What REALLY inspired you to lose weight?
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girlviernes wrote: »Getting extremely scared when I learned I had a plaque in my left eye and stenosis in my carotid. This puts me at risk of stroke or heart attack.
The fear gave me the motivation to start, but more positive benefits keep me going.
You are way too young for this! I'm so happy you are getting positive benefits; keep it going. It's amazing all the difficulties that being overweight causes. And that's just physically. Mentally, it's tough as well. I cry when I see the posts by overweight people, especially young people, who say they've given up, that they can't stop binging, that nobody cares about them, and that they would rather eat what they want than be healthy. Breaks my heart. That's one of the reasons I love MFP - we can all support each other.0 -
Two things
1) my wallet was tired of buying new sets of pants and shorts every season change. Seriously. Every time I lose a size now, I don't have to go shopping. I've got a full wardrobe for a wide range of sizes over the past several years.
2) we are required to get blood work for our workout health insurance for discounts. My results for cholesterol and triglycerides weren't pretty for a young woman. It made me sad and I wanted to get my health in check.0 -
It was a documentary about morbidly obese people. People, who died because they were too fat to walk or even get up. People, who ignored any signs of their body that screamed "stop" and continued the unhealthy lifestyle. I was crying when the documentary ended, because I knew that I'll be like that in 20 years, if I do not stop. And now that my mother's health is decreasing rapidly because of her weight, I get even more afraid. I do not wish to die like this, I don't want to not be able to move freely when I'm 40 years old. I want to be healthy and I want to be pretty...0
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Two things
1) my wallet was tired of buying new sets of pants and shorts every season change. Seriously. Every time I lose a size now, I don't have to go shopping. I've got a full wardrobe for a wide range of sizes over the past several years.
2) we are required to get blood work for our workout health insurance for discounts. My results for cholesterol and triglycerides weren't pretty for a young woman. It made me sad and I wanted to get my health in check.
Isn't it fun shopping out of your closet and finding things that you outgrew years now fitting you?0 -
Nothing superficial really. I know losing weight won't give me the look or the body I want because its not in my genetics. I started seriously trying to lose weight when I realized I weighed over 300 lbs. I had been having tingling sensations in my limbs years before I decided to lose weight so I can't really say my weight loss journey began because of health issues-- besides being beyond obese. I also hate my life to the point where I want to do a complete 180 change, so I'm trying to make weight for the military.0
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Reconnecting with old college boyfriend who is EXTREMELY fit at 50!!! We are doing the long distance thing and only get to see each other 2-3 times a year (right now) due to jobs and family obligations. We make mini-vacations out of our visits, jetting off to a fun city to play. Each time we meet in an airport, I want to make him do a double take. Vanity at it's finest.
ETA: That and the fact that I am moving to Florida in a month...let's just say that I fully understand that it will be much harder to hide my body in a tropical environ. lol
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When I realized that I was only 20lbs. away from 200lbs. That was a wake up call for me. I was determined that I was not going to reach that 200lb mark and the way I was going, it wasn't going to take long for me to get there. I stumbled upon MFP and here I am a little over 2 years later and still logging. I've had my ups and downs but I'm not that far from reaching my goal. At my age, you have to really watch it because of all the different types of health conditions that can arise. I already have RA, OA, and osteoporosis so don't want to make my life any more miserable than it is, and heart attack and stroke runs in my family. It is a hard journey but it can be done.0
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For me, I'm doing it for my son. I want him to see that being overweight is not a good way to live. I want him to know that his mum is going to hopefully be around for him instead of being a fat unhealthy sack of sad.
I'm 25lb down since January and I'm feeling so much better in myself. I am 10lb away from my initial goal weight but I reckon I'm going to keep going.0 -
EMTFreakGirl wrote: »Reconnecting with old college boyfriend who is EXTREMELY fit at 50!!! We are doing the long distance thing and only get to see each other 2-3 times a year (right now) due to jobs and family obligations. We make mini-vacations out of our visits, jetting off to a fun city to play. Each time we meet in an airport, I want to make him do a double take. Vanity at it's finest.
ETA: That and the fact that I am moving to Florida in a month...let's just say that I fully understand that it will be much harder to hide my body in a tropical environ. lol
I have a friend who gains weight when she has a boyfriend and loses it when they break up. I've never understood that, as I am like you - if I'm dating someone, for some reason the pounds magically fall off. Of course I haven't dated anyone in 12 years, so I'm having to work for it now, hah! Yep, Florida is tough, but I'm sure you'll get there!
