My fun house diet
Here's a little science lesson from real life. Remember those fun house mirrors? Do you know how they stretch you out and make you look tall and slim? It's because they are curved inward - a concave curve, it's called. Concave curves stretch the image, while convex curves compress the image.
Guess what happens when you prop a full length mirror against your wall rather than hanging it properly? If the bottom is kicked out too much the mirror will curve and you get instant improvement of the self image.
But what if it's just slightly tilted out at the bottom - just enough to keep it stable, so it doesn't fall down? Then the mirror will start out nice and straight, and gradually acquire a curve over the next couple of weeks.
You'll think you are shedding weight effortlessly as you look a bit slimmer day by day. It probably won't occur to you that your clothes aren't fitting any differently; you'll just be glad that the last 7 pounds of baby weight are finally coming off without dieting.
You might feel a little proud of your own self control: losing weight without dieting means that you have self control even when you're not concentrating on it. You don't have to get obsessive about dieting like some people. You simply eat what your body needs, and stop when you're full. Losing weight isn't so hard. Anyone could do this.
If you happen to step on the scale, you might decide that your new fancy-schmancy digital scale is not as accurate as you thought because it says nothing has changed even though you are clearly slimming down. Maybe you are building muscle and losing fat, rather than losing pounds. At any rate, you are looking positively slender.
And then you'll notice that the mirror is out from the wall so far that it's beginning to curve alarmingly. And you'll set it back up nice and straight. And you'll feel very silly when you realize you've fallen for the old fun house trick.
Related posts:
- My sister’s scale
- An open letter to Shannon
- Sights, smells and sounds in our house today
- Big family in a small house, part 2: storage
- Big family in a small house, part 3: Floor plan
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Sounds like an experience!
I love your blog. I grew up in a shoe, oldest of 8 in a very poor family. We shared bedrooms (5 girls in one, 3 boys in another and my parents in theirs… which was the living room. I married and raised 5 in parsonages, big ones and small ones, but always not much pay.
I think I am better off and my kids were better off than all the families of “2″ who have space and more money. (Even if THEY do not think they do!)
God is the supplier and He says Children are a blessing from Him, I agree! ( I know it does not matter, He is right even if I do not agree.)
Thanks again for enjoyable reading in my inbox!
is this a true story???
I’m afraid so. Silly me.
oops – but I just stepped on the fancy-schmancy new scale and it’s NOT digital. So it’s mostly true.
That is so funny. Once you figure it out, think you can do it again and live in denial? Oh well. At least you were happy for a couple weeks!!!
Hi there.
I feel the same way. I’ve been working on my diet while here in Ca. and at moments I think I could have lost some here or there, but then I wounder if my mind and eyes are playing games with me! There has been a little improvement in the way I FEEL in my clothes, (liking the way they look on me,) but does that really mean anything?
Oh well. I try not to obsess about it. Though I’m not the best eater, I don’t live on a bunch of junk, so if I’m getting enough exercise, I need to let it go. I do think you are on to something with the mirrors though. All of the mirrors here at Nanny’s have been hanging for thirty years. I wounder if they can get wavy while on the walls?
Tell the girls hello for me. I hope they are doing ok after the long hall at the warehouse.
Hope to see you in a couple of weeks.
Ashley
You don’t need to lose 7 pounds.
Love ya