The doorbell camera caught a stranger who turned out to be me

2026-10-07 02:08

Hello everyone. I have been logging weekly averages since February — seventeen weeks now, sitting near 0.9 pounds down per week — so I have grown fairly calm about the scale. What I was not prepared for was the doorbell camera.

A package arrived Tuesday evening, and I opened the clip to see whether it had been left at the side door. There was a woman coming up the driveway in my coat, and for a genuinely confusing second I wondered who she was and why she had my umbrella. It was me.

The gait, the shoulders, the way I lean forward when I am hurrying — all familiar, but the outline was not.

I replayed it four times. No number on the scale has ever landed quite like that.

I am curious whether anyone else has been startled by a photograph or a recording rather than a mirror. I look in mirrors every day, but a camera catches you being ordinary.

2026-10-10 00:02

Ha, the doorbell self-recognition jump scare is so real. I had the same thing with my parents’ porch cam last month — I kept replaying it because I didn’t recognize my own walk, and my shoulders weren’t up by my ears anymore.

It’s wild how the scale average can be calm while the mirror/video still lags. Congrats on 17 weeks of consistency; that’s the unglamorous superpower.

What’s one habit you think is carrying those 0.9-lb weeks? For me it’s been Sunday fridge prep and an after-dinner loop around the block.

Also, did the package at least make it to the side door?

2026-10-10 00:31

Wait, was it the face you didn’t recognize, or the whole silhouette? Doorbell cams are wide-angle and usually mounted high, so they distort proportions badly.

I’ve had the same “who is that” jolt from security footage, then looked normal in a mirror. What helped me was monthly photos in the same spot/outfit plus a waist measurement—weekly averages show the trend, but not shape changes.

Have you compared tape measurements or any old clothes from February? That might be a less creepy reality check than the doorbell.

2026-10-10 23:16

Honestly, that happened to me with a window reflection at the grocery store last month. I was waiting in the car and caught a woman walking toward me, thought she looked familiar, then realized it was my own reflection in the tinted glass.

It wasn’t the size so much as the posture—no bracing against the cart, standing taller. I’m an empty nester too, and the walks plus actually cooking instead of grazing have changed how I move before the scale caught up.

Scale averages are calming, but mirrors are sneakier. How did it land for you—delight, grief, or just plain weird? Mine was weirdly tender.