What was your "ah-ha!" moment?

MaineMama24

I saw a picture of myself taken poolside on a recent trip to Florida. I wasn't even in a bathing suit. I was in a cute calf-length cotton skirt and a cotton top. I saw the picture and realized that I needed to get healthy! I also dreaded the trip because I was going to be exposed in skirts and shorts and I just got the point where I was sick of not enjoying wearing clothes!

loey728

My ah-ha moment........ I realized I needed to start take care of myself for once. I have been married for almost 21 yrs and realized I am not happy. When I first married I weighed about 50lbs less and as I gained weight my husband let me know it...... I realized about 1.5 yrs ago how miserable I was with myself, my body, my marriage...... I have 2 children with my husband and didn't want to give up on our marriage, but it all came to a head when I returned from a Conference for my job. The yelling, the intimidation, the accusations became too much. I left the house, 33 degrees outside in my PJ's and a light sweater and went for a walk..... I started to find myself AGAIN. And said to myself I need to take care of me.... make myself strong, mentally as well as physically. I was tired of always feeling fat and disgusted at my imagine in the mirror.... my big ole fat gut..... I so wish I took care of myself after I had kids. I wish I took care of myself, period. I am now and I haven't felt better. Bottom line, my ah-ha moment was when my husband pissed me off enough and I said f@!# this....... it's time for ME! My kids see a stronger, healthier Mom and my husband sees a stronger women that's not going to be mentally abused anymore. Time will tell what happens with my marriage, but I will never forget about me again. My advice to everyone..... don't ever put yourself on the back burner.... for no one will ever take better care of you than yourself. :flowerforyou:

doubleduofa

I've been aware of my weight since as long as I can remember. It never was a real issue until puberty started. Since then I've been on an up and down 30-40 lb rollercoaster of weight loss and gain. So, no real "ah-ha!" moment, just a lifetime of not being happy with my weight and being hyperaware of what I looked like. Typing that out makes me sounds quite dysfunctional...huh.

Madaly320

I have been saying it for years, but this past December, we went to Disney World and I had a hard time fitting in the seat on the plane. I mean, I fit and could buckle up but if the flight was longer than the 2.5 hours it was, I would have been extremely uncomfortable. I am 5'4" and was 214lbs. I saw BIGGER people than me on the plane and I thought to myself, how uncomfortable must they be? or are they just used to it? I don't even want to be used to it.

Then, once we got to DW, I had to sit on the rides alone for a lot of things like Thunder Mountain because the lap bar wouldn't go down close enough to my kids' laps. They would have let me ride with them anyway, but I didn't feel safe, so I always sat alone. On some rides, they said 3 could fit per row but when I tried, my poor kids were squished, so again, I sat alone while I watched other mothers sitting happily with their 2 children on the same seat.

Then I came home and looked at our pictures and could see how I would conceal my body for pictures. That was when I said ENOUGH!!

Jan 7, I started at the gym. I have only lost 11 lbs so far but I am happy. I would rather go slowly and change things little by little than to do it all at once and fail.

theycallyoumister

Watching a video of myself running on an indoor track after my wife recorded me. That sobered me up!

nibiruuuuu

Turning 25 and realizing that for years I've been like "This year, I'm totally going to get in shape." and then not doing it and telling myself the next year was the year I'd crack down. And I've been putting it off for at least 8 years.

And I want a complete lifestyle change by the time I'm 30. So no time like the present.

I'll add that I've had back problems since I was 17, so I've been trying to...or wanting to get in shape rather since I was diagnosed with those. But I get stressed about things and put it off.

jdhoward_101

My 'AH-HA!' moment was stepping on the scales and realizing i had put on nearly a stone since Christmas. I was aware i was putting on weight, but was like, 'meh, i'll lose it soon, i'm sure' but never really made much of an effort. But when i saw that, i thought 'nope, this has got to change!' Plus i have a pair of jeans that i was so determined to fit in to, and pretty much did before i put this stone on, (and so i have no hope now), and i determined that i WILL fit into them! I once held on to a pair of jeans for five years before they finally fit me, i refuse to let it take this long this time!

MrsBrosco

I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of these, every single one! You all are so inspiring, thank you so much for responding!!!

Revonue

For most of my life, I knew I was overweight, but I kept thinking "Well, I'm not 200 pounds". Then I stepped on a scale and I was 206 pounds. It was one of the worst moments in my life, my heart completely sank. That was the moment I knew I needed to lose weight. The last time I weighed myself I was 167 pounds, and my lowest weight was right after summer at 160 pounds.

KodAkuraMacKyen

Seeing a picture plastered up this side and down the other on Facebook during a business trip in India last year. It had me crying for days. I use that pic as my before in most of my comparisons and it's in my profile pics. I hate that pic but at the same time, grateful it was taken because it got my *kitten* in gear.

Edited for typos

iWaffle

My ah-ha moment happened back in 1986. That was back when MTV actually played music videos.

Cr01502

When I reached climax.

matt2442

When I reached climax.

you mean when you could no longer see it happen?

257_Lag

When I reached climax.

you mean when you could no longer see it happen?

LOL

257_Lag

January, packing for a warm weather vacation and realizing that the clothes I wore in the Summer 5 months prior didn't fit well. Nowhere to buy Summer clothes in the middle of Winter on short notice so I was uncomfortable the whole trip.

Vowed to do something about it when I got back. Signed up two days after returning and so pleased with the results so far!

jeanmrob

The day I realised I weighed more than I did just before I gave birth to my babies.......:noway:

Jean

triggsta

I went to buy a pair of jeans.

