What was your final push to get serious?

AndIwanttochangetoo

I think the majority of us have probably struggled with staying committed and have started over and over again throughout the years...so I'm curious. What was the moment that really made you get serious about improving your health? Was there something different that made it stick or was it simply discipline?

1poundatax

I realized I was headed for serious health problems including diabetes if I didn't do something.

benjaminlight

I reached a point earlier this year where the number on the scale was the heaviest it had ever been. So I started getting up early, working out, eating right, etc... and the pounds started coming off. I took a trip to West Africa at the end of February and early March. (super carby foods, with irregular meal patterns as a result of our reasons for the trip, and I ended up getting off my schedule for intermittent fasting, and started eating outside my meal plan) For me - consistency is key, and this is something I will have to figure out going forward because life doesn't always result in consistency.

Then when I got home - everything locked down as a result of COVID. I got super depressed. No workout schedule, started eating gas station taquitos and slamming energy drinks to the tune of 32 ounces or more a day. In August - I got on the scale just because, and not only had I gained back everything that I had lost during the first three months of 2020, I had gained 8 pounds more.

I was the heaviest I'd ever been at 346 pounds and I could see the eventuality if I kept going like this, so I opted to actually try MFP religiously. I'd tried the fads, tried the various things, and this time - I have focused for the past 14 weeks solely on CICO.

I don't know what is different about this time internally - but it is different, and I can feel it somehow. I'm driven, and will accept nothing less than victory.

SnifterPug

I fell in love with fitness.

Sand_TIger

For pretty much my whole life I thought I'd always be heavy. I had one period where I achieved some success but life derailed that. This time I was spurred on by a really lucrative weight loss contest. I already knew I was pretty much as heavy as I'd ever been, and I was having trouble doing things like getting up off the floor or walking across a large parking lot without over heating. Since I stood to win a few hundred dollars in the contest, I used it as a motivation to start losing.

One of the things I did that really helped me stick with it is I looked at all my reasons for failing previously and planned around them. I made plans for what I would do in all kinds of circumstances, and I started looking at the emotional reasons for failure. I used MFP daily and got a food scale. I also had backup from the spouse since I promised her half the reward money if she helped me. She would have helped me anyway I'm sure, but the money made me brave enough to ask. (I have issues with prioritizing myself.)

That kick start, and the fact that the contest was a three month event, really helped. Then Covid happened and I started working from home. I decided to keep losing in case they delayed the end of the contest. I saw a lot of success and learned some things that helped me enjoy the experience of weight loss. Also my stress level went down working from home. So even when the contest was canceled and the entry fees were donated to charity, I kept at it, this time just for me. Now the spouse is working on losing weight too and we are supporting each other. I've lost a little over 80 pounds and my life is transformed. I have roughly 30 to go but I feel so much better.

At this point discipline is definitely part of it, but the sheer enjoyment of feeling better, enjoying the foods I make, and being able to be satisfied with smaller portions keeps me going. I crave veggies now, more than I ever craved grease. It's a funny thing but my body likes what I eat and how I move now, and it tells me so.

Remus42

Basically for myself it was my mother ever so loving pointing out to me that I was getting fat again. And while it hurt to hear that from her, I then stood on the scale and realized, yup she was right. I had gained back all the weight I had lost my last time round on MFP. So I thought nope, not again. So about 115 days ago, the journey began again. While the first 15lbs came of quite quickly, the next 2 have been a *kitten*. I have plateaued. Of course I had, I was on vacation for a bit there and my mental health has been awful lately. Working as a nurse during covid has not been easy. and plateaus happen when you are trying to get those pounds off. As i keep reminding myself this is a marathon and not a sprint and plateaus are going to happen. Just keep going. Just know that you can do this, you have before and that it's worth it. I am just happy to be healthy and to keep working out. As much as that in and of itself has begun to be difficult with new covid restrictions in place that have closed gyms and pools. Indoor at home workouts are key right now. I know I will be alright. It's just been one hell of a tough year but I am tougher and I won't go down without a fight. So here I am every single day getting up and trying and doing me. Chin up kid, you got this.

charmmeth

This is a really good, an important, question.