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Realizing at 32 that I was a decade younger than my dad was when he was diagnosed with diabetes, and I was on that same path towards trouble.0
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When I realized that I was only 20lbs. away from 200lbs. That was a wake up call for me. I was determined that I was not going to reach that 200lb mark and the way I was going, it wasn't going to take long for me to get there. I stumbled upon MFP and here I am a little over 2 years later and still logging. I've had my ups and downs but I'm not that far from reaching my goal. At my age, you have to really watch it because of all the different types of health conditions that can arise. I already have RA, OA, and osteoporosis so don't want to make my life any more miserable than it is, and heart attack and stroke runs in my family. It is a hard journey but it can be done.
Yep, as I said in my original post here, I was barely 30 pounds away from 200. And I'm only 5'2", NOT GOOD! I am so grateful that I found MFP!0 -
I was pre-diabetic and had high blood pressure. I was kind of trying to lose the weight, not very hard. Over two years I lost about 30 lbs. I got divorced and started looking around, again, I sort of was trying to lose some weight. I met someone and it was getting serious, we did get married and talked about being able to travel and do things together. I told my doctor I wanted to lose 75 lbs. She agreed. When I told my husband, prior to the wedding, my doctor wanted me to lose the weight his response was "you'll look like a stick!" Not very encouraging. After the wedding I was put on insulin, now full blown T2 diabetic. My daughter got pregnant and I decided that I wanted to be more healthy, reduce or eliminate some or all of my meds. I wanted to be able to do the things my husband said he wanted to do together and I wanted to be around for my granddaughter, and be able to do things with her. I found MFP and was doing well, even though my husband went through several medical issues, in and out of the hospital and emergency room for over a year. He underwent a severe personality change and I went into a depression and gained back some of what I had lost, discouraged I dropped out of logging on MFP. At the new year, I decided the hell with him, I am doing this for myself and started back with the program. I've lost 11 lbs, it's slow but it is staying off. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to put up with the negative attitude of my husband but now I have two beautiful granddaughters to spend time with and my son will be getting married sometime this fall and will be gaining a son along with a wife. I'm in this for the long haul now.0
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I went to my cousins wedding and realized that if I didn't do something, I would probably be alone my whole life. I've been miserable at my size forever, but the wedding just made me realize I was done with being my size0
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At 5'2", I was a mere 12 pounds away from 200!
In addition to that I was:
Very uncomfortable in airplane seats.
Growing out of size 18 pants.
Eating entire cakes at one sitting.
Hearing fat songs from my youngest child (he called me Baby Beluga)
Depressed
Sitting constantly
I could go on and on!
I started losing slowly but surely by simply cutting portions.
Then I started walking.
Then I started walking a lot, elliptical, lifting, step classes, boxercise, etc.
I was so happy when I could sit with my knees up to my chest!
Fit extremely comfortably into my airplane seat!
Could fit into size 6 jeans!
Extra small tops!
No longer knock things off tables with my huge butt!
When I heard my youngest son say, "that's enough mom, time to stop losing!"0 -
Saw a not-so-old picture of myself in an Armani suit I could no longer fit in.
That was it - realized I was getting older, and that I wasn't far away from looking like a sack of ****ty potatoes unless I got myself back in shape.
Plus I was spending a lot more time dealing with people, and the plain fact of the matter is the better looking you are, the easier it is to get things moving your way. Fair or not, that's the world we live in.
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healthygreek wrote: »At 5'2", I was a mere 12 pounds away from 200!
In addition to that I was:
Very uncomfortable in airplane seats.
Growing out of size 18 pants.
Eating entire cakes at one sitting.
Hearing fat songs from my youngest child (he called me Baby Beluga)
Depressed
Sitting constantly
I could go on and on!
I started losing slowly but surely by simply cutting portions.
Then I started walking.
Then I started walking a lot, elliptical, lifting, step classes, boxercise, etc.
I was so happy when I could sit with my knees up to my chest!
Fit extremely comfortably into my airplane seat!
Could fit into size 6 jeans!
Extra small tops!
No longer knock things off tables with my huge butt!
When I heard my youngest son say, "that's enough mom, time to stop losing!"
Your youngest son is obviously a sweetheart! Congratulations to you!0 -
I started rapier fencing which is very active and to be serious about it I knew I had to lose weight to compete.0
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My mom died of cancer a few years ago. She was overweight most of her adult life and the last few years she was in pain and increasingly stuck in a chair. Walking was hard for her. She was a great person and I loved her.
