What REALLY inspired you to lose weight?
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leslieroman98 wrote: »I was 4'9, weighing in at 116 pounds, wearing a size 11 dress for my sweet sixteen... That was enough motivation for me.
As a random note, as a 5'8" woman I'm always shocked by the weights of petite women. You are overweight at 116, I'd be quite underweight!0 -
mz_getskinny wrote: »I met my future husband, Norman Reedus.....but he didn't propose on the spot...
Later, when I saw the picture of us, I understood why!! Next day? New mfp account. And here I am 8 months later and 50 lbs lighter
You met Norman Reedus!!!!??? Jealous!0 -
I lost a bunch of weight, gained it back, all that jazz. I was diagnosed pre-diabetic a few months ago and started trying to watch what I ate, and when I went back for a routine checkup for my thyroid, I was just in the limit of diabetic. I don't like taking more pills than I have to (I already took 3), nor intentionally causing myself to bleed to check my levels, nor being restricted on what I can and can't eat and what size portions and having to eat more carbs. When I want a whole banana, I want to eat the &!%@# banana, not half of one.
Plus I just felt so much better when I was lighter. It was easier to move, I didn't have this big gut getting in the way when I exercise, all that garbage was gone.0 -
I like that your post says what "really" inspired you to lose weight because I've been trying to lose weight half-heartedly for years, but what "really" inspired me were success stories on MFP that showed me that I didn't have to be miserable to lose weight. That is what finally clicked for me. When I learned that people could have great success with very reasonable methods and eating a wide variety of food I said, "Okay, I'm finally all in!"0
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So many of my clothes were tight and I really, really didn't want to go up another size.
I couldn't sit comfortably because there was too much belly and it would creep up against my boobs and it just plain sucked.
Granted, I was only 140, but I'm also just 5' tall. So the 140 put me smack dab in the middle of "overweight." I knew I'd gained about 5 pounds each winter the last couple of years (I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and it tends to give people intense carb cravings, and I definitely was one of those people). I was lucky it wasn't more.
A good friend of mine has lost something like 60 pounds over the last year or so and I kept thinking "okay if he can lose that much, I can absolutely lose this little bit." Still wasn't quite ready to really give it a try.
Then this January we had a Biggest Loser challenge at work. 3 months to lose the weight. Everyone puts in $50, winner gets the cash. Winner is the person with the highest percentage of weight lost.
No one thought I would participate, and I came in waving my money and telling them to bring it on.
3 months later, I was $250 richer
and about 15 pounds lighter.
I wish I had taken pictures and measurements back at the beginning, but I can see a difference in my body (namely, holy **** I have muscle in my abdomen?????) and I've got the motivation I need to keep going and get that body I want.
~Lyssa0 -
Your story is inspiring to me. Thank you for opening a good topic of conversation.atypicalsmith wrote: »For a very special event in 2007, I was inspired to lose 20 pounds. After the event, I immediately gained it back. Then I gained another 20 pounds. At this point, I bought a dress that I LOVED as inspiration to lose back at least the 20 extra pounds I gained. Instead, I gained another ten. The dress went to the back of my closet and I all but forgot about it.
Sigh. What finally truly inspired me, besides being horrified at accidentally seeing my reflection in a window or mirror, was hitting 169.8 pounds. Whoa! Time to stop this insanity! So I joined the Y and started eating better. Before MFP, it took me about six months to lose ten pounds. Since MFP, I've lost 14 pounds in three months. I still have 36 to go, but I'm in no hurry as I want to lose it in a healthy manner. Half a pound to a pound a week is just fine with me.
Meanwhile, I found that dress and have been trying it on every two or three weeks. At first, I couldn't pull it up past my knees. Then, I could get it around my body, but couldn't zip it up. Then, it could be zipped up about halfway. Next, it zipped all the way up, but I looked like a stuffed sausage and the one button in the middle wasn't even close to the loop where it belonged. Today, I could button it. It's still too small for me, but it's amazing at the transformation even though I still have many pounds to go. Soon, that dress will fit me, and that is when people will notice that I've lost weight. And then, the dress will be too large for me.
It took nearly eight years, but that dress is finally inspiring me!
I've was fat my entire life, from the time I was an infant and the doctor told my mother to stop overfeeding me. It turns out she was giving me the bottle every time I cried because I was awful fussy.
I was the fat kid in school. In junior high I weighed anywhere between 145 and 165, but I don't really remember. I just remember being made fun of and eating to hide my feelings around being bullied. In high school, my weight was between 185 and 200 pounds. I think I was only about 5 ft 2 or 5 ft 3 as a teen, then spurted up to a whole 5 ft 5, where I've been every since.