I lost down to my goal weight - and indeed 5kgs beyond - a few years ago, maintained (sort of: my monthly averages were creeping up gradually) for getting on for two years, then developed acid reflux and was put on a protein pump inhibitor and gained 2kgs within just a couple of weeks. Combine several months on that medication with a year's research leave with lots of conferences and no regular routine (and at best sporadic access to the pool and to both food and body weight scales), add in peri-menopause, and over the next couple of years I gained back most of what I had lost. By Easter this year I had lost back to the top of normal bmi, but put 8kgs back on afterwards, not helped by lockdown, to find myself the heaviest I have (I think) ever been. So back I came to mfp and logging my food and exercise instead of guessing.

This time I have done two things differently:
a) I have thought carefully about a sustainable exercise routine that I can do wherever I am and that does not depend on access to a pool. I am using Bodyfit by Amy workouts combined with a rowing machin, and I am really loving the fact that I have a much stronger core. Rowing works for me as I can't run due to problems with my knees, but I am also walking a lot more.
b) I have also really thought about approaching maintenance, trying to transition into maintenance by slowing my weight loss for these last few kgs, but also trying to work out strategies (warning colours on my spreadsheet cells) to trigger me to start adjusting my diet when I float back over the top of my maintenance range/towards the top of normal bmi rather than when I am hovering at the boundary between overweight and obese.

We'll see. I would love to be one of those people who can report that they have been maintaining for 6+ years and arefitter in the 60s than every before!

FABRICWOMAN

I knew I had to get serious AGAIN, after my orthopedic surgeon told me he would not do the double knee replacements, which I needed until I lost 100 lbs. That was 7/16/20 - today I weighed in with a total 60 lbs. weight loss since then. Next appointment is 4/14/21, and I am positive I will make his goal. Hopefully I won't need the surgery with the loss, we'll see. MFP is awesome, if you use it consistently. I also do intermittent fasting 16:8. Best of luck to everyone in their weight loss journey.

Sailor555

I'm a small woman (5'3") so even a little bit of weight on me has basically nowhere to go. Most of my adult life I carried too much weight but felt resigned to it, and my highest weight never got above 190 (still WAY too heavy for my frame). Well, I gained the "Covid 15" and then some, so recently I checked the scale and I was 207. I was deeply shocked and upset by that. That was my tipping point. I'd already been looking around for the right app/program, but that was when I decided to get serious and start with MFP. Feeling better (psychologically) already, after just 1 week. I know it will be a long slog, but at least I'm doing something now. Don't want to feel that way anymore.

14apfigley641

After being locked in for two months due to COVID I spent the entire time on the couch eating. I gained over twenty pounds, none of my clothes fit, and I was over 250. I was horrified and when I went back to work I had to order larger work shirts. I was sore everyday I got off work because I’d gotten so used to not moving. Then to top it off I seen a photo of me on Facebook next to my mother and I was three times her size. I don’t want to spend the rest of my twenties overweight and when I feel like giving up I look at the photo. I’m three months into my journey and I’m down 21 pounds and shut In again due to COVID only this time I’m working out and tracking my calories. It’s been a slow process and for every two days I have a bad one but I get back on track the next day and I know eventually I’ll get to where the bad days are fewer. I’ve done strict diets in the past and lost weight only to put more back on. This time I deny myself nothing, just work it into my calories and I think that’s what is going to make all the difference for me this time around.

Oliveciabatta

I've only gained around a stone, the classic covid gain due to working from home in a high stress role, not earing right due to avoiding the shops and the gyms being shut since March the final straw for me was my riding jodhpurs being too tight to fasten comfortably and gaining the dreaded 4 boob effect in my bras. Vanity pure and simple.

