Besides yourself and a mirror, who gave you a wake-up call?

Michelle_dirtracer

I know for some people just looking in the mirror is enough to give you a kick in the rear to get in shape. But did it take someone else telling you that you were unhealthy? Like a family member, doctor, friend, etc? I remember looking at myself one day and thinking what happened to me...

MzManiak

Nope. The only time I get comments is when I'm actually doing something to better myself. Seems people not into fitness/ healthier eating don't care what you do/eat until it's something different from what they do/eat... then it's negative. Whatevs.:yawn:

Phoenix_Warrior

During my pregnancy, I was constantly scrutinized by my OB about my excessive weight gain during. After I had my son, I decided enough was enough. I was tired of making excuses for my years of bad eating habits.

kevinjb1

Took a picture with an ex NFL lineman and I looked like his mini-me. That was the wakeup call I needed.

neanderthin

It was the mirror for me, and I lost a backyard hold your breath swimming lengths contest, which I've never lost that did it.

jaxbeck

Other than the scale, my husband. He had been overweight for quite some time while I was mostly on the thin side. He finally committed to getting healthy & losing weight/gaining muscle. Of course that would be when I started gaining lol After over a year of watching him lose & get stronger, I told him one day, I want to do it with you & he was thrilled

drefaw

The mirror, and my Brother ....And I'm glad he said something, it was just the wake up I needed to get off my duff and do something about it ...

Girlrose

I saw pictures from our family vacation to California and that was when I realized, "Wow. When did I get so big?" I still cringe when I see those pictures and I can barely recognize myself.

Michelle_dirtracer

How often do people see someone commenting on someones weight and then when they become overweight they don't want to hear it?

jwdieter

I looked normal and my bloodwork was all good, so nobody said anything. And I was able to perform at a relatively high level (20+ pull ups, 100+ push ups, etc), so I was able to rationalize. Unfortunately, "normal" looks like crap.

Then one day I tried MFP and determined that my caloric intake was significantly higher than I expected, so I modified intake. Fat melted off and I look good again.

mrsgrimsdale

For me the catalyst was dieting on a juice diet making me lose so much muscle that I could barely get myself stood up from out of my chair. That's when I realised that starving myself was just not going to work, I have limited my calories to 1000 or less/day for so many years it has been really hard trying to eat the calories advised on this site. I realise I might gain before I lose but I would end up bed bound if I kept on the way I was going. If I had never seen the TV program extolling the wonders of a fasting juice diet I might have carried on, on my downward journey so I am glad I got worse, it helped me find this site and start understanding what I need to do to turn things round.

james6998

When i realized that what i thought was looking good was just look heavy. Power lifting was my life until a disability changed my life. I got into sculpting my body instead and noticed i liked it much better. I always dreamed of abs on my body.

sjberrier

Pictures, for sure. More so than the mirror. But also my physical abilities--- things that make me breathe hard.... that shouldn't. I used to be a dancer so I look at today's dancers......and I absolutely hate what I did to myself.

AbstractAsterism

My husband and my son (currently 2), honestly. Not going into deep details but the hubby sat me down and told me he's scared I won't live to see my son graduate high school the way I am now.

cassienoe

The camera. I took a photo with my cousin on my birthday and went "wow is that how I really look?!" Put batteries in the scale and realized I needed to get it in check. To be fair, I was still in a healthy weight so no one else felt the need to say anything.

trackmyday1973

I know for some people just looking in the mirror is enough to give you a kick in the rear to get in shape. But did it take someone else telling you that you were unhealthy? Like a family member, doctor, friend, etc? I remember looking at myself one day and thinking what happened to me...

The floor.

LOL no seriously...just the way I felt (sluggish) my clothes...not fitting properly.... not being able to sit on a one-seated chair

KCharron20

For me it was going with my 16 year old daughter to her yearly doctor's appointment and watching her cry because she was nearing 200 pounds. We signed up for a trainer for the entire family 1 week later.

krystalraven

I was at a coffee morning and there was a little girl about four years old handing out cupcakes that she'd made. When she got to me she said 'You're not getting a cake because you look like you've eaten five already'. I laughed and then she asked me 'Why are you so fatty?' Haha! That was my wake-up call!!! Haha!!!

