What was your "Ah-ha" moment?

fruitydelicious

My fasting blood sugar...... I am already on 2 HBP medication and when my blood sugar started creeping towards pre-diabetes it scared the heck out of me. My father and both grandfathers had diabetes. And recently, 2 dear friends of mine passed away from illnesses related to her long term diabetes. It was a horrible, long drawn out way to die.......
I re-started on MFP in March and have lost 42 lbs!!! Fasting Blood sugar completely normal!! Still on the blood pressure meds, but feel like I may be able to stop taking one of them soon!!! Mine has been slow steady progress, and the changes I have made I can keep doing for a life time!!!!

ilovecereal1982

Taaaaaaaaake onnnnn meeeeeee....take on meee....good ah ha song

peartree01772

I went for a hike up a mountain w/my daughter and wife. I wanted to go early because I knew it was steep and it was supposed to be about 90 degrees that day. Others didn't get up early so we got a late start. The trail was steeper and longer and hotther than I had anticipated and I started getting out of breath and dizzy about 3/4 of the way to top. I started to picture myself having a heart attack up there and decided to turnaround while the others enjoyed the view from the top. Had a lot of time to think while waiting for the others to come back down!

Set a goal to complete the same climb by labor day, which I did, and have lost about 12 lbs. so far with another 25 to go.

subversive99

I took an online group class through fitocracy last October and the coach had us start tracking our food using MFP. I had created a MFP account before, but never really used it consistently. Paraphrasing what the coach said to us: "Here are your macro goals for protein/carbs/fat, but most important is to stay under your calorie goal. If you can only do one thing, stay within your calorie budget."

It was like a lightbulb went off when the CICO equation finally clicked for me and I realized it was just a simple math problem. Since I had a fitbit, there was no excuse not to know what my calorie deficit was. I'm down almost 35 pounds (actually around 43lb from my highest) so far, still enjoying all my favourite foods in moderation, and I have absolutely no doubt that I will reach my goal and stay there this time.

patty_36_2

jarrettwhite07 wrote: »

Yeah I didn't like the way I looked in my pics so I decided to change it.

Yep same here, was shocked when someone took foto from behind.. .took a year to lose 85lb and still have a few lbs to go and a lot of toneing up, but keep that foto near to keep me going wen I'm fed up..

sashayoung72

I had to switch to my companies insurance from my husbands. I went to the sign up and it was a weigh in, blood pressure etc. I was diagnosed as MORBIDLY OBESE! my insurance was going to be twice as high. I have to attend weight loss coaching and take online tests about eating healthy etc. I have lost 72 lbs and I am almost to the level one obese.

Liftng4Lis

When my spanx felt too tight.

4homer

I have a had a million ah ha moments, tried losing weight a million times. I been fat for a long time, here and there I do good but then I would eff it up. Almost 60 days ago tho something happened that scared the living hell out of me. My feet swelled. That moment something clicked and so far this journey has been different from the rest.

BakerAcer

I had been frustrated with myself for letting myself go for sometime, but was making a lot of excuses. Meanwhile, my older sister who at one point trained with Olympic level athletes got pregnant. She worked out most days and at six months pregnant, her baby bump was smaller than my everyday belly. One day, she was in center city Philly with her bike and they wouldn't let her on the train with it, so she rode about 15 miles home...7 months pregnant. She made having a baby look easy because she was healthy. I realized I wanted to be healthier so that life would be easier, so one day when I decide to have kids pregnancy will be easier and chasing them will be no problem.

There were other smaller motivations too: fitting into clothes, seeing old pictures vs. newer ones, watching Gossip Girl and thinking "man, I want to be able to have super hot sex like those people."

luzdelua

My ex cheated on me, and it hurt me so bad. Then I became really insecure in how I looked, and I somehow felt worse about myself. I had always been a bit overweight, but it didn't bother me until after that experience. So, I put all my anger into working out and started eating well. I lost 30 pounds in 6 months.

In the end I realized I was stronger than I thought and there was nothing wrong with me. He was just an *kitten*****. It's nice, though, because I got to where I wanted to be. I'm happy now and really glad I picked up exercise when I was going through such a hard time. It's my hobby now.

LadyKT

A male coworker saw me in the elevator, looks at me and goes "are you gaining weight?"

Yep, bottom reached right there.

skinnyontheinside27

cwolfman13 wrote: »

As far as motivation goes, be wary of counting on that. It's just like anything else...you're not going to be motivated all of the time. Ultimately you just have to be disciplined...discipline leads to consistency and consistency is what wins the day. Motivation is a very fleeting and fickle emotion.

