Down 1 Dress Size...but...

So I'm officially down a dress size but, for some reason, my mind hasn't caught up to the fact that I'm at a much smaller size than the previous size I was wearing.  Take the last couple of weeks for example, I was out shopping for a new dress for an event I was to attend the week after, and naturally I gravitated toward the size I had grown quite accustomed to for so long-a size 14/XL.  So I went and grabbed the dress, tried it on, and when I came out to get a better glimpse in the full length mirror outside of the change room, the floor lady was like "ahhh that dress is a tad bit big on you, you definitely need a smaller one".  I was like, what is this lady talking about, is she crazy, I'm thinking, "there's no way that I'm a much smaller size as this lady is suggesting." 


So as the story goes, the floor lady grabbed me the next size down a- 12/L and of course, it fit much better than the initial size I had grabbed.  I was down a size and I couldn't believe it, and despite being down in size my mind had a hard time catching up to it.  


Interesting thing is that I'm not the only one this has happened to.  When my best-friend had lost weight a few years back and had gotten down to a size 6/8 her mind was telling her that she was still the size she was months prior-size 10/12.  It took a while for her mind to catch  up to the fact that she was a smaller size, not to mention the few taunts she received from friends and family that her clothes were way too loose on her and she needed much smaller, fitting clothing.  The same thing with a few of the members at my meeting who had lost weight on Weight Watchers; I'm talking 50/100/150 pounds.  Despite losing significant amounts of weight, they were still living in their former fatter selves and believed that they were much bigger than they presented.  


I'm not sure why those of us losing weight go through this, but it's quite fascinating and one that I attribute to living in a culture or a society where nothing ever seems to be good enough and that seems to be the case with these examples.  


My only hope is that as I'm losing weight, I come to embrace the little changes that come my way, especially as my appearance starts to change with weight loss .  I'm of the mind-frame where: when I lose this weight, I want to keep it off for as long as I possibly can and if I can do those little things to embrace where I'm at with each day, it'll make the world of a difference.