So last year I got up to my highest weight and was in the obese category suddenly. Dh lost weight as a side effect of a medication he was on and I outweighed him. I'm starting to notice it is harder to climb stairs without being out of breath. I don't have much energy. Clothes don't fit well. I'm having trouble getting comfortable in bed. I'm having more pain. My dd is complaining about how loud I snore when I didn't used to snore. Then I'm walking with my dh and dd on 2 occasions and I can't keep up. They are 5 feet ahead of me and I'm going as fast as I can. I'm out of breath, my leg hurts badly and I just want to sit down. It wasn't the end of a 5 mile hike... just a couple of blocks. I'm only 40. I was mad. I told myself that I'm not going to be stuck in a chair, sick, have people walk slow for me or bring the car around because I can't walk anywhere if I can prevent it by losing weight.
I signed up for MFP and here I am 20 lbs lighter and at my lowest weight in 5 years after 6 months. Another 10 pounds and I will no longer be overweight. Lots of improvements to the quality of my life just by losing some weight.0 -
Pain0
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He was only 5 so I set him straight and forgave him!atypicalsmith wrote: »healthygreek wrote: »At 5'2", I was a mere 12 pounds away from 200!
In addition to that I was:
Very uncomfortable in airplane seats.
Growing out of size 18 pants.
Eating entire cakes at one sitting.
Hearing fat songs from my youngest child (he called me Baby Beluga)
Depressed
Sitting constantly
I could go on and on!
I started losing slowly but surely by simply cutting portions.
Then I started walking.
Then I started walking a lot, elliptical, lifting, step classes, boxercise, etc.
I was so happy when I could sit with my knees up to my chest!
Fit extremely comfortably into my airplane seat!
Could fit into size 6 jeans!
Extra small tops!
No longer knock things off tables with my huge butt!
When I heard my youngest son say, "that's enough mom, time to stop losing!"
Your youngest son is obviously a sweetheart! Congratulations to you!
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atypicalsmith wrote: »I had known I needed to get off my butt and do something about my creeping weight for a while, but was kinda able to ignore it. Then my husband decided to take up photography as a hobby. Suddenly I was constantly faced with pictures of how big I had gotten and how far it was from my mental picture of myself. Then my husband took this picture at my daughter's 3rd birthday party.
I was horrified. It looked like I had a second set of boobs! I thought I looked good in that outfit, then I saw that picture and that's the straw that broke the camel's back. Not long after that I got serious about losing weight. It took some trial and error before I figured out what worked, but that's where it started.
Isn't it funny how when the weight creeps up on you, that you still see yourself as that person you used to be until you see yourself unexpectedly in a picture, or in a mirror, and then get the shock of your life?
So true. I knew I was fat, I avoided getting on a scale, I knew what clothes didn't fit (although I never could look at clothes and see them as what would fit me, so just avoided buying them), but my mental picture was still off, and so it's not surprising it was a photo that shocked me into taking action in large part.
The weird thing now is that I really don't feel like I look that much different (and I feel basically the same, just more energetic), so it almost surprises me when people who haven't seen me since I lost the weight see such a huge difference.0 -
I realized I was planning my days to make one trip down the stairs in the morning (my bedroom is
the 2nd floor), and one trip up the stairs in the evening, just because it was too hard for me to do.
That's stupid.
Contributing factors are that I was REALLY unhappy with how I looked & felt, plus some of my
bloodwork numbers weren't where they should be, and I know that being overweight is a major
contributor to many diseases.
[ETA: seeing the comment just above, about avoiding the scale, I remember that I'd do that too...
at the doctor's office. They were annoyed that I'd refuse to be measured, have my temp taken, etc.
But if it wasn't related to why I was there, there's no reason to do it. I knew I was fat. It doesn't
really matter if I was 20 lb overweight or 110 (which is where I started). I wasn't ready to change
and no amount of them printing "obese" on my chart - which they always give copies of the day's
visit as a patient leaves - would do anything.]
Now, I sometimes run up the stairs at work, and usually do them easily a dozen times a day.
About half of most work hours, most days, I will be standing.
If someone could have explained to me how MUCH better I'd feel (and look) even getting _near_ a
healthy weight (I'm still 20 lb above the _top_ healthy weight, by BMI), I would have done this
10 years ago, or better yet, not gotten fat in the first place!
Oh, and I _love_ weighing in at the doctor's office now!
