What Did it take for you to start and be successful

LauraRey

Could anyone share what was their last straw. I know I want to lose weight. I know what I need to do. But I don't do it longer then a couple of days and then I am right back to feeling guilty about everything I put in my mouth. It seems like I agonize about food all day. What will it take?

Zainny8

Well I pretty much hit rock bottom when I looked at a recent photo of me at a Christmas party and I weighed 255 pounds. I just could not believe that I had gained so much weight and I was only 21 years old! What keeps me going is my ultimate goal of being able to wear a bikini to the pool and when the weight on the scale keeps dipping lower and lower. You have to want it so bad that you will do anything to reach your goal.

Triathlynne

For me it was seeing recent race pictures of myself. Took one look and said enough. I couldn't counter balance the exercise and food, I was just eating all the wrong things. Plus I quit smoking in Jan '11 and gained a bit since then. I have a goal that I set for myself, like a trip, new piece of clothing or something, or a night out on the town. It's so much easier I think if there's a reward at the end, of course the ultimate reward is feeling good, living longer and looking great. My current goal is to cycle from Seattle to Portland in July and I want to be a lot lighter for that.

bhb301

Friends that had lost weight and look great. I put on a bikini and took pics, my mom diagnosed with Diabetes. It took alot for me to change

mjf0461

This was mine also. Seeing a pic of myself at Christmas 2010, and it snapped that day that things were going to change...Keeps me going even though I am not losing anything, gaining inches due to building muscle. Is the fact that I feel so much better, I am wearing 4 sizes smaller than I was on January 1 2011. And I am seeing curves that belong on a woman's body, not because I had so many they had no other place to attach themselves too... It's all in what you want, and how bad you want it...

galaxysue

For me it was just being so unfit, my husband and I like hill walking. When you are 250lbs+ it is hard to do. We went for a walk one day it said in the guide book 41/2 hours it took us 10!!. it was a hardish walk but even so walking up the hill I felt my lungs were going to explode, we had to stop after every 10 steps just to breathe, done the same walk since in around 5 hours, and only stopped twice on the steep bit!

Missevanston

Come on Laura! You can do it! You have to want it. When you feel it in your bones, you will decide! Once you decide, and with the help of MFP (such an awesome too!), you will get excited! Change is good!!

For me, like most, I took a good look at myself in a recent X-mas photo and felt disgusted. I knew I had to make some changes. Determination. True, hard core Grit. That is what it takes..you've got it, USE IT!!! :flowerforyou:

fuzzymel

I wasn't very well and was generally struggling to do much. I was just over 200lbs which I had in my head wasn't too bad because lots of people were heavier than me and not suffering.

My doctor told me to lose weight and it would help my health problems. I did and things got better.

What I now realise is that some people can be heavier than normal and not have problems but thats not me. If I have excess weight it directly affects my health.

HOOKEM13

I just started myfitnesspal last night but have been motivated to get started for so long. I too do the "going good for a few days" and then start eating bad again. I think setting an achievable goal and having something to look forward to is key. I am going to Maui in May and I have a pair of surf shorts that I love, my goal is to fit back into them. That's my goal and my "something to look forward to".

GLLove

My first motivation the realization that I am turning 30 this year. Realized I have lived my entire 20's as an obese person and have let myself miss out on a lot of things because of it (vacations, parties, jobs, etc...). I kept procrastinating until now the entire decade is gone. After I decided I wanted to try again, feeling better physically, even when i didnt see the numbers go down as much as I wanted, has kept me going. I've got a long way to go, but starting to actually see real progress is keeping me excited and wanting more.

ybba12490

I'm just frustrated with looking like this!!!

ybba12490

ShrinkingNinja

I tried everything under the sun and all the failed attempts and crash diets landed me at 295+ on a 5ft 4in frame.

My kids started taking karate. As a child I always wanted to take it but my parents never signed me up for it. So, knowing that I had wanted to do this as a child my husband surprised me with a uniform and my own membership at our Dojo. I wasn't sure if I was happy or sad about that since I was a fat mom of two. I didn't want to embarrass my kids or myself....but the girls had never know me as anything other than my heavier self and they were excited for me. I couldn't quit. It would crush them.

The people at the Dojo were amazingly supportive and no one ever said anything unsupportive about me being overweight and in class. They didn't act like they didn't notice that I was overweight, they just acted like they didn't care.

Then, one day I find myself 20lbs lighter and in an Adv. Red belt. Brown belt testing was just around the corner and my instructor pulled me into his office and basically said that I was amazingly athletic but that I had finally hit a point where my weight was going to keep me from advancing any further. That he thought 25lbs would make a world of a difference for me. He told me to talk with his parents who were on a healthy lifestyle kick that was working wonders.

I did. They got me reading "The Rosedale Diet" by Ron Rosedale and "Mastering Leptin" by Bryon Richards.... I do a hybrid of the two lifestyles discussed.

I started my healthy lifestyle on 4-19-10 and I have lost 75lbs as of 3-17-11.....I went from a size 24W to a 14/16 depending on the cut of the pants. I am never hungry. I have more energy than I know what to do with and I am now a Brown belt in karate getting ready to make my way to Black Belt.

My kids and karate are what have kept me going. My kids are making better lifestyle choices from watching me... and my karate is unbelievably better than it was before. I have had people mention that I should become an instructor when this is all said and done.

bachooka

To be honest I don't know exactly what it was that made me want to lose weight... I just felt gross... and then finding an easy way to track everything really really helped!

paul87920

My father and I have never been extremely close. He's an alcoholic, and I love bloomin' onions more than any person ever should. I felt really slighted that he treats my cousin more like a son than he treats me. I had a slight nervous breakdown, and it kind of dawned on my that neither one of us has very many years left. We're both destroying our bodies. Men my size do not live well into our 30's. I'm 23. I've already had an intestinal infarction at 17. I can't save my dad, but I don't want to die.

