What was your "last straw"???

Saoirse90

For me it was finding I was having an issue with the zip on a dress I'd only bought in January this year! I knew if I don't sort myself now then it'll spiral and become even harder to get healthy.

belleamour

For me it happened in August. I took my son to legoland and he wanted to go on a ride and all you had to do was pedal faster to get higher, we stayed at the bottom the whole time, no matter how fast we pedaled.

Toofatforshirts

My last straw was when I couldn't walk up the stairs without breathing hard. Knowing how my grand kids love me and want to have a happy and active grandpa made me think about doing something with my life.

FunkyChopstick

I work with a dog rescue that pairs inmates with shelter dogs. I brought a new scale to weight the dog's on and all the guys started getting on the scale. I knew I had climbed a bit- I was chubby before but when I stepped on the scale and read 193 pounds * the most I had ever seen in my life* I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. Here I was, on the "outside" ( not locked up) with all my free will , and all these guys in prison were so much more fit than me. It was a huge wake up call. I spent this weekend sulking but today I hit the gym. I estimate 50-60 lbs to go, but I will keep going until I get to that healthy place where I can run up a flight of stairs and not be winded.

zombiesalad

I hated not being able to find jeans that fit, and having thighs too big to wear anything smaller than plus size tights. I hated being out of breath climbing stairs and having terrible balance.

aiyanashanay

Went to the beach with my fam and my mother took a picture of me and the picture looked like a completely different person

khalleron

First, let me say I don't believe in dieting - most 'diets' are scams for the weight-loss industry and they're DESIGNED not to work over the long haul so you'll keep coming back for the 'product'. I watched my mother 'struggle' with her weight and swore I would never do that. I'm heavier than she ever was, but I'm 10 years older than she was when she died and my BP is half what hers was.

I think dieting is extremely unhealthy and responsible for more health problems than obesity itself. I think many of the health problems fat people have are from the near constant dieting most of us do. So I don't do it. Period.

I have a problem with sugar, especially baked goods. Cookies, cake, scones, croissants - can't get enough of 'em. And that's a problem when diabetes runs in the family.

My 'last straw' was this summer when I was switched for six weeks to a 10-hour day work week. Sitting for 8 hours a day was bad enough, but having to sit for 10 hours just about did me in. I knew I had to do something, so I bought an exercise bike, started tracking my food with MFP, and vastly reduced my sugar intake.

I don't really care if I lose any weight - even though I'm a woman, I think being 270 lbs of muscle would be awesome, but I have lost 11 lbs in 4 weeks and my blood glucose levels are dropping.

For me, it's more about being in good health than it is about appearance. I'm feminist enough to know that the images we're supposed to conform to are not healthy, either physically or psychologically. I enjoy being a strong woman - I just want to get stronger!

HenryBelmont

I bought a T-shirt from one of those "large number" stores and a couple of months later even that T-shirt was getting too tight. It was a horrible moment for me, I remember thinking "what am I doing to myself?" and it was after that moment when I finally decided that enough is enough and things have been pretty well since then.

smantha32

bump

bernicesmission

the realisation that i was worth more than this, i deserve better!

mrshudson813

My husband went to the doctor and had his blood pressure checked. It was high enough that the doctor wanted to put him on medication. Then he had his blood glucose checked. Turns out, he is prediabetic. So, we both decided that it was time for a change. I want my husband to be around for a long time (he's only 32) and I want to be around to live a wonderful life with him. With that in mind, we joined myfitnesspal and started our slow but steady journey to better health.

