Your "AHA" moment...

Lissa_1234

I have no idea if this is the right forum, but I'm just curious what moment led you to the decision to make a lifestyle change?

I like to see other stories about people who are on their way to leading a healthier lifestyle and I like to see success stories, it helps me stay motivated.

I'll start by sharing my moment, or well there's a couple. When my daughter was born in October 2009, I weighed closer to 300lbs than I'd like to admit, so right away I started eating right. I dropped that first 20lbs within 2-4 weeks, breast feeding does wonders! Once I started work again, I started counting calories by myself, I had a notebook I wrote everything in. I had a pretty active job and I ate around 1400 calories everyday, I used to give myself a "cheat day" and eat 1600 calories on Sundays. This worked pretty well for me, when my daughter was 6 months old I weighed about 250lbs, then we moved and I stopped keeping track, bu I still did pretty well, I lost another 8lbs, not as quickly, but by that summer I was in the 240-242 lbs range. Then i up a quit my job, I hated it. I was stressed, I had weird hours and my kids were always at my parents house because I would work too early in the morning or too late a night. I HATED IT. I decided I needed to do something about it, so I just quit. I put in a request for more regular hours and they denied it, I changed it a little and they still denied it. I walked out that day and have never once looked back. I spent a couple of months off with my kiddo's during the rest of the summer, it was great and lots of fun, but I really needed to go back to work. So, I started temping. which worked out fine, but I never found a job I really liked and slowly my pants started getting tighter and tighter. I finally bought a scale and was horrified to find out I was 260lbs again. All that hard work down the drain. This was around the end of 2010. I didn't do anything to change what I was doing. Then 2011 came, in June I joined weight watchers, it was fine and good. In four months I lost 15lbs and gained it all right back.

In the last month I've had a few "AHA" moments. The first one: the beginning of this month the inside of my pants (inner thigh) started wearing out and 2 pairs of my pants (I have three that fit because I refuse to buy bigger pants) have holes on the inner thighs. So, yeah I really need to fit back into the smaller jeans.

My second "AHA" moment: I went to my doctor on November 18th 2011, for the first time in 5 years. During that 5 years I was pregnant twice, had the same sexual partner and didn't feel I needed to see my regular doctor. Here is how the appointment went: I got there filled out the list of what was bothering me, ect. I used to be able to fill those out with nothing wrong. Then it was weight time, I almost cried: 272lbs. Really I had gotten that "fat" again?!?! Then it was time for the blood pressure, the small attractive nurse took it and said to me "Do you usually have high blood pressure?" My response was "No, not even while I was pregnant, why is it high?" She said "Yeah, it's 146/84" Me: "OH MY GOD?!?!" THEN, she looks at the regular sized gown and says "Well, I'm going to go get you the plus size gown for you." I wanted to cry so bad at that point. Anyways, fast forward we discovered I had a couple of aliments, that I don't feel comfortable sharing right now and I had a follow up appointment on December 8th, I lost weight the scale read: 266lbs. I was pretty pumped, but that first appointment was my real "AHA" moment.

I have lost around 10lbs in about a month and a half, I have another appointment to go to on January 19th and it would be great to have lost some more weight by then. After that first appointment I thought to myself, "Really Lissa, you're 23 years old, you weight 272lbs when you should be at most 165lbs, your blood pressure is higher than it should be and you have two children that need you." So, I got my butt into gear.

I have been on MFP for 2 weeks now and feel free to add me as a friend if you want.

Lissa_1234

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EMagineBeingEMazing

Wow Lisa! That all takes guts to share I think, so I'll share too (which will actually make me figure out what they are LOL). I'm 5'4 and hovered around 200 lbs for several yrs and just kept putting off losing weight because whenever I tried (certainly not with my most dedicated effort) nothing happened, and I gave up quick. Next thing I know, I'm at 215, then 225, and I'm perplexed, but still not dedicating myself to doing anything about it. I'm 36, if I don't do something SERIOUS now, it's going to get worse!

My absolute "this has to happen NOW" moment, is that a girlfriend of mine has lost 80 lbs (using mfp) since March. I had heard about the site before, but put off checking it out. When I figured out (the first part of this month) that we were the same weight when she started (I thought she was a little smaller), I said to myself "I KNOW I can do this now!" Whenever I think of indulging, I think of how great she looks now and how I want that too! You can call it jealousy, but for me it's MOTIVATION!

My "omg, I really hate what I've done to me" moments are when: 1) my 7 yr old daughter says "I wish you were skinny so you could [fill in the blank] with me", 2) ppl ask when my baby is due, 3) I got on a ride at the state fair and the harness was as tight as possible and I was LITERALLY PRAYING that whatever was holding it closed didn't give out and I fall to my death, 4) clothes shopping!, 5) trying to find SOME type of cute boot (that everyone else is wearing) that I can fit over my now ENORMOUS calves, 6) and we're all adults here - when my boyfriend (who is in INCREDIBLE shape) said(with concern and in the nicest way possible) "what's happened to you that you can't do [this] in bed anymore". WTH?!

So, we can do this! It is, most simply, MIND over matter. It takes hard work, it takes dedication, it takes focus! But you have all the right things in mind - your HEALTH, your KIDS, and YOU!

danmoffett

My "AHA" moment came with the sudden death of my wife of 37 years from a brain aneurism. We were both overweight. We didn't know it a the time but she had high blood pressure and diabetes. For the sake of my children still at home and my first grandchild on the way, I knew I had to change.
That was 21 months and 145 pounds ago.
I'm trying to help others change before it's too late.
I've put my story down in a blog.

I wish you success, glad you had the "AHA" moment.

Dan