Truer words gave never been spoken!

riffraff2112

going on a dream trip and not being able to keep any of the pictures of me in them without serious cropping, and editing. I must have deleted half of them cause I didn't like how I looked...that had to change

plantedinpots

honestly... if my parents had never gotten divorced, i'm not sure how heavy I'd be right now. definitely in the obese category, as I was. I grew up wanting to lose weight my entire life. I would start to diet unrealistically and by 2 pm when I was "starving" I'd throw in the towel, eat a calorific meal, and tell myself tomorrow for sure. my ah-ha moment came several months after my parents divorced when I was 18. I'd always tried to lose weight on my own (i was always a fat child) and I was successful at dropping 20 lbs...only to gain it right back with subtle sabotage from my dad. now, i *know* the only person who has control of my weight is myself- however, when you're living under an emotionally abusive figure like my father, and if you factor in at the time I was 16/17 and was blind to the abuse, it was easy for him to sway me everyday to make unhealthy decisions. It certainly didn't help that I was an intense emotional eater and didn't recognize it. After they divorced and he was removed from my life, (after a really, really rough 5 ish months/I was in bed for 3 months/my mom tried to hospitalize me) I found myself slowly taking back control of my life. My ah-ha moment came the day I woke up alone (my mom was at work already), got out of bed, opened the shades in the living room, made myself a cup of coffee, and as it was brewing- I weighed myself. An even 200 lbs stared back at me. I was obese. Never again. Of course it took a lot of time for the weight to come off, I was stuck at 172 for a few months, then stuck at 165 for a month, then I thought I'd never get past 155 or 142. I'm now inching my way down from 135 (at 21 years old) and joined MFP because these last 20 lbs seem to be the hardest and I'm tired of doing this completely by myself.
Phew, sorry for the paragraph! I guess my TL;DR answer is: I woke up one day, weighed myself, and vowed that if I didn't change something right then and there, I never would. tomorrow doesn't exist.

williamburboss

Plantedinpots I totally know what you mean, control freaks and people who just like to keep people down have also affected my weight loss journey but like you I have retaken control and realised that my perception of my body is the only one that matters. Ah ha moment came when I hit 100kg I had to change eating habits, i had zero energy and no love of life
This is changing every day.

smkuhn1419

Sorry its long but its nice to be able to "vent".

My "ah-ha" moment was rather upsetting. I knew that I needed to lose weight for awhile. I'm 21, 5'2, and 230 pounds. I've tried in the past put I always lacked motivation. I never had the umph to keep going. I have been with my bf for almost 4 years. We've been through many difficult situations and came out stronger. I appreciate him so much. He's done a ridiculous amount of things for me and never once asked for much in return. We had a Halloween party the 31St and he was rather intoxicated. He gets pretty blunt when he drinks. Well being Halloween there were girls there in the skimpiest "costumes" ever. They were gorgeous. And I got really self conscious. My bf noticed and came over. Slightly slurring by now he goes "baby girl I love you and I think you are beautiful" I thanked him but I knew for awhile my weight bugged him. I was much smaller when we first met. Maybe like 180ish. I looked at him and I told him to tell me the truth. Did my weight bug him. And he shook his head yes. Thats all I needed. I needed him to tell me straight up. He wasn't rude. He didn't want to even say yes. But if I couldn't be motivated for myself I'd be motivated for him. It's been a week now since I've been working out and eating right. And I feel great. He keeps encouraging me. I stepped on the scale this morning and I cried. I lost 5 pounds. Whether that's water weight or not it's still something. He gave me the biggest hug of life. Now I workout for both of us. Feeling the changes in energy and even the pain of my muscles is awesome. I'm ready to really do this. 135 here I come!!

