What was it for you?

Renae_Nae

What was that final straw that made you change?

For me it was budgeting money like crazy to be able to go home for Christmas! We have lived off of BARE minimal and have saved over 25% of our paychecks to go home for Christmas when we had been living paycheck to paycheck and just making it! I figured if I could get that strick with money I could get that strick with my eating! Also, I didn't want to go home and everyone see the 17 pounds I had gained.

Renae_Nae

What was that final straw that made you change?

For me it was budgeting money like crazy to be able to go home for Christmas! We have lived off of BARE minimal and have saved over 25% of our paychecks to go home for Christmas when we had been living paycheck to paycheck and just making it! I figured if I could get that strick with money I could get that strick with my eating! Also, I didn't want to go home and everyone see the 17 pounds I had gained.

Mangoaddict

I had acidity problems at night and I was having them daily. It hit me when I saw a documentary on cancer of the oesophogas (sp?) caused by obesity and how its rate had doubled in the last few years. I decided that enough is enough and I need to change my eating habits and exercise to get this weight off of me. I just felt so sad from inside because I am young and don't want to deal with such problems!

A month later, I am already starting to feel lighter and better. I can feel the difference already! I KNOW proper food and exercise routine works. I did it over 10 years ago and lost weight from size 16 to size 4. How stupid of me to gain it back and create this self imposed misery for myself? Its time for change. C'est la vie! Also, I don't want to be a pill popper! No way :noway: NEVER!

amunet07

For me... first it was seeing pictures taken of me and my friend on another friend's boat. They were sooo bad that I actually forbade them to use them on MySpace unless they cut me out of them... that had me thinking anyway... then I got some $ and bought a Wii Fit started using it and lost a little BUT what really go me going was seeing my friend Alisha. She had lost 40 lbs since I last saw her and she said all she did was count her calories on a website and tried to incorporate more movement into her life. She didn't tell me which site she was on then so I found my own; My Fitness Pal. The rest is history! 20 pounds are history! :bigsmile:

melissa91971

Paying almost $800. to the hospital for lab work only to find out my problems are all my own fault!

Long story but...I realized it was time to change.

crazybigchick

Maternity clothes. I loved them while I was pregnant, but when my youngest was over 6 months old and they were still all I could squeeze into. It was obvious something had to be done. My large pants are now fit and that is a huge motivator. Can't wait till next Christmas. I will have lost it all by then and have nothing but new clothes on my wish list!

Hannah_Banana

Stretch marks!! I got stretch marks on my tummy from DS of course, but just in the last month and a half I noticed I was getting the beginnings of little red lines 1) on the under side of my upper arms and 2) around my ankles. Ankles? WTH?

So I said SCREW THIS, no more stretch marks! I actually got really panicky about it, you can get rid of fat, stretch marks are forever. :brokenheart:

cherapple

Looking in the mirror and seeing my mother's body! :huh: The prospect of not being able to fit into my largest clothes and having to go out and buy a new wardrobe in the next size up. Experiencing a lot of back and neck pain and wondering whether strength training would help. :sick: (It did! ) I had done nothing but sit on my butt for a couple of years, and I felt it, and it showed. I wasn't ready to start looking old! :mad:

Over two years later, I'm about to turn 40, and I am very proud of how I look and feel. :bigsmile: :happy:

michlingle

There were a few things that pushed me in this direction. I was teaching summer school (1st graders) and our high frequency word for the day was thick. One little girl used it in a sentence and said, "Like my teacher is thick?" AHHH!! Number two, I was coming home and sleeping from 12 to 4 each day. Had no energy. So as summer school was ending, I thought to myself what can I do for the next month while I am completely off from work? Lose weight and get healthy. I could not forgive myself if I hadn't done anything to make a change for the next school year. I did not want to be thick anymore. There was no excuse to not get healthy, I had the time and I didn't want to spend it on the couch or in bed. That would have been truly pathetic, but don't get me wrong. I had done it for many a summer! NO MORE!!!

arewethereyet

My Cholesterol level.

I was on Crestor for my 297 total level. HDL was low...LDL was high. I was a disaster waiting to happen. I finally gave in to the medicine.

I go for my 3 month check up and the doctor asks if I am having any problems.

Me, "Well, I get sick to my stomach every morning and sometimes I get bad pains in my stomach, and the next day I have to run to the bathroom 20 times. Especially when I eat certain foods"

Doctor, "What type of foods are they?"

Me "Pizza"

Doctor, :noway: :grumble: " PIZZA????"

Just the look on his face stuck with me all week. I thought to myself, if this was your sister taking this very strong medication to keep her from dying, what would you say.

I would say what the HELL are you eating things like PIZZA when you are taking a very strong medication to reverse the effects of that very food???!!!!

Just the way the Doc said it....incredulous PEEETZ ZA????:noway: resonates in my mind each day.

