Trying to feel at home in my smaller body

Friday at 7:25 PM

I hit my goal in March after 14 months and 61 pounds, and I’ve been maintaining within a 3-pound range since. Most days I feel steady. But I’ve noticed a weird guilt when I catch myself feeling genuinely happy about being a size 10 instead of an 18. Like I’m betraying the body-positive voices that helped me stop hating my old body. I don’t think my worth changed. I’m just more comfortable in clothes, on stairs, in airplane seats. Still, celebrating that feels like saying my old body was wrong. I’ve been trying to hold both: gratitude for the body that carried me then, and joy in the body I’m living in now. Does anyone else navigate this? How do you honor the old you without making the new you the only “good” one?

👍 6 ❤️ 2

Monday at 5:28 PM

I get this so much. For me, the guilt showed up when I realized I could cross my legs under a restaurant table without angling. I almost felt like I had to downplay it. What helped was separating “I love my old body” from “I’m allowed to enjoy this body too.” They can both be true. Body positivity wasn’t a vow to never feel joy in a smaller size—it was permission to feel at home in whatever size I’m in. What’s one tiny thing your size-10 body can do now that makes you smile? Start there.

👍 4 ❤️ 1

Yesterday at 9:52 AM

Hi! I get this. I’m learning that body respect and body joy aren’t opposites. One concrete thing that helped: I made a note in my phone that says “My size 18 body got me here; my size 10 body is where I get to live now. Neither one is a moral grade.” When guilt pops up, I read it and then do one neutral care habit—10-minute walk, protein at breakfast, or actually buying the jeas that fit instead of waiting to shrink. Joy isn’t betrayal; it’s information. Curious—what’s one everyday thing your current body makes easier or more fun? Celebrating that might give the guilt somewhere else to go.

👍 6

Today at 11:46 AM

Congratulations on 14 months and such steady maintenance. I recognize that guilt. One concrete thing that helped me: I track daily weights but only look at weekly averages, and I note one non-scale joy each week, like wearing a size 10 dress to a birthday dinner or sitting comfortably in a booth. The happiness was not a verdict on my size 18 self; it was information about how I feel now. When the guilt shows up for you, does it feel more like fear of becoming smug, or grief for the body you spent years defending? I am still learning to hold both: gratitude for then, delight in now.

👍 2 ❤️ 1

Today at 2:37 PM

Small-town angle: I had a moment at the county fair last month. I slid into one of those tiny Ferris wheel seats with my niece and didn’t have to suck in or wedge. Pure joy—then that weird guilt popped up, like I’d just insulted my old body. What helped was separating two things: being happy about a new experience isn’t the same as trashing who I was. I just tell myself, “Both bodies got me here.” Does your guilt get louder around certain people, or is it mostly when you’re alone noticing something new?