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Woman's weight loss transformation has created wild interactions, thanks to her ID photo

“‘So, you used to be fat?’”

Photo credit: Canva

An odd case of keeping up appearances...

Hardly any of us feel waves of joy when whipping out our ID photo in all its poorly lit glory, but very rarely does it cause quite as many problems as it has for Alex McCartney. In a video recently shared to her TikTok, the Pilates instructor in training recalled two separate events in which looking different than her driver’s license image caused major headaches.

The first ordeal was at Trader Joe’s, as McCartney was attempting to purchase a bottle of wine. The cashier, who thought the image “looked like a completely different person,” ended up asking her to recite her birthday, address, and card issue date.

Understandably, McCartney had no earthly idea what the issue date was, and a manager had to be called up to get a second opinion. It's here that we learned McCartney had lost a bit of weight…enough to be completely unrecognizable it seems.

But wait, there’s more! Previously, McCartney had been on a date at a pub, and she found herself in the exact same situation when she tried to order a pitcher of beer, handed the bartender her ID, and the bartender asked someone else to verify it.

@alexmccartneyy Who really looks like their id anyways??? #hingedating #storytime #rant #id ♬ original sound - Alex McCartney

McCartney’s date had been curious as to why she received so much scrutiny for her photo, and the bartender chimed in with, “‘Yeah, I’m not gonna lie. She used to be a lot heavier in this photo.’” A bit embarrassed, McCartney tried to make light of it, confirming, “Yeeeeah I lost a little weight but I didn’t think I was unrecognizable.”

Apparently not picking up on any social cues, her date then says, “‘So, you used to be fat?’” And even though McCartney warned him that, “I’m not having fun in this conversation, like, this is not an enjoyable topic,” he still ended up making a few jabs, like making fun of her for ordering only one pizza slice instead of two. Needless to say, this date didn’t become a relationship.

Both of these fiascos led McCartney to offer this PSA: “Take this as a reminder that you should go get your ID photo changed.”

Seems like McCartney isn’t the only one to have dealt with this kind of issue. Quite a few folks shared their own not-so pleasant stories of seemingly getting punished for not matching their license photos—whether that be from weight loss, or simply looking older.

“I am also turning 30. My photo is from when I was 21. Someone at the grocery store literally said ‘wow, some things have changed since this photo.” LIKE MA’AM I DID NOT ASK FOR A COMMENT,” one person wrote,

Another added, “I quite literally had my real ID questioned because my hair was longer in my ID photo." As if haircuts do not exist.

It’s an interesting conundrum. Obviously, the employees in these scenarios are by and large just doing their job by questioning a person when they don't match their photo ID. However, what people are truly taking umbrage with is how it seems to open the doors for unsolicited criticism. As with this instance, even losing weight doesn’t protect you from body shaming remarks that just don’t feel good. Maybe we can take this as a reminder that commenting on someone's appearance—even on an outdated ID—can do more harm than good.

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Identity

Woman posts dramatic before-and-after pics of one pound loss to prove that weight is meaningless

It's almost as if the numbers on the scale don't mean anything at all. 🤔

Adrienne Osuna is a fitness blogger with a focus on weight training. After years of struggling with her weight, this mother of four finally got serious about her health, adopting a rigorous schedule of power lifting, cardio, and intermittent fasting to lose weight, gain muscle, and kick ass.

And while her personal regimen might be a little too ambitious for most of us, she's still inspiring—because she keeps it real.

An image she posted on her blog is going viral for pointing out that focusing on your weight is a misleading goal. The before-and-after pic shows her before she started lifting and after—a complete physical transformation which resulted in a staggering one pound of weight loss.

I know what you're thinking—that's two pounds! Well, I can explain.

After Osuna's pic was copied from her blog, it blew up all over the internet—on Facebook, Twitter, Imgur, and more.

Youtube Mix GIF - Find & Share on GIPHYGiphy

After she went viral she made another Instagram post revealing she was actually a pound heavier in the after photo. Unfortunately, that post has since been made private.

She would later explain that she felt it was important to reclaim her image because it had been used in advertisements for weight loss products, and that's not what she's about.

"But I DID NOT use anyone's products to do this," she wrote in a post which since been made private. "This was all hard work in the gym lifting heavy weights and intermittent fasting.

Kudos to Ms. Osuna for getting the word out—fitness isn't about a number, it's about having awesome muscles you could use to punch a hole through a plaster wall.

This article was originally published on 12.22.22 by our partners at someecards and was written by Matt Nedostup.

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Health

Simple 'Lazy Girl Fitness' hack can help you have a gym routine that sticks

It's backed by science.

via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

A woman working out at the gym wearing headphones.

In 2018, author James Clear released “Atomic Habits,” a book about making significant changes through building small habits. The book's takeaway is that you don’t have to commit to drastic, overnight changes to improve yourself. You can do so by slowly working your way towards a goal.

"All big things come from small beginnings,” Clear writes in the book. “The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time."

TikTokker Ashie Adams has a similar theory she calls the Lazy Girl Fitness hack. She says people can create a regular fitness routine by breaking a trip to the gym down into 2 distinct events instead of one that feels overwhelming.

“It’s my secret formula for making becoming a gym girlie happen,” she explains. "When you start working out, actually getting to the gym is 90% of the battle. You have to treat the action of getting to the gym and the action of working out as 2 completely separate habits.”

