What pushed you to lose the weight
bdbfangirl20
Posts: 57 Member
I have always been big and at one point I just accepted it. Lived my life eating my feelings without a care. I think what did it for me was actually a conversation I had with one of my siblings. It wasn't the usual "you should lose weight because.." It was more of harsh judgment. Instead of brushing it off, something had finally clicked. I wasn't angry, I wasn't sad, I was ready. It was like a switch went off and every painful memory that somehow connected to my weight resurfaced. Ex: not fitting into a rollercoaster ride on my big senior trip in high school, getting asked out only to be told they did it because they felt sorry, having my older brother constantly tell me I would be so beautiful if I just lost a few pounds, hearing "friends" say they're surprised I'm so adventurous for a big girl, being told not to do things because I'm not skinny, always being called "pretty for a big girl" and described as "well she's large but she has a big heart." And it goes on and on... for years I suprisingly managed to not care. Until that moment. Sitting on my couch no longer paying attention to my sister's rambling but lost in memories. After that night I took the time to really look at myself and I thought "you cant love yourself if you refuse to care for yourself." I preach and preach about healthy living and enjoying life to everyone but myself. And for so long.. But now I'm going on my third week, I've continued to stick to active living and actual clean eating. I feel so good. I have gained my determination and I refuse to lose it.
So..what pushed you to lose the weight? What broke those mental barriers?
So..what pushed you to lose the weight? What broke those mental barriers?
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Replies
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i was told that my entire family was fat and ugly so last year - including myself from somebody that was close to me (not anymore) idk i guess i was like man I have so many things in my life in order, but i need to get ahold of my health. So i began the journey. Dropped 37 pounds last year and gained 20 over the holidays. So I am dieting again to cut back down. Its a journey for sure, but you have to want it, and when you dieting in calorie deficit it sucks you have to hold out on going out to eat, eating with family, avoiding sugars and alcohol. you have to be disciplined and make sacrifices to get the progress you want. It doesnt come easy7
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I was vomiting blood and having heart issues. Legit dying.1
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JustTrackinIt wrote: »i was told that my entire family was fat and ugly so last year - including myself from somebody that was close to me (not anymore) idk i guess i was like man I have so many things in my life in order, but i need to get ahold of my health. So i began the journey. Dropped 37 pounds last year and gained 20 over the holidays. So I am dieting again to cut back down. Its a journey for sure, but you have to want it, and when you dieting in calorie deficit it sucks you have to hold out on going out to eat, eating with family, avoiding sugars and alcohol. you have to be disciplined and make sacrifices to get the progress you want. It doesnt come easy
Yea I can relate to that my entire family is overweight besides my brothers they are actually pretty fit and healthy. I'm not sure i have iron discipline yet but I'm pushing myself. You look great, hard works paying off1 -
I was vomiting blood and having heart issues. Legit dying.
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that I hope your lifestyle change has helped. Weird thing is I had multiple ER scares and still didn't care enough to lose the weight. Just last summer I almost passed out on my job, had to call the paramedics. Found out I was lacking the proper nutrients and vitamins. Got put on multiple medications for 6 months.1 -
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I got sick of getting boils, wasn't planning on losing weight, just cutting down sugar, after a while of that my appetite dropped so I decided to see what else I could do, that's when I joined mfp2
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I lost the roulette spin and got an obesity-related/exacerbated problem. Since my legs were forced to carry more of me than they were designed to do, the veins in my legs became refluxed. I found out about it when I developed cellulitus, which led to lymphedema, which led to a weeping wound on my calf that took months and multiple courses of antibiotics to heal. It also led to a referral to a vascular surgeon who ran the tests that uncovered the circulation issue. The issues that face me now are:
1. This condition can be managed (with compression stockings and weight-loss), but it can't be cured.
2. I have to be careful of my lower legs, because any time I break the skin, I run the risk of an infection which often won't heal without oral antibiotics, which also means...
3. I am at risk of building up a tolerance to antibiotics due to frequent prescription. (It's hard to call it 'overprescription' when I need them to heal, but it's not good.) To give some perspective, when I was diagnosed with cellulitus, I received one course of antibiotic A intravenously and went home with a prescription for antibiotic B (an a couple of pills to tide me over, since I left the ER around 3AM). 10 days of Antibiotic B appeared to deal with the cellulitus, but by now I had that weeping wound on my leg, which seemed like it might be improving... so my doctor gave me another course of Antibiotic B. This one did nothing. So, he cultured the wound and gave me a course of Antibiotic C in the interim. Which was useless. Still didn't have the lab results back, so he tried Antibiotic D. Which was also useless. They got the lab results and discovered that the bacteria in question generally only responded to Antibiotic E. Which was prescribed forthwith. However, at this point, it took three courses. A couple of months after it finally healed, my treadmill threw me off at 5.3 mph and I ground my calf into the carpet and scraped off a patch of skin. Despite immediate use of Polysporin ointment, it became infected and needed 2 courses of oral antibiotics to treat. I use a ski machine now.