Hippie6464

My health insurance is what woke me up. I was already a diabetic for 10 years, had a heart stent, high blood pressure, and weighed in at 245, smoked and I'm 5'2 at 55. My company switched health insurance companies last year, and this package made me pay full price for everything until I paid my 4K deductible. Then they would cover 80% and I was still responsible for the other 20%. All prescriptions had to be ordered in 90-day supplies. Just my two injectables alone covered my deductible for the first 90-day prescription fill. I was on Tresiba and Trulicity plus I took oral meds too. Metformin 1000mg, Atorvastatin 40 mg, and Metoprolol Succinate 25mg. After that first shock of how much my medicine cost me I decided right then and there. If I was going to spend 4K a year it was going to be on something I wanted. It never phased me before because I paid very reduced prices and figured poor me I'd be this way all my life. I'm doing Keto and I have lost 35lbs since July 2020. My AC1 is done to 5.9 right now and I'm reversing my diabetes. I found a doctor that really helped me on youtube, Dr. Ken Berry, and read his book "Lies my doctor told me." So far I'm really seeing an improvement in my health, I've also taken the offer from the health insurance company to stop smoking and they sent me patches and Chantix to see which one works the best. The patches made me break out with huge welts wherever I wore them so I'm doing the pills now.

HoneyBadger302

My big wake up was when I couldn't fit into my "fattest" work pants, even leaving them unbuttoned with a large belt and long shirt to cover it up....

After that I dropped about 10-15 pounds, but at that point, I started to do a lot of up and down in a ~10 pound range, but still around 10-25 pounds from where I wanted to be. That said, I was more focused on my fitness at that point than my weight, and my fitness did improve over the next few years, even with a few too many "breaks" in there (but even then my breaks became a lot more active than they had been).

Now, my life is getting turned on its head again (thank you 2020), and I am positioned to either a) wallow, suffer, and be a victim of circumstance or b) take control of what I can, buckle down, and find that mental toughness muscle I seem to have let atrophy...

I've chosen b, and part of this is going to be getting rid of this weight once and for all and get back to where I should be (and where I was into my 30's). Started a program to help me re-discover that muscle (I've had it in the past, but really let it slide about 4 years ago and for various reasons, didn't re-engage with it, and am paying the price a bit now).

socajam

What got me motivated was when my blood work returned and it showed that my A1C was 6.1 - that scared the *kitten* out of me and let me know that I need to get my self in check otherwise I will be looking at diabetes.

socajam

Hippie6464 - thought the same as you.
If I was going to pay for diabetic medication and having to take it daily - I see no reason why I cannot exercise daily and control my portion size. Too date I have lost 5lbs, small, but I can feel the difference and have no plan to stop.
Losing weight for me is slow as I do not have a thyroid, but it can be done - I lost 24lbs here about 4 years ago - this time I plan on keeping the weight off and keep the medication money in my bank account.

carowesn1954

I retired on January 1, 2020, and had all sorts of big plans until Covid ended much of that. I was home, no new routine, and baking lots of goodies. Bad idea! I started a summer daily pool workout class but had to buy a bigger swimsuit - depressing. At 5'5 and 157 lbs, it's not awfully bad (YET), but my adult kids are starting to take notice, and I've had to go up a clothing size. The mirror isn't kind, and neither are family photos! My big problem is portion control and eating late at night - I always underestimate my calories, and I love to stay up late reading or doing needlework, and snacking to stay awake for "just one more chapter". For me, it's always lose a little, gain a little more, and repeat. This time, I'm counting down backwards the twenty pounds I need to burn off, one by one. I just started this week and have lost one pound. Next week's goal: one pound. One seems doable, and I'm stockpiling no-calorie beverages for those late nights, like de-caf tea with lemon and fake sweetener (I know that's not the best but it's better than cheese, cookies and chips). MFP helps me with logging actual, realistic portions.

eijaj

Long post sorry. But I think I needed to write this more for me, than for you to read all of it

Maintaining my weight has not ever been a priority for me, since I thought I had always been fat and would always be. So I gained and I gained.

A year ago I was burned out from work and other hard things we had gone through over the last few years, to the point I could hardly function and my business was doing very bad. After christmas came news of a serious brain injury of a family member with no hope to survive (he did survive, and now lives at a home trying to learn to speak and function again). Soon after came the virus pandemic that made sure my business would never have any hope again. So with all things spiraling to hell, me feeling absolutely sick, I was gaining weight by the day (I did not weigh myself, but I know). There was nothing to do other than wait, for the pandemic to stop and business starting to go better, for the said family member to wake after months of unconsciousness, for some miracle to happen that would fix our finances, for anything to happen really.

