What was your motivation to start a healthier lifestyle?

TCASMEY

What was your "aha" moment? The moment you decided to lose weight and get healthy!

Mine was being put on blood pressure medicine. That scared me! I want to be here for my kids. I have lost almost 30 pounds and lowered it but not enough yet to get off meds....yet!

angelwings2000

ON Christmas day my brother asked me if I was pregnant again. :explode: GGRRRRR.but hey it (along with my upcoming wedding) was all the motivation I needed.

superstarcassie

Mine was finding out that I had sleep apnea and would then have to wear a CPAP machine at night. boo! I am bound and determined to get rid of it! Also- finding out about my Thyroid disease and getting on medicine. I was sick of feeling awful, tired, and unhealthy! Yay to feeling better already.

donna56

Looking in the mirror and NOT liking what I saw! I have always, shall we say, had a pretty nice shape,but in the past 5 yrs, I look like an old flabby whale!!!! Now before it's all said and done, I need to lose about 35 pounds! Plus I have lung disease and it is hard to breathe when I have all this extra weight.

LongMom

When I was in my early 20's someone told me I was "just like my Aunt"...my Aunt is 350+ lbs, has diabetes, high blood pressure and is infertile. I think I signed up for WW the NEXT DAY.

This time it was pure laziness that put the pounds on and kept them on (post pregnancies that is, I don't "count" the weight gained during pregancy as part of the lazy fat). I always knew I had to get back into that frame of mind that helped me succeed when I previously lost weight and I finally did - thanks to MFP!

aippolito1

I gained 30 lbs in 3 months, getting to my highest weight and reaching "obese" level for my height & BMI.

chgudnitz

The moment I realized I was going to die way to early if I didn't change.

Behavior_Modification

When I realized that I am mentally/financially/emotionally ready to have children and found the right person to have them with.......now I need to get my body physically ready...and keep it there!

PJilly

When my dad died last summer. He had diabetes and congestive heart failure, and I've known for more than 20 years that because of my genetics, I need to take care of myself. I've always been moderately fit, but I'd been lugging around an extra 20 to 30 pounds my entire adult life that I always told myself I would lose "some day." After Dad was diagnosed with diabetes all those years ago, he completely cleaned up his eating, he started exercising, and he quit smoking. But the damage had been done. After losing him, it was a huge wake-up call to me that I need to make the changes NOW — not tomorrow; not next week, month or year, but now.

OnionCookie

My motivation is sort of pieced together from different things happening. My dad got a new house and just by changing the way he ate just slightly and working on that, the dropped 33 lbs. He now can bend over and jump and do things he could never do before. Then it was when my mother was smaller than me and honestly not meaning to gloat, keep bringing up the fact she was smaller than me. (You'd have to know my mother to recognize she meant nothing mean about it.)

Then it was the fact I couldn't walk up to my dad's house without feeling like I was going to die.

The last straw is a bit of vanity. I went to a shop and saw these cute knee high boot marked down from 60 to 2 dollars! I couldn't get them around my calves because of the fat. Also all the cute clothing are for much thinner girls. I want to look cute and not have rolls of flab hanging out.

Innerglow

I'm a newly single mother and decided I hate the way I feel....I've changed everything else in my life this year so why not make something positive out of overhauling my life? I started using MFP in December of 2008 and lost about 25 lbs. I've been back at it a week and a half and i've already dropped 4 lbs. I know I can do it this time!!

hotpink82

when I saw myself in photos and when my slacks started to fit snug. I also avoided mirrors which is a HUGE no no!

people from high school saying wow you look so different god i hated that!

Im tired of being fluffy. I refuse to gain weight. gotta get to it!

kwardklinck

I am 43 years old and I felt 60. I teach special ed kids and I was just physically exhausted every single day. I wasn't strong enough and decided I had to make a change. Along the way, I discovered a Vitamin D deficiency that has since been corrected. I've been eating healthy and exercising for the last 6 1/2 months and I feel better than I have in 20 years.

balfonso

When my doctor told me that I had high cholesterol and I could never get it lowered because of my kidney problem no matter how healthy I ate or how much exercise I did. I want to at least make more of an effort to SOMEHOW lower it especially that I have high blood pressure as well and have to take tablets for the rest of my life.