So... let's just say that I've been scared straight. The weight needs to come off and stay off. I've been on MFP for 141 days and dropped 44 pounds so far. 80 more to go!8 -
For me it was after I got rejected by a boy. Who reassured me that I was a lovely person, a wonderful friend, etc, etc. He did nothing wrong, mind you, but I've noticed for many years now that if you're a big person a lot people will never look at you in a potentially romantic way. The fat so to speak creates a barrier. And I'm sick of that. I think this is a very subconscious thing for most people, but I've found that this is the case. I feel that in order for people to "see" me for who I am I need to reduce my size. It's so, so sad, but the proof is in the pudding.6
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It was worsening existing spinal and nerve damage. I wasn't ready for surgery (L4 and L5 and incontinence in case something goes wrong ) I was being treated by pill pushing "experts", you can only doc shop for so long before getting frustrated. So one day I said f it, I'm too young for this to be my life, started with a VERY knowledgeable rehab trainer, one thing lead to another, started eating better. 60lbs later (up and down within 10 because of stress eating issues but never regaining permanently ) and I'm defying doctors who told me I would need handicap sticker and meds and an extreme low calorie diet. Not only do I not need to park in handicap but my best hike distance wo stopping is 10 miles.8
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For me it was when someone asked what my weight was in a public setting (horse riding stables, in front of staff and other customers) and then proceeded to make a fairly big deal about potentially being too overweight for the horse. At that point I had been unhappy about my weight gain for some time but was also trapped in a vicious cycle of emotional eating to deal with said unhappiness. I was so mortified at the thought that my weight was affecting my ability to do the things I enjoyed, that was the final straw for me.3
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bdbfangirl20 wrote: »I was vomiting blood and having heart issues. Legit dying.
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that I hope your lifestyle change has helped. Weird thing is I had multiple ER scares and still didn't care enough to lose the weight. Just last summer I almost passed out on my job, had to call the paramedics. Found out I was lacking the proper nutrients and vitamins. Got put on multiple medications for 6 months.
Oh, it definitely has. It was all obesity-related, it seems. I'm having... Other issues now, but it is still 1,000% better than when I was obese, so I still consider it all a 'win'.0 -
What finally really got me motivated was my dad having a heart attack and needing quadruple bypass.
My doctor had told me months ago I needed to lose some weight because my blood pressure was so elevated but my numbers were good every where else so I was like "yeah I'll get to it".
My dad's heart attack was a wake-up call because it felt like, that could have been me!1 -
I really wanted to do it for myself and be able to walk down the street and not be out of breath. I wanted to walk into a store and find jeans that fit. I wanted to get healthy for my family!1
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I think it was a combination of two incidents... the one time in October I went to my favorite hiking trail and realized I physically couldn't hike it anymore. Not even get through it with some struggle, like I was nauseous and hyperventilating trying to do it. That's when the reality of my immobility set in, and I think that's where I'm getting my strength from now is I value my freedom so much that it bothers me I let myself take it away for no good reason. I want to be free to have whatever experiences I want, without my body coming in the way of that.
The other was also last October, and my uncle died of a heart attack. He kinda gave up near the end, started lying to family about his health and doctors visits. I don't want that to be me. Well, I don't think anyone does, but having that experience made it pretty personal.1 -
I value my freedom so much that it bothers me I let myself take it away for no good reason. I want to be free to have whatever experiences I want, without my body coming in the way of that.
I don't do a lot of things anymore because of my weight. I am really tired of it holding me back when I know there is so much more in life for me than that.
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My favorite clothes being too tight. Going clothes shopping and realizing i would need the next size up. How big the roll of fat around my stomach was. Seeing photos of myself and realizing how big i looked. Being afraid of getting diabetes and of having to stick a needle in myself everytime I want to eat, and of all the *kitten* ramifications of diabetes like kidney failure etc.
Also I watched a documentary on Netflix called 'hungry for change'. Alot of the people on here were overweight or had horrible health issues but they managed to overcome these health issues by eating healthily. Also their skin looked incredible and they looked so youthful! So this inspired me.