Endless_Journey

So this Endless Journey started 1,000 days ago. It was a Friday, got home, went upstairs to change, came back down and then something happened. I had to sit down, sweat pouring down me, struggling to breath and had chest pains. my body was telling me that all was not well. The pains got worse so decided to visit my doctor. She sent me to the ER straight away, I was very quickly seen by a Consultant who carried out tests. I did not want to tell my wife as she was at work. The consultant called me in and said very simply, that if I did not change my lifestyle, he gave me five more years. very simply I was killing myself. Going back to my car, I realised now that life is not a rehearsal, I needed to act now. My Journey has now started.
After tellng my wife, she said that only I could change this and of course she was right. I grabbed the laptop and sat down. So how was I killing myself?, for one week I wrote down how much I was eating and drinking. The results were frightening I was consuming up to 4,000 calories a day, add that to the fact I was not even exercising, nothing more to say. My weight was 276lbs, pulse rate 77. My blood pressure was normal.
A new diet was planned, out went hamburgers, take aways, junk food. No more drinking alcohol, and eating between meals. The fridge was completely emptied and replaced with fresh fruit, vegetables, salads, chicken, fish. Cans of coke were replaced with bottled water. Extreme you might say but time was not on my side. Eating beteween meals was a problem so each morning I would get a bowl and chop up some melon, apples, raisins, add some celery, nuts and raisins. Now whenever I was hungry instead of having crisps or chocolate I would reach for the bowl. Drinking water before each meal helped to curb my appertite.
Ok thats the diet sorted but now exercise, being so overweight this was not going to be easy. I just started going out for walks around the block, the first time after twenty minutes I had to stop I was so out of breath. But gradually as each day passed i just incresased it. Weight loss was slow so i checked my diet, reducing my intake to 1200 calories, this suited me but may not suit everybody. My BMI was 49% so the body had enough fat to live off. The next stage of getting fit, I decided to purchase a mountain bike. OMG what a sight seeing me trying to cycle, confidence was low, and made worse by other cyclists making nasty comments, this just made me more determined. I was hooked on cycling and went out every day increasing the time I spent out on the road. The same cyclists passing me by asking if I wanted a push. My time would come.
My weight was starting to melt away and i started to feel good about myself so the next stage was to invest in a road bike. I did this and started cycling furtther and further. Ok 2014 was not good i got knocked off my bike no less than four times, but was determined to carry on. Easter this year I decided to enter a road race, a 130km race. The weather conditions were the worst I had encountered but was determined to complete the course. Oh so what happened about those cyclists who were so cruel to me I can here you ask? The next time i went out on the road I saw them in front of me approaching a hill. As they started to cycle up it they were all breathless, I pulled along side them and said. would you like a push? I then left them struggling, looking over my shoulder they knew who I was.
So 112lbs lighter and a healthy pulse rate of 45, BMI now 25.5, everything was going good. Until about 12 weeks ago, after a long cycle I returned home feeling unwell ok I thought it was caused by the long cycle but it was not. After a visit to the doctor and some blood tests, I was sent to ER to see a consultant. Who just by looking at me suggested I may have Kidney Cancer, leaving the room my wife just looked at me with tears in her eyes. Comforting her I said lets see what the scans show. Two days later, after two scans the best results ever, I did not have cancer. There was however a problem with my Kidneys. I have been told that an operation will cure the problem, I am still training only after speaking to the surgeon. I have had surgery now and are back to training.
One final thing to mention. Not only has my wife stood by me and supported me but also my MFP friends. in my early days when I was not eating enough and over training there was one friend who has followed my Journey for a long time and has just been there. That special friend is Dorothy. What can I say about her, she has been very supportive, critical, and not afraid to give me a virtual kick when needed. There have been times when I could of easily thrown all my hard work away. But I knew Dorothy was there supporting me. Sometines I would not be on the site for a while but she would send a message asking If I was ok. What more can I say apart from Thank you so much:)
Thank you for letting me share my Journey with you all. It is an Endless journey and it will continue. Remember, life is not a rehearsal, you do not get a second chance, so dont waste it. Your body is a temple so look after it.
Good luck as you take the first step to a healthier you.

iloveclones67

No specific aha moment, but here are some smaller ones that all added up:

• waking up feeling like little hammers had been hitting me all over (sleep apnea)
• avoiding my regular doctors appt (afraid of the lecture)
• couldn't do the "cool" stuff in yoga (still can't do some, but getting there....)
• having non-specific heart issues. Nothing diagnosed in a stress test, but still....
• was always the picture taker, but avoided being in it...

Last spring, my wife forwarded me a Heart Healthy Study they were doing at Pitt (think Weight Watchers, but I get paid ) She sends me studies for money all the time and didn't think much of this one. When I saw it, I knew it was perfect, but was initially turned down, because they said it was more for sedentary people, and I was a bit active. Then, ironically, they almost turned me down because my BMI was just out of range for their parameters. They said if I could lose 5 pounds by the next meeting, I'd be good (I lost 10 for good measure) My start date was May 18th, and I've gone consistently down since then, about 75 lbs. total. Am aiming for another 20 or so, but I'm in no hurry. Just started training to maybe do some 5 or 10K's next spring. And all the above issues have gone away (can't WAIT for my doctors appointment at the end of the month!) And here's me in front of the camera instead of behind it(still protecting the secret identity of course...):

lorepres

For me it was when I returned from a Disney trip with my family. You see Disney provides you with this really "cool" picture taking service and sends you the picture via email. There are photographers around every corner it seems...So, when we returned from our trip and looked at the pictures...I was horrified. I didn't even recognize myself. I cried, deleted all of the photos and decided to make a big change. I had so much weight to lose and wanted it off in 2 weeks...LOL! I had to learn patients and realize that to do it correctly would mean taking time to do it. I lost about 8 pounds my first month and then found this site. Since finding this site, I then lost another 15 lbs. I'm now 23 pounds lighter, and feeling great. I still want to lose quite a bit more and working on it. My next Disney trip will be at the end of May. I plan on keeping the pictures this year!!

Goals:
1. 7 pounds between today and December 31, 2015
2. 15 pounds between January 1, 2016 and May 25, 2016
3. Disney trip 2016

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(to weigh 45pounds less that May 2015 trip)

alnvann

This picture was my Aha moment, I just looked at it and thought when did that happen. All throughout my teens and early twenties fitness had been a big part of my life. Then as life moved on other things became more of a bigger priority and then at 46 this picture was taken. I keep it as a motivation, I am never going there again. Now 51 looking and feeling much better