My aim is get more healthy so I don't have take so much medication.

dsjolley

I was on vacation in Seattle and went to the Pacific Science Ceter - they had an exhibit on the heart and part of it was a scale/BMI thing. I was 234 pounds. I came home and joined a gym immediately. Now, 10 years later I sit at 150, and am training actively for a 500 mile bike race. My blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and all of my readings are off the charts - but on the good end. I guess you can learn a lot at a science museum!

sonjark

Wanting to be here for my daughter as she grows up.

crking

when I first joined the gym in October and found out how much I actually wieghed

2daughtermom

I was a chubby baby. Once I got in my teens and filled out I started losing a few pounds (without trying) and weighed 125-130 all through high school. Been married and divorced twice, but it was my second marriage that the weight really started piling on. Got pregnant 4 months after the marriage and gained 50 pounds. I think I might have lost 15 of that. Nine years later I was pregnant again and was told by my doctor I needed to eat more, so I did. After she was born the nurses weighed me and i thought I would croak when the scale showed I was over 200 pounds. I had a really hard time losing the weight after that since my ex was abusive and constantly called me names and putting me down. I've been divorced now for over 10 years and my highest weight since the divorce was 250. Alot of that was because of being depressed with a failed marriage, plus I was scared to death I was now on my own. I lost 50 pounds a couple of years ago, but just couldn't get the will power to keep going. During these past two years i have gained 40 of it back and I was determined not to hit the 250 mark again. I have a wonderful life now, with the addition of a grand daughter. And I want to live a long and healthy life to be able to see her grow up and hopefully live long enough to see her graduate. I want to live life to the fullest and do alot of traveling after I (finally) retire. Been on this site since March 2010. Since I've been on this site, I've lost 16 pounds but I was dieting before I joined and had lost 7. I also have HBP, border line diabetes and on thyroid meds. Would love to get off of all three. With the friends I have met on MFP and my family I now know I CAN do this. Sorry this is so long. Didn't realize it was this long.

LotusF1ower

What was your "aha" moment? The moment you decided to lose weight and get healthy!

Mine was being put on blood pressure medicine. That scared me! I want to be here for my kids. I have lost almost 30 pounds and lowered it but not enough yet to get off meds....yet!

A few factors made me take the plunge into wanted slimness, one being how much my poor feet hurt first thing in the morning when I got out of bed. To say I hobbled to the loo was an understatement, the only thing I was able to wear to get me there was a pair of crocs on my feet, why that was I can only think because they are springy. The other thing was, that I could no longer get into the clothes I adored wearing when I went out at night.

I stuck a few photos of me up on our hallway wall indoors, taken just two years ago when I was 40lbs lighter than I was when I first joined MFP, every day I glance at them and it is enough to motivate me to move my big butt and get exercising! :laugh:

DJDUFFY

I am 41 years old and i used to get into a size 16 in jeans now i am in a size 20 in jeans heading to a size 22,Grrr.I also have type 2 diabetes,High Blood pressure.I have never been this over weight.I think when i get depressed i eat and don't realize that i ate so much that i gained the weight,But this website is helping me lose the weight by reading other people's stories.

lauraparkerrr

Not being able to fit into any of my clothes, i still have this problem but they're all too big now

Heather75

I used to be pretty and wanted to be pretty again.

Also, I was getting really close to having to shop at plus size stores and that just seemed like way too much hassle.

Chantelle160

When I stepped on the scale and it said 225! Realized how unhappy I was and hated the relationship I was in, that kept dragging me down more and more. So I left his sorry *kitten*, who treated me like ****, and changed my whole life. Now I am healthy happy, and on my way to having the body I always wanted. Plus my son is learning that exersise is extremely important and eating healthy is everything. I'm the healthiest I have ever been and am proud of it.

maryann73

It was New Year's Eve. You're supposed to make resolutions, right? So mine were these:
1. Live Simpler
2. Learn More
3. Cuss Less
4. Get Healthier
I'm pretty competitive, but even more so (or maybe only) with myself. I gave myself 1 month to see if I could start a change and stick to it. After that I gave myself until month 3 to see some weight loss and feel a little better. Then it was can I continue for 6 months? Now I want to see if I can lose the rest of my weight before the year is out....or sooner. I keep telling myself that I only have to work this hard for a certain amount of time and by the time I reach maintenance, it will be a lifestyle change. It's already happening. You would think that my bp meds (which I'm now off of) and my thyroid meds and my crappy heart would have been enough to get me going. Nope. It was just my stubbornness to do what I said I'd do. (btw, I gave up on the cussing one this month!)

Jennyzfit

Mine is to fight the bone disease and ageing processes.

Dusty73085

My mom emailed me a picture of myself on my 21st birthday and said "Wow! Look how skinny you were!"

I still have that picture and use it as motivation.

I also have a trip to Vegas in September with my coworkers...I wanted to trim down as much as I could before I would wear any type of bathing suit in front of them.

whittrusty

When I realized that the person I saw in the mirror was NOT who I felt like I was. It's pretty surreal to feel like you weigh ~140lbs and then you look in the mirror and realize you actually weight 75lbs MORE!!

I just want the "me" in my head to be the me that everyone else sees!