The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[sydney_gavin]

Hi All,

These were taken at my wifes 40th birthday at the beginning of December.

They represent my high water mark - 129kgs (283.8 pounds for the metrically challenged hehehehe) - the tide is about to turn.




Can't wait to post goal photos

Kind regards

Gavin

[bikipatra]

Wow, is she gorgeous...

[GucciGoo]

TO-GA! TO-GA! TO-GA!

[Taangrl21]

Thanks for sharing your pics...looks like it was some party....

[casma500]

posting before pix was my best motivator!! i am so proud of you for doing it! hopefully, your medi-grub will be arriving soon! and i agree -- your wife is beautiful and doesn't even look CLOSE to 40!!

[Amber]

Why, Gavin, you fashion trend setter...
Thanks for posting your pix; difficult as it may be, you'll be so happy later that you took this brave step forward!

[bikipatra]

Why, Gavin, you fashion trend setter...
Thanks for posting your pix; difficult as it may be, you'll be so happy later that you took this brave step forward!

I don't see why it's difficult at all. I mean the whole District of Columbia can see how fat I am, why keep it a secret from the people who are here to help me?

[nickieluv]

I know you were probably kidding, Biki, but I think what makes it so hard is that we are admitting to OURSELVES that we have a problem, not just to other people. We have to actually look at these pictures and be honest. Posting before pics makes this more real, also - a 'before' implies an 'after' and this time, we really have to do it.

I know that last time I never posted pics and I never really got serious about MF. Not that pics alone makes the difference, but I think it must do something.

[bikipatra]

I know you were probably kidding, Biki, but I think what makes it so hard is that we are admitting to OURSELVES that we have a problem, not just to other people. We have to actually look at these pictures and be honest. Posting before pics makes this more real, also - a 'before' implies an 'after' and this time, we really have to do it.

I know that last time I never posted pics and I never really got serious about MF. Not that pics alone makes the difference, but I think it must do something.

That may be your experience Nickie, but no, I wasn't kidding. By not posting pictures we are allowing shame or embarrassment to dictate our actions. Our weight is a fact, not a feeling. Before pictures, whether the person ever loses a pound, makes others who come to Medifast see that others just like them started Medifast too. If we only see afters what can we relate to as the newcomer?

[Elizabeth]

My thought on posting before pics....

I won't be posting before pics of me until I have something to show. I do have them but will post them when I'm 1/2 way to goal.

I think Gavin wanted to show off his pretty wife anyway and his HOT outfit
(in a nice, joking way)

Best wishes to you Gavin. I hope your progress pics are in the same outfit.

[dede4wd]

Hi Sydney,

Thank you for posting your before pictures. Looks like we missed a GREAT party! I find myself chanting along with Beth "To-ga, To-Ga"!

I am partially metrically challenged, but I'm working on it!

I'm so happy you're starting this journey and can't wait to watch your progress pictorally. I hope your Medifast food arrives soon!

DeDe

[Sojourner]

Dude. There's a bush on your head!
Thanks for the pics, nice to put a face to the name.

[sydney_gavin]

Thank you everyone for your very nice and sometimes amusing comments.

My advice if you are fat and want to wear a toga?? - DON'T - it kept falling off - and I had mine professionaly made to an exact toga pattern!! I ended up ditching it later in the evening the 5th time my ample bottom was exposed to all and sundry hehehehe.

And yes my wife is gorgeous!! Both in looks and heart. We have been happly married for 12 years and are only this year getting around to having the celebration - hence my burning desire to adhere to my promise to be trim taut and terrific.

Just one comment - I am in agreement with Bikipatra - it is good to see ourselves as we are (hence me having no hesitation to post pictures at my high tide level) - I am overweight - no amount of kidding is going to hide that BUT it doesn't make me any less of a person than what I am.

In fact being fat has taught me a lot about human nature -it is sure a way to sort out shallow people, and has also taught me a lesson in looking beneath the skin rather than no deeper than the skin. Adversity always brings understanding.

So, here I am in all my 'glory' - looking forward to having considerably less glory in 24 weeks time.

Thanks once again for your comments and I am looking forward to being on this journey with you all.

Now if my MF could just arrive!!

Kind regards

Gavin

[Karli]

Hi Gavin, thanks for sharing your photos !! I have to say that I love your attitude, and I think you are going to do fantastically on this program and that you will *love* the results.

Now this really caught my eye :

In fact being fat has taught me a lot about human nature -it is sure a way to sort out shallow people, and has also taught me a lesson in looking beneath the skin rather than no deeper than the skin. Adversity always brings understanding.

What really struck me about this sentence is how impersonally one can take this lesson of being overweight. Everybody has some kind of challenge in their lives, or multiple challenges, and sometimes it is *so* tempting to take it all so personally and let it become our very identity (and if one is not careful, that can really get into the way of one's progress. There is a fine line between not letting something cloud our thoughts of identity vs denial that there is something to be dealt with). But, how interesting to me that you have taken it all as such a learning experience about life in a much broader way (it seems). I guess everything we do and experience can be like this.

For me, thinking of it in a less personal manner and more of something I have just experienced in a very human sense of life --and am learning how to deal with-- seems to free me up even further from it. It's just a certain perspective whose daily manifestation I believe I am parting with and feeling ready to release altogether. I will keep, treasure and cherish the lessons, but I will lose the fat by gum (mmmmm .... gum ).

Anyway, I am thinking this may not make a bunch of sense, but something about what you said just clicked for me and gave me a new perspective... and that's always pretty exciting for me .

So thank you ! So happy to have you here .

Cheers,
Karli

[sydney_gavin]

Hi Karli,

I am really glad I sparked you thoughts along this line. I have much experience in peoples attitude to 'fat' - my former wife hated me for being fat - and I was around 30kgs lighter then - she was incredibly (and still is) shallow - and is still looking for happiness where it rarely exists - in the 'beautiful' people.

Living in China I am quite honestly enormous - I am about three times the average person and wherever I go I attract attention. Much mirth from time to time, a lot of interest and sometimes admiration (in older times in China to be fat was to be filthy rich!). It is just the way it is and I don't find any negative connotation to it - especially when I can understand and reply to comments.

I have actually only once heard a cruel comment from an older lady - one of the shallow set - who I cut down to size by saying in Chinese - 'Yes, I may be fat, but you are ugly - in a few months I can be thin - but you can never lose your ugliness because it is ingrained' - you should have seen her face - hehehe - she couldn't believe a foreigner could understand her let alone reply.

However, I digress. I would not want as my acquaintance anyone who judges me on something as superficial as my weight or my physical appearance. I think it is one of the most stupid things a person can do in lie and having the shallowness to approve of people who are physically attrative (in the worldly way) is a ticket to misery.

The old adage that beauty is only skin deep is so true - but it must go hand in hand with the fact that physical beauty is SO impermanent. An accident, an illness, the passage of time, the effect of the sun on your face - all the things that conspire to rob a persons youthful beauty are in fact teachers of the soul (IMHO).

We need to see other people (and ourselves) for what we are - in an inner sense.

I'm rambling - beter go and make my breakfast!!

Kind regards

Gavin