What pushed you over the edge?

HangoverSquare

What was the moment in your life that fully motivated you to pursue your weight loss goals?

For me, there were two issues. One was clothing shopping at the Gap, only to find that I no longer fit into their large clothes anymore, and had to settle with an XL. The second issue was a girl at my school I'd like to get to know. Ultimately, I'm scared s**tless to talk to her unless I have a bit more self-confidence and I'm hoping that some weight loss will help that.

Those two issues made me realize that I have a problem and need to take control of my life, above all.

infamousmk

I had started to try being more fit about a year ago, and I half-assed it for about ten months. I don't know what happened exactly - there wasn't one defining moment that I can recall, but I basically woke up one morning and said, "That's it. I'm done fu@cking around." And that was that.

LuneBleu85

I started to avoid all pictures and became the photographer in my group of friends to escape being in front of the lens! I would feel so flustered and embarassed when someone wanted a pic with me.
I am pretty much at my goal now and have booked a photoshoot for me and my horse in the fall for my birthday!

ohamberx0

Went up a pant size. Over hearing a guy say I'd be hott if I lost 20 lbs. I've never been the "fat girl", except for these past 2 years. I'm sick of it. I'm literally taking a hiatus from life and hoping to reveal myself quite smaller in October. Who's fat now b*tches? lol.

TruckerChick

I had finally acquired a job that got me moving and helped me to start on the weight loss journey. Then, I had to quit my job in less than 6 months I gained back what took me three years to take off. I was very angry with myself!!! I decided enough was enough and I was going to take back control of my weight loss and get fit the right way!!

JoanWill

I am the the same, there was no defining moment. But it was a conclusion of how happier life would have been if I was "happy" with myself and some factors here and there.

My kids are still young, I need to start now so they don't grow up seeing me grumpy and miserable; they don't know the words "fat" & "ugly" and I never want to hear them use that to describe me. They are only 4 and us mothers know how "honest" they can be.

I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and I don't want it to rule the rest of my life. And the feeling of knowing you lost some weight or you had a significant NSV or that your kids are eating way better now than before is such a high.

grouch201

Toward the end of June of 2010, I was trying on some fishing waders that the year prior had been 'quite snug' but I could still wear them. When I could barely squeeze into them feeling like I'd had to suck in every bit of fat I had to do so, I decided that I was going to be forever getting larger and larger clothes unless something changed. And boy, something did change. I got active and started hiking. A lot. I got as low as 195 around december of last year, but then I got tired of working inside and just kind of slacked off. I bounced back up to 206 and that was another instigating moment that made me see that I needed to recommit so that I could hit my goal of 185 lbs. Ideally, I think 175 is my ultimate goal, but the most important thing is to be toned and fit. I'd rather weigh 185 with a nicely sculpted body than 175 of a skinny, soft body. Those are two of my primary motivations.

childofares

I was out with friends and I saw myself in a mirror next to my BF. I also heard the catty comments from the girls behind me that he must have a fat girl/older woman fetish. *****es.

What also happened is I found a way to get all my teeth redone to make them perfect in the next 7 months and I want a nice look to go with my sparkling teeth!

bree2012

I noticed my bad eating habits for about 8 months now, but really, I think today pushed me over the edge.
I am ashamed to say that I binged. Again. For the umpteenth time.
I feel like such a hypocrite. I promised myself I had the strength and the willpower not to. But I did. I ate until food had no taste anymore. It is an indescribably awful feeling. And the thing is, I don't know what compelled me to do so. It is more out of habit than anything. I need to stop SAYING I need to stop unhealthy eating habits and start DOING.

skateboardstef

My husband called me fat during a fight. I know he didn't intend to be so mean, but it hurt me so much.

shelbygeorge29

When I got weighed at the doctor's office, and I was 256. Having lost 80+lbs 9 years ago, only to start slowly gaining back over the last 6 years, I was living in denial. There was no denying it any longer. There was a lot I was unhappy about but I realized THIS was something I very much could control, and my life would be infinitely happier if I started taking care of myself.

I've done it before and I can do this again.

HannahPastoor

My moment was when I noticed I had a little crease on my arm where a fat roll was beginning to form and I had small little stretch marks on both arms right under my armpit....Blach : (

ohdearlaura

Everyone kept asking if I was pregnant, even my mother.

ohamberx0

My husband called me fat during a fight. I know he didn't intend to be so mean, but it hurt me so much.

