies ask "How'd you do honey?" and I respond usually with "Most of it fit." That's a great feeling.

2. I can do pullups/chinups/pushups. Before, there was no shot in hell of seeing me do any sort of exercise like that. I always failed those tests in PE class in school but got passed because of the "A for effort" bit. I had to try but it was SO embarrassing to just fail at it, year after year, while my friends could do it without too much effort.

Now, I can do it. I have my own doorframe pullup bar I use, I bat some out everyday. I'm not intimidated by it anymore. It's awesome.

3. I can run. I'm not blazing fast, I don't have the greatest form, but I can run a few miles and not feel exhausted afterwards. I move ... I move like the wind to me. The difference between how I move now and how I moved before is staggering. I thought gravity hated me and it turns out, no, gravity isn't the issue. It's actually enjoyable to run now whereas before it was excruciatingly bad.

I could go on and on, but the point is pretty simple: weight loss is great.