Then I got pissed off. That was the driving force

I needed to do something, so I started to clear out all the closets. I took everything out, threw more than half away and tried to organize the rest better. I went through every nook of the house, then moved on to the garage and storage outside.It was nice to work outside, and feel that I had done something with my body for the first time in ages lifting all those boxes and things. Then the thought grew that I had to take control of the things that still were in my own hands.

I took only small steps. I started working outside in the garden, I knew I didn´t eat enough vegetables so I kept a loose list of greens I ate in the back of my head trying to intentionally add more each day, that interest grew to keeping a list of things I ate- Not really trying to crop things off from the list, but adding all the stuff that was good for me. And as I added more and more vegetables, fiber, protein, nuts, lots and lots of water etc, some bad things just disappeared from my diet naturally. No room for them since I was full and not graving for them.

With small baby steps in the course of over half a year I am at the point that I take long walks several times a week, went to the swimming hall for a swim or to aqua jog couple of times a week before they closed them again, and even visited a gym half a dozen times. Now I exercise at home and there are signs that I am starting to get motivated with weight exercise. And I am starting to jog some when going out for a walk. I eat steadily 1850 cal a day with more emphasis on what I eat than trying to loose the weight quickly.

My goal is to eat as a 30 kg lighter and healthy person would eat, and I hope to get to be 30kg lighter and healthy after enough time has past. There is still pizza days and bites of chocolate every know and then, since that is the diet I know I can commit to for years to come. I am now down 16 kg, maybe more since I do not know what I was at my heaviest, and don´t really want to know. I am now in pretty good place, and I know that no matter what, I will stay on this course, because that is something I can control and it helps with all the other aspects of life.

Katerr1kk

I noticed that friends around me, of a similar age (so early 40s) were starting to have health problems earlier this year. I realised that I could be next and really it was down to me to make a change. Who knows how much time we have. It was really a bit of a wake up call.

I'd made excuses for years but no more. Even if I do have health problems in the future I'm sure that being 40lb+ lighter won't be a bad thing, even if it doesn't directly help.

Plus I am a figure skater, and being lighter obviously helps with that.

brittanynicholex

I've been diagnosed for the first time ever in my life with hypertension, and I'm pretty sure at my last physical my annual bloodwork was borderline prediabetic.

I've been back and forth trying to rule out a thyroid problem for months, but I think we have officially determined that's not the problem (though I will likely seek out and endocrinologist still just for confirmation).

It is eye opening, and I am trying my best right now, but I am certainly struggling. I keep going back and forth with the same 2lbs of weight and cannot seem to get any further down at this point. I'm going to re-evaluate my plan and keep moving forward.

dfranch

I started with a single event that started the train rolling. I went to a picnic with my family for Fathers day. Had a fine old time and ate until I couldn't stuff any more food in. that night I couldn't sleep my stomach was doing cartwheels. I had to call in sick to work the next day. I basically called in sick to work because I had made a glutton of myself the day before. Well, my stomach was still not happy that next day and I barely ate anything. Once my stomach felt better, I made a concerted effort to lose weight. I was at my all time highest weight (I'm estimating around 262 lbs. as I didn't even get on a scale the first 2-3 weeks). I reinstalled the MyFitnessPal app and kept my calories between 1200 - 1500 a day and withing 3 months I was down 40 lbs. I hit 200 lbs in about 8 months and after 15 months I was down to about 165 lbs.

At some point during the whole thing I realized I needed to change my eating habits for the rest of my life. I still log all my meals in MyFitnessPal every day. and Today was my 2500 day streak. It would be 2700 if not for super bowl Sunday almost 7 years ago, but I'm not bitter. Currently about 6 years later and I came in at 173 lbs this morning.

AMM160981

I went to a Christmas party on Saturday. It was a pajama themed party so I got a Santa onesie and I legit looked round like Santa. I put on a funny face for it but I was dying inside by how large I looked. I am serious this time. Gotta get this weight off. Stepped on the scale and I am the heaviest I have been since birthing my child.