I know what you mean All my ex's know that's the only thing you can say to me that really gets to me. It really sucked when one called me fat and I wasn't fat at all... and then I gained about 40lbs over the past few years so when I think I'm fat, and then someone I care about says it, even if they're doing it to just get to me... that's the worst. Def a motivation to throw back in their face. Don't even have to prove anything to them, but I'll cross paths with them someday lol

mabug01

Definitely humiliation was a major motivator. I was so embarrassed to be wearing my problems out where everybody could see them. Then I was inspired by the movie, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I started the day after I saw that movie and I have never looked back.

alimoll

Seeing pictures of myself at my daughter's high school graduation Labor Day weekend this year. I was horrified. I knew I had put on weight, but the person I "thought" I saw in the mirror every day, was NOT the person I saw in the photos. I was in denial.. Ugh.

Nicholec2003

I saw a picture of the back of me siting on a carousel horse with my son..... :embarassed: I'm surprised the thing didn't come to life and tell me to get off.

BRoth1987

Well I had always great blood pressure and glucose levels so I was honestly never worried. When I was pregnant this last time my grandpa got diagnosed with diabetes which increases my chances of getting it a lot. That scares the **** out of me. I got a complete work up and got everything checked out at the Dr.s. Nothing was out of whack except for being low on vitamin d. I got y cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, and thyroid levels checked and they were all in normal range.

I am now 275.8lbs from 285 and even though I am 'healthy' (blood work wise) I know that my health won't last if I stay this way. That is scary. So now I am in the gym 5 days a week, and I weighing my food with a scale.

I read a great quote online a day or two after starting "Either you want to lose weight or you don't" well I do.

1a1a

No single thing in my case, but a few sobering events included finding I'd broached the 70 kilo mark (previously around 65 k), having my neighbour and a stranger at the beach congratulate me on my pregnancy (yep I can relate) and realising one day that I couldn't wear skirts anymore because my legs chafed. So uncomfortable! I think my current push for better eating might be due to a perceived notion that my partner doesn't find my body attractive. (Also, watching too much anime made me pine for a figure that DOESN'T EXIST!!!! Damn Japanese animation with its sometime compelling stories and depressing representation of the ideal female form).

PS That movie sounds like a good watch

PPS Seeing an episode of "cook yourself thin" helped kick start my current efforts too.

tragicpixie

PIctures. I hated seeing myself in pictures, I avoided all pictures, I even hate my wedding pictures. Also, not being able to try on dresses in the fancy bridal shop I wanted to go to and being told by a sales lady at David's Bridal she didn't know if the dress I was interested in came in my size. (Actually I was a 16 and it did, she was just being mean - and I found a dress that was much more beautiful for the same price at a salon where the sales ladies did NOT make me feel ashamed of my body.)

I would like to feel comfortable in my clothes and feel okay when someone pulls out a camera. I look forward to the day I don't freeze up and try to tilt my head some funny way where I won't have a double chin.

Famzav8

Realizing that I just wasn't as happy with myself any more, and that honestly, the only thing holding me back was me. I was sabotaging myself, and I knew I deserved better.

MB_Positif

I started hating pictures too. The worst ones were with my sister b/c she's taller than me and thin (but healthy, not skinny) and I looked twice her size. But even then I was still in denial thinking, but she's so thin I just look big. Even when my clothing sizes crept up AFTER I had lost all of my baby weight I still thought I looked ok and that I would be able to do something about it "later when I had more time." Well, my breaking point came when I went out to dinner with a mom's group I belong to at church. There was one girl in the group who I considered a "big girl," b*tchy I know. Anyhow, I saw a picture of the group a few weeks later and realized that she and i were the same size. What an eye opener! I started making smarter choices then and slowly got myself to stop gaining, then around Christmas some things fell into place and I started really focusing on lowering my food intake, then in January I joined MFP which has been amazing. I gave myself a couple of months to get a handle on food then I started exercising more regularly! LOVE IT!

Lozzy_82

For me it was a few things.

Every summer I would have to go and buy new clothes (shorts etc) because last year's were too tight. After this year it got to the point where I just decided I was NOT going to do it again! The next time I buy new clothes it will be because my stuff is too big. I was also finding it harder and harder to shop at "normal" stores, and being forced to shop at plus-size places more, which I disliked. There is just no choice for larger girls, and I am quite alternative and don't like a lot of the clothes in Evans etc (except for work stuff).

Secondly, I will be thirty in May and it seems like a turning point. I have spent all of my twenties being overweight or obese and I want to leave that behind me as I enter a new decade of my life. A friend of mine has her birthday a few days before me and we're planning on having a joint celebration. She's a size 8 and I don't want it to be the thin girl and the fat girl's party.

I had always seen dramatic weight loss as something that didn't happen to "real" people. I saw it on celebrities in magazines and those "slimmers of the year" you see in the paper, but that was about it. Then my cousin lost three stone and was on the cover of a slimming magazine looking gorgeous. I also found out that a girl in my office who is *tiny* but looks amazing (I'd guess a size 6/8) used to weigh 17 stone. I decided that if they could do it, so could I.

