The moment that made you SERIOUS about losing weight?

Wow I had an ah ha moment back in june of this year. Over my whole life since i was about 10 i struggled with weight. In the last 16-18 years i have kidney stones, pancreatitus and other issues.
I looked at my son one day and knew i had to do it for him, but at the same time it wasnt enough. so i have yo-yoed for years. This year i think it was in begining of june end of may i was at little gym with my son and sitting there reading a book while waiting to go to class and some 5 year old looked at me wanted to rub my tummy and said do you have a baby in there. i dont know if her mom heard but holly crap, that was just a real dinger! an eye opener, then i was talking to a friend of mine who in high school weighed close to 300 pounds and i noticed on his facebook he now weighs around 180 or so and is thin. I was talking to him and was like wow how did you do it. he said i had ah ha moment when i went to the doctor and told me his story. Now he not only weighs like 180 but he runs marathons and works for weight watchers. After talking to him i realized if he can do it, i can too. that was my ah ha moment! So in June i decided July 1, 2012 i was going to diet and lose weight and it was going to be a healthy way, and i wanted to lose it this time because i wanted it to be the last time i was ever this fat. I had become so comfortable i just fine with it. I got home from vacation after splurging and it was not good.. July 1 i started i wasnt quite sure how i was going to do itm then i was introduced the next day to mfp, and have been here since. Now i lose weight , my doctor is thrilled it is going down, and i am loosing it slow enough i feel healthy. And over the last week - it has been great, had to have emergency surgery last week ( not to share to much) but a few months agao when having my sinuses fixed i was at 250 in may i had an asthma attack on a breathing tube. The surgery i just had, went off with no complications and they could do it laperscopically and not a huge cut open. no asthma and no meds since the night of the surgery at the hospital.
I will tell you that right there is enough to make me want to continue to lose the weight. I have about 71 pounds left to go

Nearly two years ago, it was seeing my weight steadily climb higher. I gained weight right before my wedding and almost couldn't fit into the wedding dress - I still cringe every day thinking about how that felt, how mortifying and disgusting I felt. And from there, it got worse and worse, and I just kept coming up with excuses. Then one day I got up to my highest weight ever - 184. And I cried. Called myself names, hated myself. Pulled out the exercise DVDs and equipment, and stared at it. Bought more stuff. Stared at it. Bought a kinect game - and then I did something I'd NEVER done before - TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. I bought Your Shape Fitness Evolved, then I USED IT. I gave up soda for a while, joined MFP (right around this time my brother and his wife also began using it and were seeing success), tried to eat right and modify my portions, and I EXERCISED. Every single day. Then I bought Turbofire. Before I knew it, pounds were falling off, clothes were falling off, I felt good, and I was proud of myself.

Then life happened again. I began working a ton of hours, and so much was going on, I started to fall back into old habits. My worst one was the "Well, I'll start again on Monday" thing - and I never did, so it became next Monday. Week after week of bad habits, and acknowledging without REALLY admitting that I needed new clothes again because I was gaining again, and I was tired and having a hard time moving ever. A couple of weeks ago I got on the scale at work and was disgusted - I had gotten up to 189 pounds. I'd beaten my previous high weight, and I knew better. I do know better, and I still let it happen. So it's been a little difficult (way too many work hours, and illness), but I've been getting serious again. I've already seen a couple of pounds drop, but this time I'm setting definite goals for myself, and I'm working on getting out the excuses zone. Seeing that 189 crushed me entirely, but I'm ready to beat it again.

I wish I could say that it was the day my mother had to be airlifted to Denver because of a stroke.

Or the day I learned my cousin had type 2 diabetes...making him the fourth generation on my mother's side to end up with it.

But no. It was something far more vain. Back in June, we were planning a trip to an amusement park for my daughter's birthday...and I wanted a crash diet to lose a few pounds before going. I hadn't been on a scale in a few years, but I realized I'd have to weigh myself to have a starting point.

Weighed myself. Decided that it couldn't be right, had my boyfriend dig HIS scale out.

Weighed myself again. Same weight. 85 pounds more than I'd weighed 9 months pregnant. 115 pounds more than the healthy weight I'd been at just six years ago.

I realized I needed more than a crash diet--I needed a complete overhaul of my life. Still a long way to go, but I've learned a lot, and I'm confident that I've found something that works for me.

My first one, which culminated in 3 years of uneducated but somewhat successful and consistent loss, was having stretch marks at 19. My boyfriend at the time saw a red mark and was trying to point it out because he thought I'd hurt myself. I cried for HOURS but it made me want to change my lifestyle! I didn't have a full-length mirror and just hung out at home all day in stretchy clothes so I hadn't noticed the gain. I started paying attention for the first time & lost about 30 lbs over 4 years.