terrygreenwell1

considering elasticated trousers as a purchase

GypsyRoad2

I have been on my own for the past 8 years and when I first left my fiance of 10 years I started losing weight, but then I got into (3) dufferent, but unhealthy relationships. Two were liars, users and master manipulators and the other one was a full blown alcoholic whom I had no real intimacy with. I got so depressed that I gradually started putting on weight, but after the last guy I really sunk into a depression and started sitting at home on the computer or watching tv and you know it....EATING!! I have clothes that range from a size 6 to a size 14 and the 14's were getting tight on me. I knew I had to do something. LIke alot of people on here I was getting short of breath that even taking a shower was a major task. Someone had mentioned previously that they were barely able to see their own genitals...well I haven't even seen mine for quite some time. I am sick of being overweight. I hate the way others treat me different. I lost 45 lbs back in 2002. It took me two years, but people were all over me like I'd won a Nobel Peace Prize or something. Sickening to realize that people are really that superficial and shallow. I am tired of being alone my clock is running out, so here I am. I do believe the last straw was while I was at work I do marketing demonstrations in retail stores and I saw my own reflection in the glass. I got so depressed at how big I had gotten. Most of my weight is in my stomach area. You know it's pretty bad when you can't stand to look at your own self in the mirror. I avoid them or window glass. I have already lost 4 lbs, but I gained 4lbs the first week and that's when I decided enough is enough and now I am serious as hell and determined once again. I am so grateful to have found this place and yes maybe I did gain 4 lbs the first week, but I have never been a quitter when I really want something bad enough. I love what I have learned here. Just keeping the daily food journal and exercise journal has helped me so much. I can see what foods are good for me and which ones are bad and I can point out my weaknesses like eating at night or in front of this thing. I finally got the motivation back that I had before...well maybe not quite as gung ho, but almost and I am walking an hour a day, too.

ps...I forgot to mention that my blood pressure was in prehypertension stage and my blood pressure has never been out of whack...I was only 1 number away on the bottom # from having high blood pressure....Wew

Darrelkun

I'm still reading the posts throughout this thread. So many of your stories have brought tears to my eyes! Ugh, and my heart aches at the pain you must have felt when you endured your aches, embarrassments, and frustrations. No human should have to experience any of these things. ;A;

As for my story, well, I didn't really take the flag when I should have. I started gaining weight when I was about 10 or 11 years old. At first it was nothing. I was just a kid, my family said, and it was baby fat -- I'd burn it off! But I never did. it just kept adding to the fat I already had, year after year.

When I was about 16 or so the rage of diabetes seemed to flare. That was all my mother could ever talk about. And since I have poor circulation as it is (seems to run in the family), my body often falls asleep. That prickling from my feet falling asleep scared me the most. I would NOT have diabetes, I told myself! I biked seven and a half miles a day, starved myself to 1000 calories a day and lost about 20 pounds. That was when I was only 180 pounds going down to 160.

But 20 pounds seems to be my plateau number. After months of sticking at 20 pounds, and with winter snows on the streets, I couldn't work out. And since I couldn't work out, I gained weight. At that point, I gave up trying to lose weight.

Then when I was 18 going on 19, my mother took me to Weight Watchers. She was 50 pounds overweight herself (190, nearing 200), and I was sitting comfortably at 210 myself. I lost, again, 10 pounds on Weight Watchers, but after that I couldn't. Every week seeing my weight maintain or go up was incredibly depressing, as well as frustrating and humiliating. My mom could lose weight, my friends could lose weight, why not me? After three years of Weight Watchers I put my little tracking booklet down and left the group. We didn't have money for my failures.

My weight continued to balloon throughout the years of college. From 210 to 245 I rose, though slowly at first. A common pain I had had in my ankles (a flaring burn that would radiate up my calves all the way to my knees and engulf the entire circumference of my lower leg) became worse. Instead of gaining it only from walking fast, as I had in the past, I now gained it from walking slow. And I had it just from walking from the science building to the library next door. Trying to make it on time from one end of the campus to the other in less than ten minutes was near impossible, and I would often stagger into class limping and whimpering. Tears would sometimes lace the bottoms of my eyelids.

And sleeping became more difficult. Although I've never had sleep apnea (at least to my knowledge), I've had difficulty breathing when laying down. And sometimes even while sitting up. Laying on my left side would make my heart palpate and become irregular. My fingers, hands, toes and feet would become numb and prickle. Even other parts of my body were starting to feel these 'sleeping prickles' -- I would get them in my eyelids, my shoulders, my chest, my groin. It seemed no part of me was safe from the uncomfortable nerve pain.

And clothes... clothes kept growing too small. I hated having to shop a size up. I finally ran out of clothes that would actually fit, unless I went to stores that made clothes for bigger guys, like WalMart or Ross. Walking down the row of men's shorts and not finding a pair that could fit me was humiliating.

