The moment that made you SERIOUS about losing weight?

It has happened a couple of times I suppose. The "biggie"( no pun intended) was the summer of 2006. I was over 300 pounds and I had to get off a roller coaster because I could nto be strapped in. I was humilated. I worked my butt off and was motivated for a long time. I got to 20 pounds away from goal. I was rocking it! :-)

Then due to life circumstances I refocused and I gained back about 65 pounds...I too never realized how much I had gained back...larger clothes crept back into my wardrobe. I had the skinny chick give me the "go girl" shout out on a bike ride (I was shocked). I started working out in a gym, and even started teaching classes...every once in a while..like last night..I get the shocked look in a students eyes of ...YOUR teaching! LOL..it hurts and yet it motivates me.

Kind of like a whip on the back I suppose. I have lost a total of 15 pounds since I restarted..now just 50 more to go to be back to where I lost my mind.

I hit 170Lbs. I did not like to see that number on the scale. I joined MFP back in May and did it for about 20 days.. logging only but no exercise. The weight did not come off as fast as I wanted, but honestly I was not 100% committed. In August, I was still at 170 and at one point the scale hit 175 (i think.. I have some how blocked that out of my memory so its a very blurry). That was it. I have been on my journey to weight loss and trying to eat better. I still struggle with sugary treats like chocolate, cookies ice cream etc. but I am doing wayyyy better and making sure to check calorie content and nutritional value. I am down 12lbs and I am loving the support of people who are on the same path. No one want to be unhealthy.. I certainly don't. I will not make any more excuses and I will be accountable. MFP gives me what I need to succeed.

Being"officially" overweight (BMI) as a 15 year old girl. I was wear a size 11-13 in the juniors section and a large shirt. I was so unfit that I couldn't bend over and get my finger tips past my knee caps. I was so depressed when I discovered that all the bullies were right and I was fat. I had heart troubles (which persist to this day, so clearly they were weight related) and I had an activity level of nill when it wasn't marching band season. In my head I thought "I have my whole life ahead of me and I am already overweight. What will I do when I get old and I'm even worse?"

So I tried to eat better at high school, but there was too much junk being served in the cafeteria. (Pizza is not a healthy lunch?) I did manage to lose a bit of weight in the summers, but it always came back. I forced myself to be more active and that helped. I dropped to 145 and was back in the "normal" range through out high school.

In college I made my own healthy lunches and took up self defense and pilates. Not only did I feel better, I could touch my toes and in one year I went back down to my happy weight of 135.

Once I went away to college I maintained around 135 by exercising even though crappy cafeteria food was getting me. I didn't really change my diet except to eat more salad, no more soda and no more fast food. Over the summer's I'd dip to 125 because I was outside gardening and biking. I liked 125. I felt pretty and I looked awesome. However, even with pilates 6-7 days a week, Christmas cookies would send me back up to 135 during the winters. I just accepted it because I always managed to get back to 125 during the summer.

I got into grad school and gained again, finding myself at 134 this winter. That was it, I was sick of it. I joined MFP but 1200 was too hard for me so I quit at 127 and just waited for my summer fall off. Then, after summer started, I used MPF seriously and got to my 125 without any trouble. However, this time I would maintain it.

I am now hovering around 121-123. My goal is to keep this up over winter break. If I can stay below 125-127 with Christmas cookies and without an elliptical, I'll consider myself successful. If I can make it to 120 I'll consider myself amazing. If I can make it to 118, (my super ultra dream weight) I'll build a temple to myself.

Realising that I have spent the first year of my child's life avoiding the camera so we have maybe 5 pictures together :sad: That really hurts and the thought of not being around to see her grow up is too frightening to not act on. Hoping against hope that this time I can do something about it

I first realized how much weight I'd gained two weeks ago, when I was working on a short film and was not allowed to wear black/grey/navy (anything dark) as per the costume designer. Not only did I barely own anything not in those colors, but what I did own I hated how I looked in.
My REAL moment was last Saturday, when I was preparing to go to the opening night of a Broadway show and I knew that the likelihood that I'd show up in the background of photos for Playbill and syndicated by the Associated Press was high. I had to spend my morning frantically running around midtown Manhattan shopping for something to wear because nothing I owned fit, including a dress I purchased a month ago that would've been perfect...had it not become at least a size too small.
I have already vowed not to purchase any more larger clothing, which means my weight is only allowed to go down from here.

I just have been overweight since about high school and i was finally tired of going to the store and hating all the clothes i tried on. nothing fit right. i also hated seeing myself in pictures, etc. i guess it was a bit of vanity thing, but if that's what it takes to lose the weight, for me personally, so be it lol.

When I looked at pictures of me and I thought to myself......no way do I want to be the "fat mom" that can hardly walk across the football field or anywhere for that matter. I love myself too much for that.