Since having my kid, I've struggled to lose it back again. I finally got serious this summer when I saw that THREE personal friends have all lost over 70 lbs so far this year. I'd supposedly been trying to lose, too, but all at once it all came down on me - three friends who don't even know each other all hit that mark, and the vow renewal dress I wanted to lose weight to fit into was discontinued. It was going to be my reward for losing the weight! So I got depressed between missing out on the dress and seeing all my friends succeed where I had failed, and I didn't do anything for a couple weeks. Then I finally leaned on my friends for some support to help me move my butt, and got back on it, and this time I'm SERIOUS.

I tried on a bra at Target and saw myself 360 in a mirror & hated it.

I saw a stomach stretchmark.
Don't get me wrong, I have stretchmarks everywhere, from the backs of my knees because of a 6th grade growth spurt, to my butt cheeks because genetics endowed me with a wide *kitten*. But I had never had a stomach stretchmark before, and I wasn't going to let it keep happening.

I still have two stretchmarks on my tummy, that remind me of how i never want to be again. I'm not to goal weight yet, but I'm so close...

1) I had always been the least fat member of my immediate family. My older brother had successful bariatric surgery and lost over 100 pounds. My younger brother died in an accident and my parents also passed away. Suddenly, I was the only fat one and certainly more overweight than my surviving brother.

2) One of my co-workers (in his early 30s) lost almost 100 pounds. I thought if he could do it, so could I.

3) When my mother passed away, I looked through a whole bunch of her pictures. I had been much slimmer at other points in my life and didn't like the way I looked at the present.

4) My work clothes (uniforms) had become uncomfortably tight. My off-work wardrobe had diminished to a couple pair of pants, sweats, and polo shirts that my brother used to wear when he was 300+ pounds.

5) Semi annual doctor visits became more and more of a chore. Of course, there would be a weigh-in, but also blood tests and after years of hearing that I was in "good shape for the shape you're in" my BP, triglycerides, and blood sugar had become elevated. The BP was not offically hypertension, but elevated, the triglycerides were in the dangerous category, and the blood sugar was edging towards adult-onset diabetes. I also have been medicated for high cholesterol.

6) I finally was embarrassed about going to the workout center. Not only was I among the fattest people there, but exercise was painful--sore joints, no wind. I couldn't work up a sweat before I was worn out.

7) THE CLINCHER! Another visit to my young resident doctor. He opened his conversation with me saying that my weight had to get under control and that bariatric surgery was probably the best option. He pointed out what my trends were, asked me if I had tried to control my weight, and referred me to an endocrinologist.

Going to visit family I hadn't seen in years only to have them all tell me how much weight I'd gained...not fun, but it was a good wake-up call

I planned a hiking trip. Four weeks in Peru! I gave myself a year to get ready. I'll be ready!

It's usually a photo, isn't it? Mine was one of me kneeling down in my back garden and my tshirt had ridden up a bit. I had a fat back. Not huge, but definitely there. That was all it took!

Running and cycling took me from 83kg to 75kg and I've been pretty good at keeping it off since.

Three things motivated me all at once:
1) The first time I heard my thighs slap together a s I ran upstairs.. ewwww
2) The fact that my sister had lost 2stone
3) The thought that I would be be fat When I went on my holiday in March

and thats all I have to remember to keep me on track

A few years ago, I was close to 18 stones. I had a good friends, nice job but could not get my weight under control. I had been big all of my adult life and could not see a way to get the weight down. It was a month before my 26th birthday and i was depressed at thought of being this size for my birthday. I then managed to read 'Idiot Proof Diet' which was the first time I had became aware of a Low Carb Diet. This diet changed my life as I had lost three stones within the year and have kept this off. With the low carb diet, I became motivated when I lost ten pounds in two weeks. It was the first diet that I have ever seen results and suddenly ten pounds was not enough and I kept wanting to lose more. This made me serious about losing weight. I think it was the thought of another Birthday that motivated me initially however long term it has been a combination of factors eg sick of being laughed at behind my back by *****y colleagues because I had too much fat sticking out, wanting to sit comfortably on a plane, wanting to wear to nice clothes.

Looked in the mirror last November and truly hated what I saw. Vowed to lose 50 pounds, I have 6 more pounds to go to reach my goal weight.

I think the moment I became serious was when I stepped on the scale at the Y and it read 305lbs. I had deluded myself into thinking that I was still around 250 and that it wasn't "that big". Having that reality smack me square in the face was my ultimate wake up call. Even if I have a day where I fall off the wagon, I made the promise that I will NEVER go back to the way I was.

We were at the lake on the 4th of July. There were about 15 to 20 friends there and everyone was in the water playing and swimming except me. My kids kept asking me to come play with them and daddy in the water, but I was too ashamed to put on a bathing suit. I was embarrassed because It kept running through my mind, "I wonder what everyone must think about me".

That's the point I realized I'm missing out on my life, and most importantly, I'm missing out on my kids' lives.