Also I re-watched 'Super Size Me' to remind myself of the terrible impact that unhealthy foods can have on your health and how you feel everyday. Everytime I want to eat unhealthy I ask myself if I am happy to feel uncomfortably bloated/exhausted? End up with a headache or pimples on my face? Happy to see the scales move up? Etc
Also i waited two hours to see the doctor for my blood tests results and everything was fine but thinking about what could have been wrong with me FOR TWO HOURS was so awful and very stressful!1 -
I lost a lot of weight a few years ago then let it creep back on, slowly ay first, then I gained a lot over the last few months before starting here. I ran into a guy I hadn't seen in a year. The look of shock on his face followed by pity and embarrassment was a wake up call for me. I made myself really look at myself and wake up from the fog I had been in. I also had some physical things like asthma that is so much worse than when I'm lighter, back and leg pain, acid reflux....all things that will be alleviated by weight loss. Cheers to us all! To better health and quality of life!1
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I started losing a couple of years back when I moved to a new part of the country. It's less common for people to be heavy here. So when I saw a picture of myself at a family dinner -- one where I'd been thinking that I actually looked nice -- it was just too much.
I lost 20 lbs, then lost my sense of urgency. This past fall, I started again when I realized that I wasn't living the life I wanted to. I've always wanted to be an athlete, and I think I have some characteristics that would make me good at it. So as an entry point to getting fit, I got a coach in my preferred sport, signed up for a spring race, and started training. Training always leads to more intentional eating for me. I've lost another 20 and met my race goal.
I have about 20 to go and have my next race (and a faster goal pace) picked out.1 -
What pushed me to lose weight: I was seeing a doctor quarterly to manage my high blood pressure. My high blood pressure was barely high and my medication was the lowest dose of the cheapest available medicine. Managing the illness of my obesity was easy. All my life, my cholesterol numbers had been good. I was proud of my cholesterol numbers. In January of 2016, my doctor informed me that my cholesterol numbers had turned bad, and the only choices to me were to either exercise and lose weight or take statin drugs. I hate drugs. I hate drugs so much, I decided to exercise and lose weight. I lost so much weight that my blood pressure is normal. My blood pressure is almost low now. I have actually been in a multi-decade long struggle to learn how to control my weight. I understood that my breakfast was not the problem, and that my workday consumption of free office food was not the problem. My problem was my conduct in the hours after returning home. My use of the mfp tools has enabled me to gain control of my evening activity. Now I have a meal and avoid, mostly, the constant shoving of food into my face which characterized my evening activities before January 2016.
I don't know if I'll successfully reach my goal of 160. But today I'm at 179.4 and I don't see any possibility that I'll return to the piggish eating that made me look like a pig.1 -
For me it was after I got rejected by a boy. Who reassured me that I was a lovely person, a wonderful friend, etc, etc. He did nothing wrong, mind you, but I've noticed for many years now that if you're a big person a lot people will never look at you in a potentially romantic way. The fat so to speak creates a barrier. And I'm sick of that. I think this is a very subconscious thing for most people, but I've found that this is the case. I feel that in order for people to "see" me for who I am I need to reduce my size. It's so, so sad, but the proof is in the pudding.
Just to illustrate this. I've lost a lot of weight and I look good in my Brooks Brother's shirt with a new haircut. Yesterday I was walking in the hallway which is common to all the businesses on this floor. A slim younger woman doing walking laps of the floor approached me and said "Hi" as she passed. That was so rare, so unexpected, so unusual, that I can only blame it on my slim appearance.1 -
my motivation: Last year, my fiance and I bought our first home. Last year I was focused on my financial "health". Cleaning my credit report, balancing my budget, paying off bills, etc. On the day we signed the papers, my fiance took his phone and did a walk-through to post on social media. I thought I looked really good, I was dressed nice, my hair was smooth, I felt really confident. I was okay with him posting it to facebook (something I'm normally not okay with, I don't like pictures of myself, let alone on social media)
Then I watched that video. I was fat. My hair was flat, not smooth. My skin was pasty, and I walked like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, hunched over and nervous. I no longer felt confident and great.
Due to the timing, I knew that dieting in any way would only cause me to stress and binge, so I gave myself 6 months to get in the swing of living at our new home. We got 2 kittens (our female, Lyanna, is in my profile pic. her brother Rhaegar is a couple pounds bigger =P), we setup all of our living spaces. By Christmas it felt like home.
When New Years came around, I knew I wanted to make 2017 my B**ch, and officially started on 1/19/17 at 219.1 lbs (I'm 5'2, will be 33rs old in a month). At Christmas I had weighed 223 lbs, so already I was feeling good. I knew I wanted to meal prep since that worked for me before in 2013, so I made all of our lunches for the week. I also started meal planning for dinners because we are trying to stick to a budget. We got pretty lax about going out to eat, and spent far more than necessary eating out.