DanaMon

My first motivation the realization that I am turning 30 this year.

At first I wanted to loose weight for a friends wedding but that didn't work, I wasn't loosing any weight because I was doing it for someone else. Then after Christmas I had the same realization! I will be 30 this July and for my New Year's resolution I said that I was going to get healthy and do it for me. I know that things get harder as you get older so my goal is to turn 30 and be in the best shape of my life (not just loosing weight but getting healthy and fit). I feel that you have to be in the right mind set and do it for the right reasons to be successful. Also, having a community of like minded people (like on MFP) helps a lot!!!!!! GOOD LUCK

young1726

I, like others, kept seeing pictures of me that I was not happy with! I was always in shape and healthy in high school and I am just natually athletic, so being out of shape and being unhealthy was just rediculous to me! I couldn't believe I had let myself get to 217!! I knew what I was capable of looking like and it was killing me to see myself like the way I was. I hated everything about it. I hated the way I looked. I hated the way I felt. I hated the way none of my clothes ever fit me right, even when I bought new ones. I hated the fact that I was wanting babies soon...and it was only going to make me bigger (since then, I have had two babies...the youngest is 7 months and I have lost every last pound they tried to make me put on). I have alot of obese family memebers and I felt like I was just following in their footsteps. I had to put a stop to it! I joined this site July '08 and have been religiously using it since...aside from the two breaks I took during my pregnancies (I immediately started using this site as soon as I felt my body had recovered from preg/labor/delivery) and am so happy with the results that it has HELPED ME achieve!

kld1624

Two things really got me to say enough is enough. I'm always achy and I feel like a bowl of Rice Krispies all the time. I snap crackle and pop all over and it's gross, and I'm tired of feeling like this. The real last straw was when I had to go clothes shopping again. This is something I dread because it's hard to look at myself in the mirror and see that NOTHING fits right. This finally got me to say enough is enough - it's time to change. I'm working hard at it (except this week). My mom is in the hospital and it's been a really rough week. I'm trying to stop the emotional eating which i've found myself doing this week, and I need to get back into exercising again. That seems to have come to a halt since I've been making trip after trip from work to the hospital.

shagybear33

I struggled with my weight my whole life. I constantly yo-yo dieted. With my first pregnancy I gained 80lbs.. UGH, took about 50 of it off, then got pregnant with my second.

Well.....................................

With my second pregnancy I was pretty sick. I ended up with Gestational Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, edema and was put on bed rest. My weight climbed to the highest I have ever weighed. The week before having my son I weighed in at 275lbs!!!!

I felt horrible, I looked horrible and vowed that this was it! No more messing around. Especially with the diabetes etc. My whole family has been plagued with heart disease, diabetes, etc. I was NOT going to follow the same path.

When my son was 2 months old (after healing from c-section etc) I got my butt in gear. I even started attended a running club.

3 years later, I am down 130lbs and my weight has been at this same level since Dec. 2009. I have given up the all or nothing mindset, and make sure to get my activity in most days of the week!!

My health has improved tremendously. I've had no issues with blood sugar levels, blood pressure is awesome and my heart is perfectly healthy! Dodged a bullet I think... LOL !!

KClarke861

Seeing myself in a vacation picture. I felt so unhealthy and unattractive. I vowed to take control of my eating and exercising and here I am on a long journey, but with support that I didn't know existed.

muffintopteri

I think I am vain. I think the idea of looking great and having people think I look great motivates me. I know when I go into a dressing room and see myself in that mirror I feel disgusted with myself. I also refuse to buy plus sizes and I know that the way I've been going I'm only going to grow as I age. MFP has been a tremendous motivation. Having to log everything in and really seeing what the food I'm eating costs me helps tremendously. And it gets me moving to exercise and burn off calories so I can eat! I was recently looking in the Oxygen magazines my sister in law has and the women in there are body builders so I don't want to look like that but I do want to get close! I want to feel good about myself and unashamed of my body. I just realized that it wasn't going to happen with dreaming and wishing so I started. Go for it Laura! It's time.

casdls

I was sick of not having any clothes that fit, or if they do fit, they don't look nice. I was sick of being tired all the time and having no energy. I've only been doing this since Tuesday, but I have to say that I already have more energy to get through the day at work because I'm not constantly stuffing my face with junk food. And I have more energy when I get home to do more than just sit on the couch and then go to bed.

TNERNURSE

Mine was also seeing a picture of myself and couldn't believe how big my "butt" had gotten. Started having trouble getting up from sitting position with stiffness and knees hurting. Enough is enough . I've got to make a change .

mauryr

In a nutshell, my motivations to start were:
1: Wanting to be present for my daughter
2: Diabetes type 2 diagnosis (and the other associated stuff - lipids, cholesterol, high resting heart rate)
3: Back in the dating pool - I was newly single (that's code for having been "kicked to the curb")
4: 50th birthday looming, no more time to postpone this. Twenty years is more than long enough.

My current success (at least so far) has indeed addressed the above items. I'm much healthier - for both my daughter's sake and my own, a1c / lipids / cholesterol / bp / rhr are all now normal, I have a delightful woman in my life, and I will reach my weight goal before my 50th.

I started late last year, and I am close close close to my goal of being of "normal" weight for my height. I am not made of extraordinary stuff, so if I can do this, you can do this too.

Just relax, take a deep breath, and "stay the course".

calliope_music

it was my doctor telling me that i was going to have a hard time carrying children because of my extra weight. sigh.

LauraRey

Thank you everyone for sharing with me.