What was your "lightbulb moment"?

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GTOgirl1969
GTOgirl1969 Posts: 2,527 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
When did you realize that you needed to do something about your weight, lifestyle and eating habits?
For me, it was when the size 16 jeans I had JUST BOUGHT were too small:noway: :cry: I knew then I had to do something. My grandmother died of a heart attack at age 49, and her weight was a factor. My aunt is also overweight and has diabetes, and I do NOT want that in my future. There may be a genetic predisposition in my family (for the women, anyway) to be overweight, but I won't let that stop me.
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  • GTOgirl1969
    GTOgirl1969 Posts: 2,527 Member
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    When did you realize that you needed to do something about your weight, lifestyle and eating habits?
    For me, it was when the size 16 jeans I had JUST BOUGHT were too small:noway: :cry: I knew then I had to do something. My grandmother died of a heart attack at age 49, and her weight was a factor. My aunt is also overweight and has diabetes, and I do NOT want that in my future. There may be a genetic predisposition in my family (for the women, anyway) to be overweight, but I won't let that stop me.
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
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    A friend of mine from high school that I had not seen in 5 years sent me some photos from her homeymoon in the Dominican. Her and her husband had hired a photographer to phograph them on the beach. She was always a pretty girl, with a nice body and she looked FABULOUS. It made me think of how I will look on my honeymoon if I do nothing... That was my moment.
  • InaBluMoon
    InaBluMoon Posts: 8
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    :blushing: My lightbulb moment came when I went back home to my beloved Oregon and saw how fit my parents are at 81/82 years old. Neither is overweight. There are reasons (serious accident/surgery) that I became overweight and now I need to take control of myself. I want to be healthy.
  • lifesaver
    lifesaver Posts: 132
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    I don't know mine, really. I guess I was just sick of seeing the scale go slooooowly up and realizing I want to be in shape and such. it was a new years resolution so that's when I started
  • icandoit
    icandoit Posts: 4,163 Member
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    Jan...got a membership to the gym and finally took a good look in the mirror there.
  • LightenUp_Caro
    LightenUp_Caro Posts: 572 Member
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    I guess this is an indicator of my self-consciousness, but I had a best friend all throughout high school and we always were on diets together and bingeing on fried food on the weekends together. We could swap clothes because we were always the same size.
    We go to the same school now but we're too busy to see each other. Over Christmas we decided that we were going to go out one night. I saw pictures of her and realized that she was skinnier than we were in high school and I had gained much weight.
    I was so jealous and ashamed that I bailed on her and stayed at home despite her many attempts to hang out with me.
    Its ridiculous that I let it happen this way, but I did and its time to get this together.
  • Life_is_Good
    Life_is_Good Posts: 361 Member
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    A very close friend of ours had a heart attack late January. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks.

    He could've / would've died if his wife would not have been there to resuscitate - he's only 46 years old (one year older than my husband).

    I don't want that to be my hubby - if I stick with it, I know he will, too.
  • peej76
    peej76 Posts: 1,250 Member
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    This is almost too embarassing, but.....my uncle is friends with a guy who works at Lays, and would get chips that were almost expired. He was giving us garbage bag full of bags of chips, and my husband and I were eating them before the week was out. Finally one day we're like What are we doing, this is so not healthy!!. Since then we've been trying really hard to stay away from the junk food. But since I do love my junk I allow myself a cheat day a week. I guess this just really brought to attention just how much damage we were doing to ourselves.
  • GTOgirl1969
    GTOgirl1969 Posts: 2,527 Member
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    This is almost too embarassing, but.....my uncle is friends with a guy who works at Lays, and would get chips that were almost expired. He was giving us garbage bag full of bags of chips, and my husband and I were eating them before the week was out. Finally one day we're like What are we doing, this is so not healthy!!. Since then we've been trying really hard to stay away from the junk food. But since I do love my junk I allow myself a cheat day a week. I guess this just really brought to attention just how much damage we were doing to ourselves.