I have an eating disordered past (bulimia), which kept me fluctuating in weight in my early 20's, yo yo dieted in my late 20's to my late 30's with a weight range of 165 to 200 pounds, and then by the time I hit my early 40's I was feeling horrible. Depressed, fat, and feeling physically horrible, I joined the gym and hired a trainer. He pushed me to my limits and taught me how to count calories and log food. I listened for awhile, got to 155, and felt fantastic!
Over five years, I lost touch with calorie counting and gained about 30 pounds back. My limbs were aching, I was low energy, and I could barely function throughout the day. According to medical tests, the only thing wrong with me was that I was overweight.
A few years back and I went looking on the web for an electronic food log and found MFP. I re-learned all about calorie counting, learned even more, and began my new weight loss journey. I learned about nutrition, but most of all I took responsibility for my weight management. I changed my eating habits for sugar free (ha, never was REALLY sugar free) and low fat to whatever-foods-I-love-in-moderation. Since I love to workout as well (I even did so when I was overweight), continued to run but also added in weight lifting.
I lost 44 pounds in almost one year, and I've been maintaining for over a year now. This morning, after a great night's sleep, I got out of bed with ease, no aching limbs of exhaustion. I stepped on the scale at 139.2. Yesterday it was 140.2, a few days ago it was 141. I no longer freak out over weight fluctuations. I weigh my food and log everything I eat. I have sweets in my house but I don't overindulge. When we go out, I go way overboard sometimes but don't beat myself up about it. I feel so darned fantastic and I don't ever want to go back to that old place.
My story is NOTHING compared to most of the others on this thread, including mine! I am so glad you were able to overcome years of being overweight to a healthy weight. That's a lot harder to do than most. I'm amazed at the people who have responded to this simple post with profound stories. Thank you.0 -
Looncove_Farm wrote: »Better balance on my horse and also for her comfort as well at 14 shes not gettign younger and I want to ride her into her 20s. Plus my husband is already looking at me more and making all kinds of nice comments and im only down 12 pounds.
PS, he always told me I looked good,,,but now they just come a little more often, :
You are so lucky to have a horse! I rode them all my teenage life.0 -
I like that your post says what "really" inspired you to lose weight because I've been trying to lose weight half-heartedly for years, but what "really" inspired me were success stories on MFP that showed me that I didn't have to be miserable to lose weight. That is what finally clicked for me. When I learned that people could have great success with very reasonable methods and eating a wide variety of food I said, "Okay, I'm finally all in!"
Yes! Congratulations, because you are going to feel so much better in just a few months!!!0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »So many of my clothes were tight and I really, really didn't want to go up another size.
I couldn't sit comfortably because there was too much belly and it would creep up against my boobs and it just plain sucked.
Granted, I was only 140, but I'm also just 5' tall. So the 140 put me smack dab in the middle of "overweight." I knew I'd gained about 5 pounds each winter the last couple of years (I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and it tends to give people intense carb cravings, and I definitely was one of those people). I was lucky it wasn't more.
A good friend of mine has lost something like 60 pounds over the last year or so and I kept thinking "okay if he can lose that much, I can absolutely lose this little bit." Still wasn't quite ready to really give it a try.
Then this January we had a Biggest Loser challenge at work. 3 months to lose the weight. Everyone puts in $50, winner gets the cash. Winner is the person with the highest percentage of weight lost.
No one thought I would participate, and I came in waving my money and telling them to bring it on.
3 months later, I was $250 richer and about 15 pounds lighter.
I wish I had taken pictures and measurements back at the beginning, but I can see a difference in my body (namely, holy **** I have muscle in my abdomen?????) and I've got the motivation I need to keep going and get that body I want.
~Lyssa
I like that. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'll have to remember that!!!0 -
crazyjerseygirl wrote: »leslieroman98 wrote: »I was 4'9, weighing in at 116 pounds, wearing a size 11 dress for my sweet sixteen... That was enough motivation for me.
As a random note, as a 5'8" woman I'm always shocked by the weights of petite women. You are overweight at 116, I'd be quite underweight!
The only good thing about being short is when one is a teenager, there are a lot of boys to date. In our old age, it just means it's easier to gain weight. Sigh.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »So many of my clothes were tight and I really, really didn't want to go up another size.
I couldn't sit comfortably because there was too much belly and it would creep up against my boobs and it just plain sucked.
Granted, I was only 140, but I'm also just 5' tall. So the 140 put me smack dab in the middle of "overweight." I knew I'd gained about 5 pounds each winter the last couple of years (I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and it tends to give people intense carb cravings, and I definitely was one of those people). I was lucky it wasn't more.