Also, despite always struggling with my weight I had always been attractive and never had a shortage of male attention, lol. I gradually realised that I had turned from being a hot girl who carried a bit of extra weight into just a fat girl. The turning point was when a car of blokes drove past me, wound their window down, yelled "fatty" at me and drove off laughing. I was so upset but it gave me the kick up the bum I needed!

Booboo78

The obligatory Wedding photo (not my own wedding, no plans to get married).

My friend got married a month ago, and a mutual friend took some oh-so lovely pictures of me, looking like a great pink elephant :-( Yuk!

The worst thing is, I look so OLD!! I'm only 33 but I looked older than my mother! Never realised how much weight gain ages a person.

So.....drastically cut back on the alcohol, rejoined the site, and will be hitting the gym in an hour, who cares if it's raining heavily lol

Lozze

My husband called me fat during a fight. I know he didn't intend to be so mean, but it hurt me so much.

I hope you ripped him a new one!

For me it was a bunch of things. The lifts at my work are all mirrored. I would get in and look down because if I looked at myself I'd want to cry. None of my clothes fit me. I felt like ****. Talking to one of the girls I coached and her crying about her weight gain and me responding with 'you ain't got nothing on me' Going through old photos and just crying over how pretty I'd been (and never realised it because of my weight) Having a talk with a girl at work got me to do the snap decision though. I rang Jenny Craig back after I had that talk and went that night (and cried all night after I weighed myself and realised I'd put on 20kg in 6 months) The next day I started drinking water as opposed to the gallons of soft drink I'd drunk before every day.

A month later I have lost 7kg. I go to the gym at least twice a week. I feel fantastic and even the depression is gone. I don't look in the mirror and hate myself anymore, I look in the mirror and say 'You're going to be healthy and hot soon!'

cedarhurst2006

I was diagnosed with diabetes and the doctor had me taking 4 insulin injections a day. I felt like a human pin-cushion. He told me if I worked on losing the weight, it could help with the diabetes and possibly less the number of injections. That was all I had to hear. Sometimes you have to have the crap scared out of you to do it. It's amazing what can happen when you listen to your doctor.

I am happy to report that at my doctor's this past week, my cholesterol was down by 20 points and the doctor said my A1C readings have been out of the diabetic range for a consistent period of time so he removed the diabetes diagnosis. I still have to be very careful and I will always consider myself a diabetic but that's pretty cool!!!

trailrider1963

A lot of things happened to lead me up to it, but the last straw was having gallbladder pain that wouldn't go away. Again. Just another sign that I was getting more and more unhealthy, and I knew that if I didn't get healthy, I'd have to give up some things I love doing and some future goals.

JDuMo

My kids didn't recognize me in pictures that were only 10 years old.

CoxTX

When my boyfriend started talking about how 'we' needed to start working out together, that 'we' were getting soft. Well . . . he's 5'10" and 190 lbs of solid muscle (with the exception of a cute little belly bulge) so I figured he must be talking about me. I've always been above-average in weight ('but you're so tall, you carry it well!' Thanks Mom but let's get real, k?) but now I'm 194 lbs.

I'm 5'10" and my wrist measurements indicate that I'm small framed which for me is really hard to believe because I've never been small. My profile pic is me at 17ish and I was about 165 lbs. Stats say I should weigh around 140 but my goal is 170.

Anyway, back to the boyfriend ... kind and encouraging, tells me how proud of me he is, etc. etc., but the 'we' working out lasted for about 2 sessions, so I got the picture. Bless his heart, he has a very physical job, outside all day, and well, if you haven't experienced a South Texas summer, try to avoid it if at all possible. He eats TONS and like a 13 year old. Surprisingly I've only gained about 8-10 lbs in the 2 years we've been together.

It's time to lose those and some more.

wjkfloyd

I took a look at pictures of myself from a cruise and could not stand looking like a human barrel (I am only 5' 5")...I started eating one helping of dinners and introduced salads to lunch and dinner every day. When I started noticing the weight come off, I started to gain the momentum to lose even more.

lucyhoneychurch

My older sister, who had four kids and was heavier than me (with three kids) invited me to a Bollywood class at a local park district. When I saw her, she had lost a lot of weight and looked fabulous in workout gear. I, on the other hand, wore a large black t-shirt that tented at my midsection. If she could do it, with four kids and a crazy schedule, I could do it. I didn't want to feel bloated and fat anymore. My sister had given me the Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred in February for my birthday, but it wasn't until I saw her in mid-March that I opened it and started using it.

In mid-May I gave up drinking Coke cold-turkey. I turned my eating habits around and joined MFP in July. Tracking calories has been elemental in helping my weight loss.

I was ready to settle for the mindset that my kids would see me forever as the chubby, fat mom. But once I committed to losing weight and started doing the work, I knew that I never, ever want to be as big as I was or eat as unhealthy as I did. 32 pounds lost and I'm not going back!