What was your AH HA! moment to get started?

Looking back at pictures taken months ago and realizing how much skinnier I looked, even though it was not that much more weight. ):

I have nearly always been a bigger guy. I played football in my younger years and moreover I played the offensive line so size was part of the equation. I have always been most comfortable about 60 or even a little more pounds over what any chart would say was ideal for me. I am 6'3 and I carried my weight most of the time pretty well. However, in the summer of 09 a pretty major accident changed my way of life. I really settled in and became very sedentary. No more 25 or 30 mile bike rides just because I felt like it. No more significant hikes into the woods just because I enjoyed it. Pain just pretty much stopped me from living the life I used to live. That the was the start of watching all my blood levels go from borderline to full blown bad. Blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides as the start. But that wasn't enough. Every single time I had my A1C checked it would move up another .2 or .3. Now realize I was having blood work, and still do, about every 10 weeks or so. Anyway, for about a year I put off the diabetes meds as I just kept telling my doctor that I would get it under control. Finally readings were just to bad and my eyes started messing with me. I started the 'betes meds in September and went from glucose readings that was just a little bad to glucose readings that was very bad. That was while on the meds. My A1C still climbed another .4 in that same September to January.

So the punchline to the long story. The last day of January I was at the doctor and seen the last bump up in A1C as we sat and reviewed the higher readings on the glucose meter. We could not figure out in the office why I was having decent readings in October but about a week into November they just went south. The doctor started me on my second diabetic medication that day. Well, when I went home I really thought it over. It dawned on me that in October I was going for short walks of about 40 minutes. My Ah Ha moment happened that night and I decided that on Feb. 1 I would begin my quest to take off as much of the 120 pounds that I put on since the accident and that step one would be to get moving and get the diabetes under control.

I can tell you that my ticker says that I am down 7lbs but really I am down at least 18. My glucose readings have been wonderful and I am only taking half the medication I am supposed to. I have been getting about an average of a 50 minute walk in each day and I bought a Body Media reader. I then found this MFP site and I have got to say that looking at the numbers was a second AH HA moment.

That's it for me for now. I am sorry to make that so long but it is what it is and I could not think of how to say it other than the way I did.

A couple of things were my AH HA moments! I had lost my cousin to suicide in April 2012 and gained quite a bit of weight right afterwards. I had hit the highest weight I have EVER been in July 2012 and felt gross about myself. A week later I went to a bar to meet up with some old highschool classmates and saw a picture posted on facebook that was taken that night (picture on the left in my profile pic). I was huge and realized how unhappy I really was! A few weeks later I stumbled across MFP and setup a profile. I realized that I had to do something about me and that I couldn't let the death of my cousin run or ruin my life. I haven't had perfect days since I joined and some days I think I should be a lot further ahead than I am. Then I think about how far I have come both phyiscally and mentally and am glad that I am trying and suceeding, even slowly.

I'd been on blood pressure medication for 13 years.. and it maintained my pressure at an even 120/80.
But, a couple of years ago, for several quarterly Dr check-ups in a row, my blood pressure was sitting at 130/82 ish... regardless of me trying (or so I thought) to cut back on sodium.

On voicing my concern about this, my Dr said something along the lines if 'well, you are getting older, and often with age our bodies re-define what is NOW 'normal' and this may just be a level that is your new 'normal'... these things happen with aging'

Older! Aging!
He could not have used a better choice of words to finally motivate me to get my act together, as I fully intend (now) to age in as healthy a manner as possible! (so that I can spend a good long time aging .. am 56 now *S*).

The result? Last September my Dr took me off my blood pressure med., leaving me only on the diuretic now (I have had retention issues all my life). 6 months without it now, and he is confident I am doing fine and don't need to go back on it. woohoo!

I will be 50 this year. I want to be healthy and active for many more decade so it was time to get at it.

I have had several AH HA! moments. The last one was my brother calling me Fatty McButter pants at Christmas time. That is the name we used to call overweight people when we were kids.(Cruel I know). We are now 46 & 42!:happy:

Getting a printout from the doctor saying 191 pounds and refusing to let my husband see it purely because of the number that was on it. I don't want to feel so embarrassed by my weight that my husband has to be in the dark...

WOW! Amazing