A good friend of mine has lost something like 60 pounds over the last year or so and I kept thinking "okay if he can lose that much, I can absolutely lose this little bit." Still wasn't quite ready to really give it a try.
Then this January we had a Biggest Loser challenge at work. 3 months to lose the weight. Everyone puts in $50, winner gets the cash. Winner is the person with the highest percentage of weight lost.
No one thought I would participate, and I came in waving my money and telling them to bring it on.
3 months later, I was $250 richer and about 15 pounds lighter.
I wish I had taken pictures and measurements back at the beginning, but I can see a difference in my body (namely, holy **** I have muscle in my abdomen?????) and I've got the motivation I need to keep going and get that body I want.
~Lyssa
I like that. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'll have to remember that!!!
It's a form of depression that rears its ugly head in the fall/winter and sticks around till spring.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/CON-20021047
It's a pain in the butt to deal with, but I'm getting a better handle on it. Oddly enough, scaling WAY back on my carb intake helped the most....and I managed to maintain and not gain this winter. I was elated to say the least.
~Lyssa0 -
my cousin asked me to comment this for her.
why shes really losing weight?
its a love story.
she met this guy 10 years ago.
they talked ever since over the phone, video chat and the internet.
next year they will finally see eachother face to face again.
sometime in the spring or the summer.
however, in the last 10 years shes gained like 150 pounds.
she wants to go back to how he remembers her.
not only to make her self happy (those were her best years)
but for what she says is "the love of her life"
so she's trying to lose weight till then.
then when she reaches a size she feels comfy with im going to give her a make over!0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »So many of my clothes were tight and I really, really didn't want to go up another size.
I couldn't sit comfortably because there was too much belly and it would creep up against my boobs and it just plain sucked.
Granted, I was only 140, but I'm also just 5' tall. So the 140 put me smack dab in the middle of "overweight." I knew I'd gained about 5 pounds each winter the last couple of years (I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and it tends to give people intense carb cravings, and I definitely was one of those people). I was lucky it wasn't more.
A good friend of mine has lost something like 60 pounds over the last year or so and I kept thinking "okay if he can lose that much, I can absolutely lose this little bit." Still wasn't quite ready to really give it a try.
Then this January we had a Biggest Loser challenge at work. 3 months to lose the weight. Everyone puts in $50, winner gets the cash. Winner is the person with the highest percentage of weight lost.
No one thought I would participate, and I came in waving my money and telling them to bring it on.
3 months later, I was $250 richer and about 15 pounds lighter.
I wish I had taken pictures and measurements back at the beginning, but I can see a difference in my body (namely, holy **** I have muscle in my abdomen?????) and I've got the motivation I need to keep going and get that body I want.
~Lyssa
I like that. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'll have to remember that!!!
It's a form of depression that rears its ugly head in the fall/winter and sticks around till spring.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/CON-20021047
It's a pain in the butt to deal with, but I'm getting a better handle on it. Oddly enough, scaling WAY back on my carb intake helped the most....and I managed to maintain and not gain this winter. I was elated to say the least.
~Lyssa
I guess I should be gratefule to live in the south, although we had some pretty cold weather this year!
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atypicalsmith wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »So many of my clothes were tight and I really, really didn't want to go up another size.
I couldn't sit comfortably because there was too much belly and it would creep up against my boobs and it just plain sucked.
Granted, I was only 140, but I'm also just 5' tall. So the 140 put me smack dab in the middle of "overweight." I knew I'd gained about 5 pounds each winter the last couple of years (I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and it tends to give people intense carb cravings, and I definitely was one of those people). I was lucky it wasn't more.
A good friend of mine has lost something like 60 pounds over the last year or so and I kept thinking "okay if he can lose that much, I can absolutely lose this little bit." Still wasn't quite ready to really give it a try.
Then this January we had a Biggest Loser challenge at work. 3 months to lose the weight. Everyone puts in $50, winner gets the cash. Winner is the person with the highest percentage of weight lost.
No one thought I would participate, and I came in waving my money and telling them to bring it on.
3 months later, I was $250 richer and about 15 pounds lighter.
I wish I had taken pictures and measurements back at the beginning, but I can see a difference in my body (namely, holy **** I have muscle in my abdomen?????) and I've got the motivation I need to keep going and get that body I want.
~Lyssa
I like that. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'll have to remember that!!!
It's a form of depression that rears its ugly head in the fall/winter and sticks around till spring.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/CON-20021047
It's a pain in the butt to deal with, but I'm getting a better handle on it. Oddly enough, scaling WAY back on my carb intake helped the most....and I managed to maintain and not gain this winter. I was elated to say the least.
~Lyssa
I guess I should be gratefule to live in the south, although we had some pretty cold weather this year!