My best friend through most of college had one of those devastatingly high metabolisms and would eat breakfast/lunch/dinner of Skittles, booze, and pizza. But when I started to gain weight, she started to make backhanded comments. One day, I got sick and tired of the commentary, decided to get up off my rear end and do something about it, instead of feeling sorry for myself.
(And I ditched that girl because she ended up being a source of negativity when I was gaining and when I was losing weight. Hmpf.)

So I got serious about losing weight.

PS. 40 pounds later, I'm a happy, happy camper

My first aahhhh HA moment came when I saw a video of myself from my daughter's first bday. I weighed 135 when I got preggo after I had her I bounced between 135 and 145. At her 1st bday party I was about 145 and freaked out at how gooey I looked in my mid-section. I swore at that point that I would get it together and lose what I needed to so that I could be healthy and a good role model for her.

Fast forward to today - she is 4, my son is 9 months old and I weigh 137. I'm working on losing another 12lbs so I can weigh what I did when I met my husband in September, 2006.

About a a year after I graduated high school, I was a bit in denial of my health issues. I knew I was fat but didn't really want to put any effort into losing weight because I felt I didn't really need to. I don't know what I weighed then exactly but I remember telling myself that if I ever got over 200, I'd just quit... you know, the final kind of quit.

Fast forward a few years and I really had not paid any attention whatsoever to my weight. I stepped on the scale at work because we were all going to work together as a team to lose weight together. I was at 209. I was devastated. It was made worse by the comments from my coworkers that I didn't "look" like I weighed that much. (Yeah, right...) Anyway, I loved my life and didn't want to just quit at 24 years old so I had to change. I knew any more weight would just take me closer to an early grave. (Mind you, I'm only 5'2" so 209 lbs is A LOT for my height.) It was so hard because my office mates started turning on each other and turned it into a challenge to beat each other. They made a new rule that said if you didn't lose, you paid a dollar to the lunch fund. If you gained, it was $2 per pound. I didn't lose for two weeks in a row so I bought my way out of the "team effort". I paid $2 for every pound I wanted to lose to reach my goal weight. I felt like the team was the least supportive thing for me at the time.

So for me, it was mostly seeing the number on the scale but in combination with the comments I made to myself about giving up.

Edit: I also want to add that the office "team effort" came at a good time since I had been recently diagnosed with IBS and was thinking of ways to change so that I would stop needing the medication I was told I would have to take for the rest of my life. I can happily say that I haven't taken that medication in over two years.

I was 6 years old when my dad passed away of a heart attack. He was 36 years old.

The last 10 years I made excuses (or justified) why I wasn't doing more to take care of myself. I was never a big guy. I was always very athletic but I got complacent, lazy and ate for comfort or out of boredom. This past December I sat down and seriously looked at what I'd become and it came over me like a tonne of bricks .. I'm turning 36 years old .. my daughter is turning six. I have a wonderful family. Two beautiful children. An amazing wife. I needed to take care of myself. My children don't need to suffer like I did when I lost my dad at an early age. My wife doesn't need to deal with the emptiness and pain of losing a husband.

10 months later. 100 pounds later. I'm the athlete that I was and I feel amazing.

I have an arthritic right knee and was to the point of using a cane and I love to walk so I had to do something. Now after dropping 28 lbs. so far I hardly know my knee is a problem. The Arthritis Society told me that for every lb I lost to multiply that by 4 and that tells you how many lbs. of pressure you have taken off you knee. So I have taken 112 lb.s of pressure off my knee. Amazing!

The motivation was a little different than the actual kick in the *kitten* to get started. The motivation came in the form of a reward. I was selected for a work assignment that would take me to Peru, and I would have the opportunity to take a side trip to Machu Picchu. I knew it would be nearly impossible for me at almost 258 lbs. I dreaded the airplanes, etc. I fretted for several months about what I would do to prepare for this. I didn't want to miss out on something I'd wanted to see since I was in high school.

As for the kick to get me moving -- It was mid-January, and I was feeding my dog. Admittedly I am very particular about his food and making sure he gets exercise. Ironic, right? Anyway, I was reading the ingredients in the Merrick canned food I buy for him, and I thought, "If I could eat like him, I'd be ok." At that moment, I was somewhat stunned by the contrast between the immense care I take selecting food for my dog, and the recklessness and complete neglect I practiced in choosing my own food.

Some research brought me first to Bistro MD, which I still use. Then when I wanted to monitor my exercise and weekend calories I found MFP. I made the trip to Machu Picchu and was able to enjoy it. The airplane seatbelts fit. I completed my second sprint triathlon, and I'm nearly 50 lbs down from January 2012. Still on the journey.

A PICTURE combined with at certain number of the scale i like to forget.....

My doctor told me that I needed to lose a massive amount of weight before I can even begin the transplant qualification process. It was a real eye opener. I hope not to be on dialysis any longer than I have to be. I'm determined to lose this weight before my kidneys fail and start dialysis.