What lit your fire?

StrawberryJam40

LOL...that sweater cracks me up!

Being forced to look through racks upon racks of clothes that are tents covered in sequins, glitter and flower appliques while my friends get to wear cute, stylish clothing! Nothing says "fat chick" like this:

777Gemma888

I think everyone that is actively losing was once in what I call... excuses hell.

Usually there's a period of time where you're like.. okay. This is it


What was your end of being out of shape motivation?

For me, it was a job offer, a bet[high stakes] and a 24hrs 3 peaks Challenge, which has since morphed into 2 challenges. :explode: Booom!:explode:

Misalayne

A picture of myself at my sons graduation day. I was way overweight, inactive, not feeling well and it showed in my face and body. Then I watched The Biggest Loser for the first time. I became very motivated at that time. I took the first step and joined Weight Watchers online, I now attend the meetings because it works for me best.

Since, I've lost a total of 50 pounds and have become active until this week due to an unjury. I have 85 more pounds to go.

CLM1227

I was looking through my kids' baby pictures from when I thought I was fat...

And realized how that looks skinny now...

There's some pictures of me around the house when I was a nice, healthy weight, and I look soooo skinny.

But it wasn't just some light switch. I finally got myself to a place where I'm more active than I had previously been. I started counting my calories 4 days ago, but today was my 8th day in a row at the gym and that has become more of a fixture to my day than a change I am suddenly ready to make - something I've been working for a year on accomplishing.

rsclause

That pic someone else snapped my have been it but I recall one of my kids asking when is it due....and I am a man.
<<Old fat pic

miss_rye_

My wedding pictures! :sad: :sad:

^^ THIS!! Thank god I was just the bride's maid, but still, it was BAD! I then referred to pictures from a year ago, 3 sizes smaller than I am now. I am over it. Also, being tired.

effervescent11

It was a combination of things. I stopped going on active outings, because I was too out of shape. I stopped dating, because a guy I started dating told me I was hot enough to bang, but not hot enough to be girlfriend material. From then on, I couldn't go on a date without being self-conscious and wondering if they were all thinking that. I was tired of the fat comments. Whenever someone lost an argument with me, they'd fall back on, "well you're fat", like that had any relevance to the argument. Most of all, I'm tired of feeling self-conscious everywhere I go. I need my confidence back.

twynklebell

Not being able to walk up one floor at work without being out of puff... plus, my knee was starting to hurt when I was walking - which admittedly wasn't often! The knee pain went almost instantly and I'm now up to 10k steps a day.

I must admit - I'm also fed up of not being able to shop in normal people clothing shops - so looking forward to that again!

Fi

Huppmanj

When I realized I was just 25lbs from weighing a quarter of a ton and found it next to impossible to find jeans with a button and zipper and pockets. Everything had not pockets and an elastic waste- YICKES!!!

Huppmanj

This is what I was facing!! Who thinks of that crap?!?

LOL...that sweater cracks me up!

Being forced to look through racks upon racks of clothes that are tents covered in sequins, glitter and flower appliques while my friends get to wear cute, stylish clothing! Nothing says "fat chick" like this:

cheesevixen_staci

i will be blunt. I could not tie my ****ing shoes without sweating. I'm a DIY girl. I do my nails myself. Couldn't even comfortably reach my feet to give myself a pedicure. No.....no way is MY weight going to get in the way of the simple things that give me joy.

bfergusonii

About 2 years ago I found out that I had a major coronary blockage. The blockage was in the LAD, commonly knows as the widow maker. They were unable to correct it with a stint so I underwent coronary bypass surgery.

After they were inside, they discovered three more blockages. The surgeon told me that had they not discovered this and I had let it go until I eventually had the heart attack, there was practically no way I would have survived it.

Luckily it was corrected with no damage to my heart since we caught it before the heart attack.

mullensamy

Sometimes it's hard to know how things got so out of control. I understand completely. And I often look back at the thinner me and wish I could just start over from there.

ccrenshaw04

I have been dating a man that has a son who is morbidly obese at 13 (5"4 and 275 lbs). He is hungry ALL of the time. He really is. (His mom's side is VERY heavy - I think it runs in the family) I looked at how I am overweight, but do not have his hunger issue. I also look at what I am eating and a lot of it isn't good for me! It made me look at myself and how I have come across so many bad habits!

Partly I want to lose weight to be an example for him as to how to make healthy choices. Maybe is he eats healthier, it will level out somehow. The other part is because I hate how I look. I hate shopping now and don't feel like I look good in anything. I used to have such a wonderful shape, and now I don't. I am over 40 and it won't be as easy, but I am in this for the long haul. It might take me a year to lose my 50 lbs, but that will result in the rest of my life being that much more healthy and able to do the things I want.

JDearman143

When the guy I was dating at the time said no to taking a picture with me and having it posted on facebook so he wasn't known for "The guy with the chubby girl"...