.
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My doctorsaid he wanted to see me at 160. I was about 225 at the time.
I'm pretty easy.
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I have a friend who gains weight when she has a boyfriend and loses it when they break up. I've never understood that, as I am like you - if I'm dating someone, for some reason the pounds magically fall off. Of course I haven't dated anyone in 12 years, so I'm having to work for it now, hah! Yep, Florida is tough, but I'm sure you'll get there!
I'm the same way with gaining weight when I'm in a relationship - more cooking, going out to restaurants, cookie and candy movie nights, ice cream dates, "no time" for workouts. Break ups cause me stress, then I don't eat, lose all the weight, more gym time. Guess I'm an emotional eater but in the opposite way of most people, I eat when I'm happy.
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Sweets1954 wrote: »I was pre-diabetic and had high blood pressure. I was kind of trying to lose the weight, not very hard. Over two years I lost about 30 lbs. I got divorced and started looking around, again, I sort of was trying to lose some weight. I met someone and it was getting serious, we did get married and talked about being able to travel and do things together. I told my doctor I wanted to lose 75 lbs. She agreed. When I told my husband, prior to the wedding, my doctor wanted me to lose the weight his response was "you'll look like a stick!" Not very encouraging. After the wedding I was put on insulin, now full blown T2 diabetic. My daughter got pregnant and I decided that I wanted to be more healthy, reduce or eliminate some or all of my meds. I wanted to be able to do the things my husband said he wanted to do together and I wanted to be around for my granddaughter, and be able to do things with her. I found MFP and was doing well, even though my husband went through several medical issues, in and out of the hospital and emergency room for over a year. He underwent a severe personality change and I went into a depression and gained back some of what I had lost, discouraged I dropped out of logging on MFP. At the new year, I decided the hell with him, I am doing this for myself and started back with the program. I've lost 11 lbs, it's slow but it is staying off. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to put up with the negative attitude of my husband but now I have two beautiful granddaughters to spend time with and my son will be getting married sometime this fall and will be gaining a son along with a wife. I'm in this for the long haul now.
What a brave and wonderful story!0 -
I realized I was planning my days to make one trip down the stairs in the morning (my bedroom is the 2nd floor),
and one trip up the stairs in the evening, just because it was too hard for me to do.
That's stupid.
Contributing factors are that I was REALLY unhappy with how I looked & felt, plus some of my bloodwork numbers
weren't where they should be, and I know that being overweight is a major contributor to many diseases.
Now, I sometimes run up the stairs at work, and usually do them easily a dozen times a day. About half of most work
hours, most days, I will be standing.
If someone could have explained to me how MUCH better I'd feel (and look) even getting _near_ a healthy weight (I'm
still 20 lb above the _top_ healthy weight, by BMI), I would have done this 10 years ago, or better yet, not gotten
fat in the first place!
.
What a great testimony!0 -
I went to my cousins wedding and realized that if I didn't do something, I would probably be alone my whole life. I've been miserable at my size forever, but the wedding just made me realize I was done with being my size
And it will happen, slowly but surely, but definitely a lot faster than it took you to put the weight on. Be patient, because it WILL happen!0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »
Yeah. He'll be 61 in nine days, but it was quite a wakeup call when it hit me.0 -
My mom died of cancer a few years ago. She was overweight most of her adult life and the last few years she was in pain and increasingly stuck in a chair. Walking was hard for her. She was a great person and I loved her.
So last year I got up to my highest weight and was in the obese category suddenly. Dh lost weight as a side effect of a medication he was on and I outweighed him. I'm starting to notice it is harder to climb stairs without being out of breath. I don't have much energy. Clothes don't fit well. I'm having trouble getting comfortable in bed. I'm having more pain. My dd is complaining about how loud I snore when I didn't used to snore. Then I'm walking with my dh and dd on 2 occasions and I can't keep up. They are 5 feet ahead of me and I'm going as fast as I can. I'm out of breath, my leg hurts badly and I just want to sit down. It wasn't the end of a 5 mile hike... just a couple of blocks. I'm only 40. I was mad. I told myself that I'm not going to be stuck in a chair, sick, have people walk slow for me or bring the car around because I can't walk anywhere if I can prevent it by losing weight.
I signed up for MFP and here I am 20 lbs lighter and at my lowest weight in 5 years after 6 months. Another 10 pounds and I will no longer be overweight. Lots of improvements to the quality of my life just by losing some weight.
I am so happy for you! What a great testimony!0
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