Battle of the Bulge: Identity Change

I met with my Together in Ministry group this week. Our Together in Ministry group is a group of American Baptist Pastors in Southeast Colorado. In our group there is one other person who is experiencing significant weight loss. Actually, Mike is experiencing more significant weight loss than I.

I do not share about the group that often on my blog, because much of what we discuss is confidential. But I believe what I am about to share is more of a personal reflection, and does not fall under the auspices of our confidentiality agreement.

My friend Mike has lost over 100 pounds. He refers to the person he was before his weight loss as another person named "Fat Mike". He shows us a picture and says, "There is Fat Mike!". He discusses his person before fall of last year as "Fat Mike" as well. He presents himself as a person whose personality, attitude, and character has been made into a different person becaue he lost weight.

I am intrigued by this. One thing you often hear from people without profound weight struggles is that they often don't like it when their friends that are large people lose weight because they go from being kind and fun-loving to being mean,agressive and overly-serious. I have not heard this about my friend, mind you, but I have heard it before when I was trying to lose weight.

This makes me think. Do people change personalities when they lose weight? Do other people simply percieve folks different when they are thinner? Is weight loss, in the end, a converstion process?

My first thought is that I hope not. I look forward to being able to accomplish things I could not before as I lose weight. I look forward to getting into better clothes. I even look forward to renewed spiritual insight and depth through the weight loss process. But I hope to have a positive, joyful continuity between the person I am and the person I am becoming.

I don't want to become arrogant. I don't want to become one of those people who looks down on people that have a hard time losing weight after I lose more weight because if I was able to lose it they should too. I don't want to be the guy that shills for some weight loss method or another because I think everyone should do what I do.

I do want to feel different. I want to feel stronger. I want to feel more attractive. I want to feel more confident. In those ways I hope to change. But I also want to be the same me I have always been.

Have you lost a weight in the past? Do you see your personality change when you do lose weight? In what ways? Have you seen other people's personality change when they have lost weight? For the worse or for the better?