Yup, at that moment it was all UP HILL! And a big screw you to him!

BillRicks1

Turning 60.

Hophead43

For me it was all about DYING!! I went in for a stress test and my heart stopped!! They had to jump start me back to life. I was determined not to let my health get out of hand again. Well that lasted for a bit and then I started back to my old way and ended up having another hospital stay. That was the end. Since FEB of this year I have been pretty faithful to the gym and am working my way to a 5k race in Oct. Im down almost 30 pounds.

cookieinbk82

I avoid pictures like the plague.

So when I see one that someone else took my confidence tends to.. well. Die.

So you're a teacher then?

Yes, I'm a teacher. I'm disappointed that the memories that my students have of me is of when I was overweight.

jescamp9481

I was too self conscience to be comfortable being intimate with my husband... it wasnt fair to him... and I want to wear cute clothes

HeidiCooksSupper

What lit my fire? Well, Mick was good but Jose Feliciano did the trick.

Oh, never mind. I want my retirement to last at least as long as I had to work. Once you get to a certain age, having your BMI and your age similar numbers is not a good thing at all.

megan116xo

I looked in the mirror, how i thought i looked and what I saw did not match up. I was also tired of family members calling me fat!

hearthwood

I watch a lot of the fat shows on T.V. My favorite is my 600 lb. life. And when I watched a show where a young girl (21 years of age) weighing almost 600 lbs. only could walk 85 steps in a day--that did it for me.

At the time I was probably 15 pounds overweight, and her grandma. I rejoined my Jazzercise class, got back in shape and now I feel decades younger. 2 pounds to goal!

yellowlemoned

My mom came to visit me (she lives in Texas and I lived in Michigan at the time) and she had gained so much weight it was terrifying.

I saw how hard it was for her to get around, how out of breath she got just from walking, and found she had the "big girl smell" (you know what I'm talking about so don't pretend you don't.)

She was always over weight but she had ballooned up to over 450 lbs. I was almost 300 lbs then and it scared the crap out of me. She's my 7 year old nieces guardian and all I could think was that she wasn't going to live long enough to see her graduate high school at this rate.

I was wanting to lose weight before, but always found a "reason" that I couldn't, but see what had happened to my mom really knocked some sense into me. My mom is still working with her insurance to get approved for surgery (they've been battling it out for 4 years now) but I never wanted to get to the point where that was my last option, so I started watching what I was eating and joined MFP a few months later.

PudgyPanda91

Honestly, even though it probably sounds bad and is sorta silly...

I found out that I weighed more than my boyfriend. Significantly more.
He's overweight and he always talks about how fat, etc. he is.
I told him he needed to stop saying that and he was like well if you weighed xyz much you'd do the same thing.

:huh: well. i do.

Aliceyogi

When my favorite pair of jeans no longer fit. I took a look at them in the mirror and they looked awful!! I felt awful. The last two years I had been in a very stressful environment and had not paid attention to myself at all. When I couldn't zip the zipper I was like screw this!! I dropped a lot of different people, projects, activities, and started focusing on me again. Loving every minute of it too! And I was able create a new healthy environment with lots of people to motivate me and encourage me. Sometimes you just gotta start from scratch!

SnuggleSmacks

My boyfriend lights my fire when he does that thing with his tongue....


Oh...sorry, different question.


When I had to buy new jeans because the old ones no longer fit, I knew it was time to do something. I just graduated with my BFA, so I suddenly had time to do it. Plus I began dating an amazing man who is beautifully fit, and we inspire each other. So things just converged in all the right ways.

MichelleV1990

For me, it was being diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Getting up from a chair would cause such pain, that I'd scream. I know there's no getting rid of it, but I figure if I could drop 60-70 pounds, it will cause a lot less stress on my joints; maybe even postpone a dreaded hip replacement.

twalker475

Last week I read a success story of a 40-something YO woman who went from squishy to buff, and for some reason something clicked in my head. I haven't lost any weight since June, kind of a backlash from a fairly restrictive diet I was doing and decided to go off of...so been trying to find my way again on my own and making some less than great food choices along the way. I had been feeling like I really NEEDED this other program and couldn't do it on my own, but after reading this story I thought, "This is all within my control." I have the body I have now because of the choices I've made, and it is entirely within my control to make different choices to get the leaner body I want. It snapped me out of victim mode and put me back in the driver's seat. I've been tracking everything I eat since then and know that if I continue to, I will get where I want to go.

ThomasGinter

Being forced to look through racks upon racks of clothes that are tents covered in sequins, glitter and flower appliques while my friends get to wear cute, stylish clothing! Nothing says "fat chick" like this:

HA!! That is hilarious! For us guys it is Hawaiian shirts and stretchy pants/shorts.

ThomasGinter

For me it was a combination of things. How I looked in pictures, recurring episodes of gout, turning 40, and just feeling awful all the time.