Punkin7411

Photos taken during a missions trip finally did it for me!!!

witmer1

My 9 year old son told me he worries that something bad is going to happen to me because of my size. I realized I'd been selfish and self serving to that point by not taking care of myself. He deserved better and so did I, so I did something about it. I'm not doing something either. No quitting. No stopping. I will hit my goal. I can. I will. I must.

erikmsp72

I took a class at the same school, but about 15 years apart. (I took a break from my degree to have a career!)

When I got back, one of the professors I remembered as pretty hefty . . . was skinny! And wearing pretty snazzy clothes, for that matter. And it was one of the professors I had significant disagreements with.

And it kinda kicked my butt. I said, "If HE can do it -- so can I. Shoot!"

So I did.

malk2651

Photo from a work x-mas party. I didn't realize it was me. I keep it on my phone as a reminder of who I don't want to be.

griffith5150

Being stuck in ER department when I was 34, thinking I was having a heart attack with the EKG scans all that. Only to find out I was severely anemic due to my PCOS and than having to get a blood xfusion to be allowed out of ER. If that didn't open my eyes it was the ER dr looking at me, saying if I do something about my health, he will be seeing me more often and he didn't want to see me leaving on a gurney with a sheet covered over me. That scared the *kitten* out of me... Lost over a 100 lbs so far and trying to work on the remaining 40-50

justal313

I suppose it's my buddy Alex. He gave me a ticket to a patriots game. Our seats were in the 400 section of Gillette stadium. This is the TIPPY TOP of the TIPPY TOP of the stadium. We had to walk up ramps, not stairs, to our seats. I was so out of shape I had to keep stopping to catch my breath, just walking up ramps. We were late for kickoff and I felt like I was going to die. That day my probably doomed to fail New Years resolution turned into a life changing event. I am in excellent shape now, I will be running a half marathon in the fall and earlier this summer I ran a 10K that was held in around Gillette Stadium at the end of which we ran up and down the ramps in the stadium, out through the giant inflatable patriots helmet and across the 50 yard line. If you listen carefully in Gillette stadium you can still hear me screaming "TAKE THAT FAT AL"

PunkinSpice79

I asked my husband if he thought I had good muscle tone and he fumbled an answer.

xxhieixx

I know that little girl was a kid but wow. I hope her parents didn't hear her and decided not to do anything. There's no way I'd let my kid talk like that. Glad you didn't take it too personally though (or at least I hope you didn't).

Anyway, for me it was pretty much the same as what the OP said. I had been wanting to diet for years and just kept putting it off. I hated how I looked and I constantly thought about how I was in high school. I mentioned to a coworker one day about how I need to start counting calories and he told me about the lose it app. So that actually got me to start recording my calories, I had no idea there were apps like that! I was too lazy to do it all in my head so I got really into it. I eventually started wanting more support from people and another coworker told me about her myfitnesspal app so I switched to here
Then I got into working out a different way. I used to play dance central for the kinect and one day my hubby was talking to me about his friend's wife who lost a lot of weight doing zumba. So I looked into that and was going to buy the game but then I found a class right down the street from me and I've been doing that ever since. I recently started to add strength training to my workouts as well

TheEffort

Folks asking how long I was "expecting"...when was my "due date".?

HockeyHolic

My mother. She's had one shoulder and two knee replacements and is still recovering from one spinal fusion that will have to be redone this coming Friday. She yo-yo dieted throughout her adult life by cutting calories. By this time she doesn't have much muscle mass and osteoarthritis on top of that. I see myself in her and I don't want to be frail and fragile come 70.

DebbieLyn63

The mirror lies, photos tell the truth. So I quit looking at photos! Seriously tho, no one else ever commented about my weight. I was always my worst critic, and let injuries and disability take over and accepted that weight gain was inevitable.

My final wake up calls were my 49th birthday, just after my mom died from T2Diabetes. She missed meeting my first grandchild by 3 weeks. The day my granddaughter was born, was the highest point of my life in quite some time, but was also bittersweet when I realized I couldn't call my mom to tell her the news. I called her sister instead, and we cried together.

I vowed right then that I would be here to meet my great grandchild one day, and I would not put my family thru the horror of watching me die from a preventable disease.

One year later, and not a day has gone by that I regret signing up here. My life and health are drastically changed.

Whiskybelly

My ex had a few things to say, and there's a reason why she's now my ex.

krystalraven

Haha! Kids will be kids! And I was far more amused than I was offended!