What was your bottom/ah-ha moment....

Didn't have one.

I had to go in for a combination endoscopy/colonoscopy and it struck me that if I was ever going to start clean, so to speak, that might be the right time for it. I had absolutely no faith that I could keep with any plan for very long, god knows I hadn't in the past.

But I'd found MFP months before, and my sister had mentioned that she and her daughter were doing well here, so I thought... what the heck. What's the worst that will happen?

seeing myself in our family photos.

I hated having my picture taken, because the pictures showed a different me than the one in my mind... Absolute bottom was when the snooty nurse practitioner in my doctor's office looked at me disapprovingly (she's in her 20s, I turned 50) and told me that according to my BMI, I'm categorized as obese.

I've never been thin/slim or at the right weight for my body. By the end of last year, I was approaching 41, had two little kids (almost 3 yrs and an 18 month old) and was weighing the most I've ever been in my life. I couldn't keep up with my kids, was always tired and all around feeling awful about myself. Decided to take action and stick to it. As the weight started to fall off, and I started to have more and more energy and more importantly more patience for and with my kids, I just became that more determined to not only be healthy for them but for me too.

I started seeing a trainer at my gym 2x a week, and was going one additional day during the week until I started to become addicted to the exercise! My husband had given me the go ahead to do the 5 week program with my trainer.... that was 7 months ago and I still see him 2x per week and work out now 5-6 days a week. Started running and ran my first 5k this past May and will be running another one at the end of next month. As a SAHM, I feel like I've finally found that "me time" that everyone said I needed to find. It's my escape from the stress and craziness of being over 40 and having two crazy toddlers!

This last Wednesday I woke up feeling bloated and sick after eating half a salty, greasy pizza the night before. I got on the scale and it read 200.0 for the first time ever. I have logged in religiously for the past 2 days, gotten out to exercise both days and am not going to stop until I reach my goal weight. I am sick of: feeling tired, puffy face, back fat, bloated stomach, low self-esteem. Goal #1: log in every day and exercise every day for 3 weeks. I am not going to get on the scale until then.

The full length mirror at Kohl's :sad:

I've been struggling the past few weeks (ok, two months) with getting motivated and telling myself tomorrow is my day and ultimately I fail and disappoint myself.

I was just wondering...........what was your bottom and/or ah ha moment (if there was one) where you said enough and started your weight loss/exercise journey?


(I should also not try posting when I first wake up)

Mine was a combination of 2 things. Seeing pictures of myself at my daughters first birtday, and trying to ice skate with my husband. Between those 2 I was disgusted with myself and decided enough was enough and it was time to get healthy.

Not wanting to be fat and uncomfortable anymore.
Feeling sick and bloated all the time.
Hearing myself accept myself like I was and always wishing I could be thinner, Dont wish just Do!

I was just tired of feeling ugly and unhappy. I was tired of not having any confidence.
Whenever I think about stopping, I think about what all those kids would say to me throughout my school years. I want to prove them wrong.

When I went to the doctor's office and she circled my age and my weight....not like I didnt know how old I was or how much I weighed, but having it pointed out to me like that...it hit me like a ton of bricks!

I had gained 5 pounds back this year and I've been meaning to get rid of it. Last week [while out of town] I had eaten poorly and had a really intense workout and felt sick to my stomach and disgusting throughout the entire workout. That was my last straw -- enough is enough. So I'm back on-track and realizing the bad things I had been doing to my body. Hopefully those last 10 pounds will be gone in no time.

I saw a photo of myself from a friend's daughters birthday party.

I can remember not only did I have the button on my jeans undone, I also sat up super straight in my chair to reduce the muffin-top I had. Needless to say it didn't work, the picture was posted on FB and I untagged myself....and I NEVER untag myself in photos.

I joined MFP 5 days later.

when trying to tell my mother that her "simple" method of keeping herself healthy set off an explosion in my brain-I, too, had the power to get and stay healthy...started then and there....

It wasn't really a bottom. It wasn't really an ah ha. Two years ago my best friend sat next to me when I was getting ready to leave (I visit him and his family abroad every 1 1/2 to 2 years). He asked me, for them, because they love me and want me around, to try to at least get off the bus a block early. Or walk a block further to it. Anything to get me started in the right direction. And I wanted to do it for them, but I couldn't. This spring at my physical my dr. and I were talking about my new iPhone, which I love and she said, "You know if you love your iPhone so much, maybe this will work for you. It's working for some of my other patients." And she told me about MFP. So I downloaded it. But didn't start using it right away. Then I realized that I was starting to avoid things I enjoyed because I felt too ungainly. Or I worried when I was out about falling or tripping. And I realized this was only going to get worse as I get older. So 6 weeks after putting MFP on my phone I started to use it.

That was Memorial Day. I've gone from swimming 2 half hours a week to swimming 2 half hours and 1 hour and biking 2 half hours. And I set up for calories to lose 1 lb a week, but that's a lot of calories at my weight and my new activity level. And I reached out to my friends to see if anyone else was on MFP and there is a nice group who are banded together on this at various stages of the process. It's been easy so far. I know it will get harder. But I feel I finally have the tools and the will FOR ME to do this.

I tore my pectoral in January 2010 and that started the spiral. I was afraid to do anything to reinjure myself and the weight kept coming... I couldn't see it with my own two eyes, but, "playful" comments would come from my friends and I started to feel myself withdraw from life... On a whim... I took a picture of myself (the one in my profile at my biggest) and was shocked... What I saw in that picture I couldn't see with my own two eyes... It was then I decided it was time to get things turned around.