The whole country had weird as **** weather this year. I'm just thankful we didn't get mountains of snow this time.
~Lyssa0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »So many of my clothes were tight and I really, really didn't want to go up another size.
I couldn't sit comfortably because there was too much belly and it would creep up against my boobs and it just plain sucked.
Granted, I was only 140, but I'm also just 5' tall. So the 140 put me smack dab in the middle of "overweight." I knew I'd gained about 5 pounds each winter the last couple of years (I have Seasonal Affective Disorder and it tends to give people intense carb cravings, and I definitely was one of those people). I was lucky it wasn't more.
A good friend of mine has lost something like 60 pounds over the last year or so and I kept thinking "okay if he can lose that much, I can absolutely lose this little bit." Still wasn't quite ready to really give it a try.
Then this January we had a Biggest Loser challenge at work. 3 months to lose the weight. Everyone puts in $50, winner gets the cash. Winner is the person with the highest percentage of weight lost.
No one thought I would participate, and I came in waving my money and telling them to bring it on.
3 months later, I was $250 richer and about 15 pounds lighter.
I wish I had taken pictures and measurements back at the beginning, but I can see a difference in my body (namely, holy **** I have muscle in my abdomen?????) and I've got the motivation I need to keep going and get that body I want.
~Lyssa
I like that. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'll have to remember that!!!
It's a form of depression that rears its ugly head in the fall/winter and sticks around till spring.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/CON-20021047
It's a pain in the butt to deal with, but I'm getting a better handle on it. Oddly enough, scaling WAY back on my carb intake helped the most....and I managed to maintain and not gain this winter. I was elated to say the least.
~Lyssa
I guess I should be gratefule to live in the south, although we had some pretty cold weather this year!
The whole country had weird as **** weather this year. I'm just thankful we didn't get mountains of snow this time.
~Lyssa
Truly!!!0 -
You know, I've read thru this entire thread and I've been thinking about my reason, Hmmm...I didn't have a huge "AHA" moment, I was just sick of being overweight. Like so many others here I'd been the WW route a number of times. I'd lose a bunch of weight but never make it to their magic number to reach maintenance. Then I'd get tired of all the work and gain it back plus some. About 6 years ago I weighed in at 251, the highest I could ever remember being. It scared me into losing 25 pounds which I did manage to keep off for about 4 years then last spring at my grandson's birthday as I was chowing down on pizza, cake and ice cream like someone was going to take it away from me I just decided "Enough"! My daughter told me about MFP and I joined because I knew I'd have to track my food if I was going to lose weight. At 222 my doctor said he'd be happy to see me under 200 pounds, so I went him one better and got down to 192 (I'm 5'10"). Now that spring has rolled around again I'm going for another 12 pounds to a nice round number of 180. I got to buy new clothes, and more importantly stop taking medication for an arthritic hip and knee0
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I have yo yoed with having kids but beforemy second child I was 165 and now started at 268. I miss the petson I was then. More confident, active and just happier in general. What got me going though was a 12 pound in 12 weeks weight loss contest at work.0
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rosehips60 wrote: »You know, I've read thru this entire thread and I've been thinking about my reason, Hmmm...I didn't have a huge "AHA" moment, I was just sick of being overweight. Like so many others here I'd been the WW route a number of times. I'd lose a bunch of weight but never make it to their magic number to reach maintenance. Then I'd get tired of all the work and gain it back plus some. About 6 years ago I weighed in at 251, the highest I could ever remember being. It scared me into losing 25 pounds which I did manage to keep off for about 4 years then last spring at my grandson's birthday as I was chowing down on pizza, cake and ice cream like someone was going to take it away from me I just decided "Enough"! My daughter told me about MFP and I joined because I knew I'd have to track my food if I was going to lose weight. At 222 my doctor said he'd be happy to see me under 200 pounds, so I went him one better and got down to 192 (I'm 5'10"). Now that spring has rolled around again I'm going for another 12 pounds to a nice round number of 180. I got to buy new clothes, and more importantly stop taking medication for an arthritic hip and knee
I am so grateful for all the brave success stories I've gotten from this thread. And I KNOW hundreds more, who may not post but just lurk, are benefitting from this also. Thank you so much for all you have responded, and those who will continue to respond and to those who don't respond, but are inspired by the amazing people who have answered.0 -
I have yo yoed with having kids but beforemy second child I was 165 and now started at 268. I miss the petson I was then. More confident, active and just happier in general. What got me going though was a 12 pound in 12 weeks weight loss contest at work.
Keep it up! If you could do it at work, you can do it on your own, and you will get to play a LOT more with your children!0 -
having super hot sex with my husband and filming it so we can see what we look like!-2
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