Funny what will get cha going, huh??

jimswmn

Let's see there are several. When I was diagnosed with a hypo active thyroid, then a year later with asthma, thaeyput me on 4 medicines. One for thyroid and three for asthma. I don't want to be the old lady with a purse full of pills. Prolly will always be on the thyroid med but nothing says I can't get off the asthma ones, or at least a couple of them. Coaching little ones on a swim team, I felt like I was no longer a picture of fitness that I should be in that position. Not wanting anyone to touch my jiggly upper arms...blech....or my sides. Finally when I found out I was going to be a grandma, I thought, enough is enough, I want to be around to see this little guy grow up and be outside chasing him around. I had started walking before he was born and the day after 1-6 I was out on the high school track walking harder . With each thought of quitting I fill with this thought... just one more lap...for Alex. I would love to be able to run in my first 5K this coming summer but if I am only able to walk it, that's fine too.

psantacruz

Although I had been telling myself for years that I needed to lose weight, it was seeing my brother-in-law have some heart trouble and being told by doctors that he had to lose weight that started it for me.

This past March, he had some mild heart issues. He weighed in at about 280 (only 5 pounds more than me at the time), and the doctors told him that if he didn't lose weight, the problems would only get worse. When I saw him in June, he had lost 30 pounds, and he looked a LOT better. It got me thinking. I would be his age in 15 years or so, and I didn't want to wait until then to start losing weight, especially if I started experiencing the same issues. I decided to start NOW.

Since then, I've dropped 63 pounds. He's dropped 70+, and is doing fine.

lotusfromthemud

For me it was the damn cane. . .being prescribed a cane to walk with.

for the full story:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/viviakay

:flowerforyou:

kjllose

For me it was being in stroke range when I started using a blood pressure cuff daily. Hubby had it and I just wanted to see what mine was. That made me very motivated. I have more energy and want to do more now.

shanwow16

I would have to say quitting smoking was the start for me back in the beginning of Sept. I guess I just got tired of depending on it, it totally ruled my life!! So the first couple of weeks I was trying to keep myself busy and decided to start going for walks, but as soon as I would get home I would raid the kitchen. I decided it was time to buckle down and start to eat healthier!! I hated how my body looked and felt to the point that I didn't even like my husband touching me.

Now that I have been working out and eating better I am starting to feel like my old self, more energetic, happier and not to mention my old clothes are starting to fit me again, almsot better than they did before!! I still want to lose another 25 lbs by summer time, but slow and steady wins the race!!

lenmana

I went in for a routine doctors appointment and the doctor said something like, "You will always struggle with your weight"....GAME ON! I cried all the way home and then decided that "yeah, I may have to work harder at it than others, but I'm not gonna become a slave to food". Tell me I can't and that's good motivation to prove myself.

renae77

Well seeing myself in pictures and hating the way I look, nothing I own fits anymore without having that muffin top hanging over, putting my size 11 jeans in a container......2 really big containers that sit in my floor as a constant reminder, wanting to get remarried someday and looking good enough to be married, I want to be able to keep up with my 4 year daughter....... and I want to get healthy! My feet and knees are hurting and I am on my feet for 12 hours a day for my job so I need to lose this weight NOW!

Renae_Nae

Viviakay - You just became my new hero!

GettingThin08

Well a lot of things...

1. when my dad had a stroke and was dyniosed with diabites...not only does he have it...my grandma, great grand parents

2. when i went to get my first pap and the nurse was asking about family history and i reliezed that my nana papa and grandpa died from cancer and heart...kindey...and cancer...also diabites runs HEAVY in my family

3. when i cant do anything any more without feeling like I been running for hours

And when I look in the mirror and I want to throw up... I'm the biggest I have always been!!!

It makes me sick...

may_marie

it was nice to hear all yours stories

my was a very slow progress.. i was at my heaviest . 220 that was playing on my mind,, i had seen on telly a show about very obese people (talking over 400lbs people) and i though . men where do you stop ?? i was really busy in 2007's fall, then came last years xmas, new year...then i was off work, (not allowed to work in the uk yet) and was bored out of my mind, i though i would make a new years resolution of trying to be more active and not sit on the couch the whole time.. so i started doing the stationary bike we already had. did that for a while and my boyfriend said to me one day... you know ,, if only you would watch what you eat calorie wise you could loose weight (he had been bugging me for us to loose wieght together for years).. and just for fun i looked up how much calories i should eat,, compared to how much i was eating... and i though . well that would be easy ..lets try. so i found mfp and then i loved how i would get more calories if i worked out .. so i started to do more of that. .. then i started to loose weight and though . this is cool. lets see if i loose and other 10 lbs.. and i did ..

btw,,, after all that bugging.. i lost all the weight and my boyfriend never did.. although he always said that i was the reason why he couldnt.. he said i was holding him back an that he needed the encouragement. it really shows that the power of doing something like that has to come within yourself

Losing_It

A picture of myself with my sisters did it for me! I couldn't believe that was REALLY me. I knew I had gained..but I never "saw" myself as being THAT big! I can't wait until my sister comes home from TX so we can take a new one!