I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 

@ashieadams

I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 #fitness #fitnesstips #fitnesshacks #weightloss #weightlosstransformation #weightlossprogress #lifting

Ashie then breaks down the two distinct tasks: “Getting to the gym is a matter of waking up early, finding the time to do it, finding your workout clothes [and] getting out of the door on time,” she says in a video with over 500,00 views. “Working out is a matter of having the motivation and having the right workout program. But one cannot exist without the other, so the first habit to develop is just getting to the gym.”

The Utah mother says that for the first 30 days, people should focus on getting to the gym and little else. If you leave the car and enter the gym try walking on the treadmill for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, slowly, once you’ve mastered getting to the gym, you can start developing a workout routine.

Ashie says that this 2-step technique allowed her to build a positive gym habit without getting overwhelmed and quitting after a few days.

“Nine times out of 10, when I tried and failed to create the habit of going to the gym, it was because I was completely overwhelming myself,” she says in the video. “I wasn’t trying to do one new thing, which is work out. I was doing 40 things, [which] is genuinely too much for one person to undertake all in one go.”

The 2-step Lazy Girl Fitness hack doesn’t just sound easy and effective, it’s based on solid scientific principles. According to neurology researchers, micro-habits are one of the easiest ways to develop new routines. Micro-habits are small, regular behavioral changes that are easy to build into a routine because they don’t encourage psychological resistance and won’t disappear as willpower erodes.

Eventually, these new behaviors, such as driving to the gym or having a glass of water when you wake up every morning, become hard-wired into the brain, and you’ll start doing them without thinking. That’s when the real change begins to take place.

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Pop Culture

Woman who went from a size 18 to a size 6 gets candid about her newfound 'skinny privilege'

"When I speak, people tend to listen more."

@megmackenzies/TikTok

“Skinny privilege is a thing, and even I find myself taking advantage of it.”

There are many different types of social privilege. We most often talk about the privilege associated with class, race or sex, but the inherent advantages of being thin are certainly substantial as well.

Take a 3-second scroll through your social media platform of choice, and you’ll see the endless messages—both insidious and overt—that glorify thin and/or muscular bodies while shaming other body types. Having a body that is celebrated by society offers benefits like respectability, kindness and even better health care. That is thin privilege, aka skinny privilege, in a nutshell.

And if there’s any doubt as to whether or not this privilege exists, take it from those who have lost weight and were suddenly treated differently (read: better).

Meg Stier, an actress and motivational speaker based in New York, is one of those people. Stier recently got candid about all the unexpected changes that came after she went from a size 18 to a size 6 in a video posted to her TikTok.

And while Stier noted that this was “not an attack on skinny people,” adding that they have their own problems too, her stance was clear that—at least in her own experience—skinny privilege definitely exists, and we need to talk about it.

@megmackenzies Anyone else experince these things? #bodyacceptance #nyc #bodypositivity #performer #lifestyle #weightloss ♬ original sound - Meg Mackenzies

The list included conveniences like being able to find her size in any store to being shown more basic human decency, like people looking her in the eye when they speak to her and actually listening when she speaks.

Even her career “took off” the moment she lost weight. “I didn’t suddenly become more talented, smarter or better at my job,” she said. “I just looked different.”

In fact, Stier can now make the same lifestyle choices she made when she was larger without outside judgment, simply because she looks different.

“Nobody judges when I order a cheeseburger or a salad. I can literally eat whatever I want in public, and nobody thinks twice about it” she revealed. She can also go to the gym without people giving her sympathetic looks.

“People considered me unmotivated, unhealthy, and in general just lazy because I was bigger. Those are three words that no one would use to describe me now, and my lifestyle really hasn't changed that much," she said.

“There’s a serious bias against fat people, and unless you’ve lived on both sides of the spectrum it’s hard to fully grasp what that means,” she concluded. “Skinny privilege is a thing, and even I find myself taking advantage of it.”

Stier is not alone in her experience. Her video received a ton of comments from other people who had lost weight and were treated better because of it. Some even shared the congratulations they got after losing weight due to illness.

Not only that, but there are literally thousands of videos on TikTok under the hashtags #skinnyprivilege and #thinprivilege reflecting similar stories, all attesting that it is in fact a real thing. Many even reflected on what it was like to gain some weight back and return to being “invisible.”

@itsmekelsc Today I chose the sassy life 💁🏼‍♀️ but it had to be said. The difference in treatment from strangers is WILD #weightbias #obesitybias #skinnyprivledge #obesity #weightloss #weightlossjourney #pcos #pcosawareness #mounjaro #ozempic ♬ original sound - Kelsey ✨

As with all forms of societal privilege, addressing the issue starts with spreading awareness. Social media might add to the problem with the way it often sells the idea of thinness and beauty as status enhancers, but it can also be a great tool in ending stigma as well. Conservations like the one Stier and others are having helps us take a closer look at our own beliefs and hopefully challenge them.

We’ve already seen the ways challenging the status quo can create actual change. The exploitative nature of capitalism aside, think about all the brands that have adapted to a more diverse, inclusive beauty standard due to real people taking a stand. Think of how much more body neutrality is a part of our collective mindset than it was only a few short years ago. Clearly, we still have ways to go, but part of progress is getting real with what’s in front of us.

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