But none of those were the final straw. They should have been, but they were not. Instead, do you know what was the final straw?

This picture.


It was my first year at pride, I was super excited to be with a family I had been searching for for the last half of my life. I was so happy that day... and so heartbroken when friends started posting pictures of the events. I couldn't believe how ridiculous I looked! In fact I remember sobbing myself to sleep the night this picture was taken. How had I fallen so hard? How had I given up on myself like this?

Okay, granted, that picture was the worst of all my pictures, and in fact this picture is a little more representative of how I looked at 245:



Still, I was way too chubby for my own good. I was humiliated that my face was so chubby, my hands so small (and babyish with their chub), and overall how incompetent and ugly I perceived myself to be. From that day forth, I promised myself I would never weigh 245 ever again. I would never see numbers above it.

Last summer was hard. I picked up the weights, I started eating healthier, and I worked out every day at least once, sometimes twice. I lost 20 pounds the first month and a half, and slimmed down in appearance. But my inches didn't change. My clothing sizes didn't change. And my weight stopped changing. Three months of stagnant measuring results broke my spirit. And with school returning I no longer had energy to care. I came home, I ate what I wanted because I was exhausted, and then I did homework and slept. I didn't work out. I didn't count. I didn't care.

This year around January, I made a New Year's resolution; I would take photos of myself and measure visible progress that way. Well, the pictures were disgusting enough and my weight had gone back up to 239! But I still didn't have the motivation to work out and lose it.

This spring I knew I had my graduation coming up and I had my surgery coming up as well. I wanted to be as much in shape for it as I could be! So I took up seven PE classes. But three months of that and I didn't lose a single pound. No, I didn't even lose a point of a pound. Nothing. So I gave up AGAIN.

But the end of July hit, I got Bob Harper's Skinny Rules and Jumpstart to Skinny books. I finally had my motivation groove once again. I was not going to crawl up to 240 -- I had promised myself any number after 239 would NEVER grace my scale EVER AGAIN! And I meant it! So since July 20th of this year I've been working hard to eat right and exercise.

...And again I sit at my 20 pound plateau mark. But I can't keep giving up. What does giving up get me? Fat. That's all it does. I don't feel better eating higher caloric food. I don't feel better gaining weight. And I don't feel better looking in the mirror and seeing all this chub on my face and body.

Is this the last straw? I sure hope so. But I can't foresee the future. I cannot hate myself if I do give up and regain weight. But I can only hope I jump on it before I reach the 230s again, let alone ever another 240. And that's why I'm here! I'm hoping this website will keep me accountable to keep going, even when I don't think I can.

Luminous_Dark

Really bad photo, my hips area getting really out of proportion + the sides of my face/cheeks giving me a kind of gerbil look. I'm not over weight but I eat really badly and it shows.

Good question btw.

vnatural

When I sat down I couldn't get my leg over my other leg and my mom is smaller than. What got me to lose more weight...This girl that lives in my area named Meredith went on Extreme weight loss to lose weight. Ever since I saw her do it I've been strongly motivated but prior to it I was already on my weight loss journey.

drvvork

MFP was a 2nd thought for me. I started looking for online help setting up and maintaining Mom's dietary needs (she was diabetic) and when she passed away :brokenheart: and I decided I could benefit from using this site. And BOY, Have I? :flowerforyou:

I might add - I used this site to also help me control and monitor macros for my daughter's diet (she passed away from ALS last August :brokenheart: ).

But I guess I'll have to say that the last straw event or realization was I didn't want to go out like my Mom or Daughter.

tram54

I live in Central Florida. My son just turned 12. This past spring he finally started getting over his fears about riding some of the bigger roller coasters, but he didn't want to go alone. I tried to take him, but I didn't fit in the $%^#!! seat.

ohsnapitssummer

I was sick of guys telling me that if only my personality was in ratio with my looks.
I hated how I looked in the mirror and when I weighed myself, I was 101 kg.
I told a guy that I had feelings for him and he turned me down for being too big. After I lost almost 60 pounds, he reconnected with me ,telling me how pretty I am, flirting with me and asking me out. I turned that sucker down hard :bigsmile:

KANGOOJUMPS

when I moved from the farm to the city