    I had a similar situation...a friend of my brother's worked for Entenmann's delivering all that good stuff:devil: to the grocery stores. Every week the guy would bring boxes and boxes of cookies, cakes, donuts.....all the stuff I'm trying to stay away from:sad: I think I gained 10-15 pounds just from hanging around with my brother...:laugh:
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
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    I've had a few lightbulb moments before I actually started to make the effort. BUT, I hadn't weighed in awhile and finally decided to join ediets last September and you need to weigh-in....so I stepped on the scale...and saw a number that almost made me throw up. It read 270!! I was SHOCKED!! Also, I had just gotten back from a trip that I had to fly on and the seatbelt BARELY fit me. It was pulled SO tight, but I refused to get an "extension!!!"....Man, that was an awful feeling! AND, the fact that I didn't want to go to the beach with my son or get family pics done. I just realized what that saying "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels" meant. I want to enjoy life.

    I am down to 195 s far and feeling so much better and have so much more energy! I know I will get to my goal weight! :)
  • GTOgirl1969
    GTOgirl1969 Posts: 2,527 Member
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    I am down to 195 s far and feeling so much better and have so much more energy! I know I will get to my goal weight! :)

    Wow! Great job!
  • Mireille
    Mireille Posts: 5,134 Member
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    I realized I needed to do something when I started getting stomach pains in the evening. They terrified me and I started MFP a week after the pains started. I don't know what they were but I had a gut feeling it was related to eating too much. I think I may have been right cuz I'm proud to say that I have not had that kind of stomach pain since eating properly. I'm 9 weeks pain free! :flowerforyou:
  • msarro
    msarro Posts: 2,748 Member
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    Mine is a long story I think.

    I had a lot of problems for a long while that I'd rather not get into, but lets just say I was in a very bad place, with numerous addictions. Finally one night I had a moment of clarity while i was coming down, and just so happened to be watching "Stranger than Fiction" and it all suddenly made sense. The only thing holding me back from the life I wanted was me. And how could that possibly make sense? I think that was my moment.

    So I was left contemplating how I could try to get my life back after alienating all of my friends, etc. And then the funniest thing happened.

    The next day I was trying to figure out what to occupy myself with since I had decided to get rid of my old life. That meant I had to find a way to occupy myself. So, I figured I'd start fixing up my apartment. Well, I went to walmart to buy some lightbulbs, and some other household stuff and lo, there was a massive group of my college buddies. We've been hanging out constantly since. I swear to God it was a miracle, because they have been my wings through all of this. It was like God said, "Ok, you want the chance to get your life back? Here it is."

    I haven't looked back since. And for once, i think god for every day I get to spend in this new life. For once, I feel like I can do anything, and I've systematically going through my life improving everything I've ever wanted to improve.
  • abbychelle07
    abbychelle07 Posts: 656 Member
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    I have a lightbulb moment every time I buy the next size up. I cried but did nothing about it, how stupid!

    I also want to be healthy, teach my kids the same, and not have any worries about a plane seat, a folding chair, finding clothes at stores, etc. Time to be confident!
  • Shannon023
    Shannon023 Posts: 14,529 Member
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    I can't think of any one moment either. But like many, was just tired of wearing bigger & bigger sizes and always feeling like the fattest one in the room.
  • icupfunny2000
    icupfunny2000 Posts: 470 Member
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    my lightbulb moment was in january my grandmother called and said my grandfather wasnt doing good and i should visit before he passes away..... so i hopped on a train with my kids to go down to toronto and i could barely fit my fat *kitten* in the seat. And when i got there i was embarassed to let my family (who i havent seen for years) see me. Also i have been avioding pictures for a long time and my daughter took a picture of me on the train and i looked HUGE ...... as soon as i got back i started trying to lose weight and im down a grand total of 32 pounds and already my confidence is way better im so proud of myself :bigsmile:

    j~
  • GIGINATOR
    GIGINATOR Posts: 355 Member
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    Well actually it was a few things combined. After slowly putting on the weight and two kids later in the last five years enough was enough. I vowed I was not buying any bigger clothes when the stuff I already had was getting tight. Then I saw pictures of me from summer vacation and was disgusted! Now I have a healthy lifestyle that I will stick to, TONS of energy and not be embarrassed to go clothes shopping. Also I am doing something I thought I would NEVER do. Training and running for a 10 mile run in August and a half marathon in October. In some sick way, I actually enjoy it. I am so forever grateful for this website to help me log what I eat and think about everything I put in my mouth. Also the support on here is phenomenal!!!! I have been doing this since 1-10-08 and lost 34 pounds and inches everywhere. I have 43 to go but now I know I can do it.
    Thank you everyone for the advice, support and yummy food ideas!!!!!!!
  • LonelyPilgrim
    LonelyPilgrim Posts: 255 Member
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    Mine is a long story I think.

    I had a lot of problems for a long while that I'd rather not get into, but lets just say I was in a very bad place, with numerous addictions. Finally one night I had a moment of clarity while i was coming down, and just so happened to be watching "Stranger than Fiction" and it all suddenly made sense. The only thing holding me back from the life I wanted was me. And how could that possibly make sense? I think that was my moment.

    So I was left contemplating how I could try to get my life back after alienating all of my friends, etc. And then the funniest thing happened.

    The next day I was trying to figure out what to occupy myself with since I had decided to get rid of my old life. That meant I had to find a way to occupy myself. So, I figured I'd start fixing up my apartment. Well, I went to walmart to buy some lightbulbs, and some other household stuff and lo, there was a massive group of my college buddies. We've been hanging out constantly since. I swear to God it was a miracle, because they have been my wings through all of this. It was like God said, "Ok, you want the chance to get your life back? Here it is."

    Funny you mentioned "stranger than fiction' that movie had an effect on me too. Not weight-wise, but love wise. it made me want to leap.

    I did. And we're so happy. Instead of being paralyzed with fear of "what if". I just decided to make my life happen .

    I haven't looked back since. And for once, i think god for every day I get to spend in this new life. For once, I feel like I can do anything, and I've systematically going through my life improving everything I've ever wanted to improve.

    Funny you mentioned "stranger than fiction' that movie had an effect on me too. Not weight-wise, but love wise. it made me want to leap.

    I did. And we're so happy. Instead of being paralyzed with fear of "what if". I just decided to make my life happen .

    I haven't looked back since. And for once, i think god for every day I get to spend in this new life. For once, I feel like I can do anything, and I've systematically going through my life improving everything I've ever wanted to improve.

    As for my LIGHTBULB moment. I don't think i had one, just a culmination of pants getting tighter and tighter and only being able to fit comfortably into 2 pairs of jeans anymore (I own over a dozen pairs). I don't want to buy bigger! so I had to make myself smaller.

    Also I Found an old pic of myself. Nearly nude, taken from behind. I wanted to cry when I saw it, I was so toned and skinny. I looked at myself in the mirror and just saw.... well... i guess YOU KNOW....that's what's great about these boards, we all know what it feels like to look in the mirror and be unhappy with what you see.
  • cwalbrj
    cwalbrj Posts: 61
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    I weigh 155 pounds - 7 pounds away from what I weighed when I gave birth to my daughter (17 years ago).. I started using this site about a year ago and was really seeing progress (I think tracking your food/exersize is the way to go)! My mom passed away and I just went back to my old ways and gained everything back that I had worked so hard to lose. I stepped on the scale and thought "what am I doing"? If I keep it up, I'll be at 175 lbs, and then 195 lbs... need to take charge. And I like having this community of people to do it with. Good luck to all - we can do it !
  • Jewlz
    Jewlz Posts: 135
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    Mine was pretty recent. I have been a dance teacher for 10 years and the last year and a half I quite to work full time. I gained 40 pounds (i was already 35 pounds overwieght:blushing: ). I didint realize how bad it was until I finally went back to teaching dance and couldnt even get through one hour of teaching. it was extremly depressing and I knew it was time to change! :embarassed:

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