An old photo from a decade ago caught me off guard

2026-10-07 02:52

Someone dug up a picture of me from 2013, and I braced for the usual "look how young" comments. What hit me was that I was already uncomfortable then — just better at hiding it in hoodies and group poses. I started this journey last August and I'm down 37 lbs so far.

The weird part: a few relatives keep saying I'm just shedding the weight I picked up during the pandemic years. Like the last decade of yo-yo dieting, 2am cereal, and skipping lunch didn't count. I'm trying to let it roll off.

My actual wins are quieter: I can do 20 minutes on the bike without my knees complaining, and I hit 100g protein four days last week. I'm proud of those. Has anyone else had people rewrite your story to fit a neater timeline?

2026-10-10 06:38

late-night gamer here. the old-photo gut punch is real. what helped me was taking a pic every month in the same spot/lighting, no hoodie, and logging it in a plain notes app.

the scale lies weekly but the photo grid doesn’t. also swapped my 2am soda habit for cold sparkling water + lime, which cut a stupid amount of liquid calories without me feeling deprived. your relatives saying you're just "shedding the weight you picked up"—do they mean since 2013, or since last august?

bc those are two very different timelines and one is weirdly dismissive. either way 37 lbs is not nothing, congrats.

2026-10-13 10:04

Oof, the old-photo ambush is real. I found a 2015 group shot where I’d clearly positioned myself behind two people, and I remember thinking I was fine.

For tracking, waist-to-height and monthly photos in the same mirror/lighting helped me more than the scale—my weight bounced but the tape kept moving. In the trials, loss isn’t linear, and early whooshes can be fluid/glycogen stuff, so “just shedding recently picked-up weight” doesn’t really match a 37-lb drop since August.

Are your relatives implying you only gained recently? If your weight was fairly stable for years before, that comment kind of falls apart.

Either way, 37 lbs is not a rounding error. Congrats.

2026-10-20 04:38

Relatives blaming your past self is wild. Mine keep saying I’m “just losing the college weight,” except I gained most of it after college on $2 frozen burritos 🙃 I’m a dorm rat too, so my cheap-protein rotation is canned tuna, cottage cheese, lentils, and eggs microwaved in a mug. I track one