My lowest weight to date is 206.6, so 12.5 lbs over an 8-9 week period. People are starting to notice the change, which helps a lot with keeping the motivation going. It's not super quick, but it's working. And as long as it keeps working, I'm hoping it will be easier to stick to it and keep the weight off
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I am realizing I like things being in order and predictable and there were a lot of my things in my life that I was trying to control that I couldn't and worrying about things I could not change. And it kind of clicked that this is something I can. The working out part can be hard... you could have little time, sickness, have injuries, or bad genetics, etc that make you unable to do a particular task. I have a bad shoulder, I am never throwing a fastball. Some people have bad knees and will never complete a marathon. But diet is so easy, you are eating anyway. It doesn't take much time, all you have to do is have discipline. So I am taking charge of something positive and letting go of the stuff I shouldn't worry about.2
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Is it vain to say my mother had gastric bypass surgery and got her weight lower than mine? I'd been comfortable being the lightest in my family (even though I've been overweight for several years), but when her weight dropped below mine, it was a wake up call. I'd rather not have surgery to get my climbing weight under control, and besides, I have a 9-month-old that I need to keep up with.2
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I spent the night in a chest pain unit at our local hospital. That was a *big* wake-up call for me.0
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2008 heart attack. Trying to stay ahead of the next one. I was already fit when I had the first one, but I know I can be more fit for the next one.
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My boyfriend of 2.5 years saying that I had let myself go. My clothes feeling tight and uncomfortable all day long. Feeling fatigued 90% of the time.
Back in 2013, I used MFP to lose 30 lbs over the course of a summer and I remember thinking that it was simple. It requires effort more than anything. It doesn't matter if one day you run a mile or walk the dog. Getting more active is the key. Small victories compile into pounds lost. I gained the weight back after I stopped counting my calories. The stress of college got to me and I started binge eating. I gained it all back and stacked another 50 pounds on top of my previous heaviest weight.
So here I am. 5 lbs into my journey again, 4 years later, with so much more to lose. I'm here because someone finally voiced what I've been thinking for so long. That I let myself go.0 -
In November of last year my husbands dr put him on cholesterol meds. I had been on cholesterol meds a few years back but after 2 years had some weird allergic reaction to them which in turned caused permanent joint damage in my hands and ankles?? Back then the dr immediately took me off the meds and put me on a plant based diet, I lost about 27lbs, the cholesterol came down yay me... so what did I do? I went right back to my bad eating habits gained what I lost and then some. I have never had an issue with my weight, there was never confidence issue, I was always the happy bubbly kind caring Kelly no matter if I was 260lbs or 180lbs soo that was never an issue for me, plus I am married to a wonderful man who tells me how beautiful I am and how much he loves me every single day so losing weight was never front and center for me... But something clicked in me the day my husband came home with that bottle of cholesterol meds. I was like, NO, NOT HAPPENING, we are going to start eating better, we are going to get active and we are going to live a long healthy life with our kids and future Grandbabies... That was 11/28/16, since then we have completely changed our lifestyle. We work out 6 days a week and we have lost a combined 80lbs. My new name is the food nazi
The thought of being almost 48 (at the time) and living a life without my husband or visa versa was just the slap in the face I needed. For me it is not about being thin, for me it is all about being healthy and fit. I like my curves, I plan on keeping them. I have some medical issues, such as degenerative disk disease, 4 herniated disk in my lower back, 2 in my neck plus an aneurysm in my artery to my brain which I used as a total excuse to be lazy for so many years. The chronic pain, is doable, even more now that I have shed the lbs, I still have some to go, but again for me it's the number on the scale, its all about being able to finish that hour zumba class 3x's a week or 60 minutes on the treadmill the other 3 nights. Being able to walk up the stairs not being winded or running around with the kids and not having to sit down as well as no high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes etc.... That "Ah Ha" moment lives in all of us, and when it comes, there is nothing better!!!! I have been on every diet known to man but never before I have looked at this journey as a lifestyle change... That has been the key difference between now and then!!!! 1 -
I have played at losing weight several times over the last couple of years. I would eat healthier for a bit or join a gym then quit. My mum is overweight and in January this year I heard her telling a friend that she knows how to loose weight she just can't stick to it and it doesn't work. I hated the excuses and said to myself that I can do it. So the next day I joined a gym and began logging my food. I have been making a huge effort to getting healthy. I have been working out and eating healthy for about 2 full months and the changes are now what motivates me.1
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I really appreciate hearing your stories.
What pushed me to start loosing weight was that the 80kg woman in the mirror was so far from the one I wished to be. Being overweight reflected a life where I was passively letting my days pass, didn't stand up for myself, and lacked self confidence. I easily quit when things got tough. Hanging out on the couch was easier and more confortable, but I was so far from being my best self.
Once I started getting into a good sports routine, I came to like the discipline and the simplicity, and learned the importance of commitment and patience, opposed to the instant gratification I had craved until then.
I have been laying low this winter, been more passive and piled on a couple of kilos. It has been a challenge to get back into a good workout routine, but now I've started, I love how it makes me feel.0 -
Wow, I love the stories that have unfolded on this post. Just motivates me more. It's a good feeling to know there are others who have felt and experienced similar things. I really hope all of you reach your current goals.0
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