I had gone to wearing leggings and stretchy-type clothes. When I tried on a pair of jeans and I could barely pull on a size 14 pair of jeans, I knew it was too much. That was my tipping point. To this day, I have no idea what size I started my weight loss at. I'm assuming a 16-18 though. Now I'm a size 7-9 but getting to the point that I need to get smaller clothes.

dbmata

You know, that moment when you said, "OMG! I need to lose this weight!" And then you did it, you started losing.

What was that moment for you?

When I realized that I'd have to get a lot of expensive suits tailored if I kept my weight gain, and that my current clothes weren't fitting so well. I also realized that women weren't looking at me anymore, and there is the realization that if they aren't looking at me... no one is envying my wife, and that will just not stand.

taiyola

I originally joined when in recovery from an eating disorder as I already counted calories obsessively.

Once I was better I stopped, gained weight.

Last year just before my birthday in March me and my friend were moaning about how fat we were, so decided that together we would avoid going to the chip shop and eating chocolate for a month, and just gradually reduce how much crap we were consuming. I joined on here, learnt a lot about food, calories, exercise etc and have now lost 21 inches. My friend is still the same size and chose her new boyfriend over all her friends so I haven't seen her in months.

Now I'm the smallest I've been in years and my goal is set at 1880, whereas only a couple of years ago I was surviving on a bowl of cereal a day.

BeccaBollons

I was getting ready for a meeting where I was to give a presentation in front of 100+ people. And none of my smart clothes fitted. It was humiliating wearing a stretchy dress and cardigan instead of one of my lovely tailored skirts and blouses! So I decided I need either an entire new wardrobe (again) or drop a dress size. I dropped a dress size.

MoeMoe0111

When one of my peers from another part of the country told me at a meeting "you haven't been to the gym lately, huh?". I'm not one of those people who really gives a s$&t about what people think, but at 220+ on a 5'10" frame, it jolted me into reality about my health. Now I am a regular at the gym and the rest of my family has followed. Now hovering around 190 and have maintained fairly well.

danilynn2

My "moment" was looking at picture seeing that I was "really THAT big". Deleting pictures off my camera "because that is a horrible picture of me"...then realizing I was deleting ALL pictures with me in them.

I started MFP, much more seriously and am seeing that the hard work is paying off. I am so glad that I started the journey again. My kids need me and I want to be in their life, actively, for as long as possible.

onyxgirl17

So I avoided getting pictures taken at all cost. The Christmas before last pictures were taken of me at the family Christmas party that I didn't notice and they were posted on facebook. When I bent over there were rolls of fat. I knew I wore hoodies all the time for a reason. Two weeks later, my mom died of diabetes at age 49. I was pretty depressed from Jan-April last year and had been thinking about but hadn't actually done anything about my own weight.

Last May, I decided I was going to really lose the weight by calorie counting and exercising. I'm 35+ pounds down now and close to goal weight

fatsnacker

I realised that I had only lost 3lb in the two years since I ended up in A&E with dangerously high blood pressure and had done nothing about my weight in all that time; my blood pressure had not been checked since I was discharged therefore the thought that I could end up back in hospital has made me determined to finally lose the weight once and for all.

SKMC0214

I had many small AHA's that were not quite what I needed. Vacations pics, not being able to participate in activities with the family. A very close friend has been doing MFP since August of last year and has went from a size 22 to a 9, she looks amazing. Anyway, my final AHA was when I had begun wheezing when even walking short distances, like from my car to my office at work. or through the grocery store, I felt and looked horrible. My feet and legs would swell so bad, I could not wear shoes and looking like they were going to explode. I had a really bad wheezing day on Jan. 20 and realized the next day would have been my beloved fathers 74th birthday, however, we lost him when he was only 49, which was the end result of morbid obesity. I in 3 weeks I would to turn 45 and realized it was my time to make a change because I was following too closely in his footsteps. My Journey began on January 21, 2013, I am down 28 lbs and almost 80 inches. The sky is the limit and this is my time to shine!!! Good luck to you all!!!

milk6

Like above, lots of little ah-ha moments from 17-22 til after a series of panic attacks I shot up in just a few months whilst recovering with my french bf (many pain au chocolat!) and avoiding anything that raised my heart rate or id end up crying! It was the sudden change (rather than the slow weight gain that you dont notice day to day) in weight and in my shape that was my AH-HA?!?! moment.
Now Im on here and can read other peoples progress its so much easier to keep on top of changing myself for the better. X

milk6

Like above, lots of little ah-ha moments from 17-22 til after a series of panic attacks I shot up in just a few months whilst recovering with my french bf (many pain au chocolat!) and avoiding anything that raised my heart rate or id end up crying! It was the sudden change (rather than the slow weight gain that you dont notice day to day) in weight and in my shape that was my AH-HA?!?! moment.
Now Im on here and can read other peoples progress its so much easier to keep on top of changing myself for the better. X

hannahpark3r

I've always been fat and I've always wanted to lose it, even when I was a kid. I realized when I started college last year that a lot of people are at the prime of their health at this point in their lives, but I'm certainly not. I figured, if I want to lose the weight, now is a good time to do it.

alychil820

When my cousin jiggled my arm fat and told me I had 'bye bye arms'

swagtier

I guess a lot of people see pictures of themselves, huh? Same for me. It's a sobering experience seeing a picture of yourself when you have such a different perception of yourself.