The moment that made you SERIOUS about losing weight?

New Year's Eve 2012...sitting at my estranged father's house visiting him and his family. Watched how they were grieving his illness. He had Hep C and was dying from his heroin addiction 16 years after he gave it up. Part of me was thinking he brought it on himself. Part of me was dying for the dad I never had. But the biggest part of me was thinking.... I'm going to do this to my family! Not with illegal drugs but, with food! I left his house, struggled with my eating for about a month & then something clicked inside of me and it happened. I was finally losing weight in a healthy way. Since then a lot has happened. I lost him on May 1st. I lost the real man who raised me my Papa a month later on June 7th, my grandma was diagnosed with breast cancer on July 7th but, I can't let it stop me from what I have to do. I learned nothing in 37 years from my dad but, in that last year he taught me the most important lesson... I'm worth changing, and I deserve to have a life! My family needs me.

God bless mfp friends

I saw a 2 in front of the weight on my scale. I knew I had been hovering around it, but seeing it with my own eyes...it's been almost 2 years now since then.

I had always been slim--ate whatever and however much of it I wanted to, all the way through college and through marriage and two pregnancies. The trend continued through graduate school, two miscarriages (can you say emotional eating?), and another successful pregnacy. I knew I was putting on weight--I had never got back down to the weight I was before baby #1 but didn't think it was too bad. And compared to what some people have experienced, it wasn't.

However, I always had a number in my head and told myself that if I ever got to that weight in a non-pregnant state that something would have to change. I guess I never thought I'd ever actually get there.

Then I got to looking at pictures. Pictures from my graduation from grad school. Pictures from our camping trips. I finally weighed myself, and realized I was only two pounds away from the number in my head. I started out with going for a "walk" with my older girls. By "walk" I mean that I walked and they ran ahead of me. I couldn't keep up. Between hitting the (rather arbitrary, but borderline overweight on the BMI chart) number in my head, the discouraging pictures, and the inability to keep up with my kiddos, I finally realized that I needed to change things.

The real kicker was when my work pants started getting VERY tight. I hate shopping for pants, and the ones I wear to work are not very cheap. I absolutely refused to go shopping for that many pairs of pants because the ones I had were too small.

At about that time, my husband was realizing that he too needed to lose some weight and get in better shape for upcoming hunting season. We bought an elliptical and he started lifting weights as well. My brother in law (who has really put on weight after highschool), husband, and I all joined MFP.

Now my endurance is much better (still working on running with the girls though!), my back no longer hurts as much, and I feel so much better. At this moment, I am about 4 pounds from getting to the weight I was when I got married!! And the best part? My pants (and shirts too!) fit like they're supposed to!

Mine was seeing pictures and realizing the image in my head of me was not accurate and my boyfriend telling me that he wants to spend his life with someone who is healthy enough to live a long life and be able to enjoy it. He is very active and wants me to be someone he can share an active lifestyle with. I was always very skinny until I had my son. I just hadnt realized how big I had gotten.

I went with a couple of friends to Belize for a week. It was beautiful. I went snorkeling...could barely swim to keep up with the group. We borrowed bikes from the hotel to ride into the little town nearby......I had to stop and walk my bike because I couldn't breathe and it felt like my legs were on fire. I took a tour to Lamania, a Mayan ruin, and couldn't climb up to the top of the temple because the stairs were too steep. I climbed up two and had someone take a picture of me while I "pretended" to come down the steps.

I didn't want my weight to keep me from doing the things I want to do any longer!!

Seeing all these nice dresses & I can hardly fit in most of them.

I've been trying to figure out my body all these years & I miss my sporty self, too, actually, but I'm only realizing now that it'd be more fun if I could just look better in dresses + pictures, haha.

-My husband leaving me for someone else becuase he " was embarrassed by me and I was too fat."
-feeling really awful about myself
-having a younger sister who doens't struggle with weight ask me why I can't seem to lose weight"
-being asked occasionally when i'm due...grrr...

First your husband was a jerk. Mine just kept cheating on me till one day i got tired of it. and for the when are you do thing, I am with you.

When I no longer starred at myself in the mirror anymore, and would avoid them...As well as not fitting in to my clothes....

I know comparing isn't the best thing to do, but you ever know someone who has a fairly nice body, and you believe you're not too far from that, but when you take a picture together.... oh jeez.

Looking in the mirror after having my baby and wanting to ralph at my reflection... I just hated thew way I looked, and decided I wasn't going to let having a kid be an excuse for not having the body I wanted.

What got me to get serious about losing weight was a couple of things that happened during the month of August. I went to a reunion of old friends. During these gatherings, we like to eat and drink a lot. I don't know what clicked, but all of the sudden I realized that I was the largest person of the whole group. I had noticed this on other occasions but this time it really bugged me. Another incident that made me decide to lose weight is that I saw a documentary that has to do with in Third World counties, a lot of children have problem with obesity. This embarrassed me because I can afford to eat well, yet I stuffed myself with junk food. Finally, I broke my leg almost three years ago, and was bedridden for four months. I lost 30 pounds. This incident made me very sedentary. I was in a lot of pain, so I would stay in bed. This past summer, I spent lying around a lot! All this caught up with me because I had pain in my hips. The last straw was when I could not make it from my classroom to my car which is an eight minute walk. This was ridiculous. I had to stop by my office to rest. This was ridiculous to be this out of shape.

I joined MFP at the end of August. I started to see changes in energy within the first two weeks with regard to how I felt.

When I read an article called "Your Fat is Unequivocally Your Fault" by Jamie Lewis. I won't link to it here, due to it being extremely NSFW, but it's easy to find with a quick Google search of: Chaos and Pain Your Fat is Unequivocally Your Fault.

When I was on the tilting Xray table last week and the nurse said ' hold on to the sides they are not really wide enough for the likes of you and me'! :embarassed:

I realised I had avoided men for 3 years out of the fear of getting naked and that I wasn't going to stop any time soon unless i changed something.
And I'm 23, I should enjoy being naked god damn it!!

Mine was when the worker couldn't get the ride to close on me at Six Flags..My huband and kids were already closed in and they had to get other workers to try and get it to close.With no avail, I had to exit the ride and it was mid summer,we had waited for 2 hours and it was packed..I could hear all the laughs and comments...I left in tears, but with a motivation of NEVER again!!