What was your "ah-ha!" moment?

My ah-ha moment........ I realized I needed to start take care of myself for once. I have been married for almost 21 yrs and realized I am not happy. When I first married I weighed about 50lbs less and as I gained weight my husband let me know it...... I realized about 1.5 yrs ago how miserable I was with myself, my body, my marriage...... I have 2 children with my husband and didn't want to give up on our marriage, but it all came to a head when I returned from a Conference for my job. The yelling, the intimidation, the accusations became too much. I left the house, 33 degrees outside in my PJ's and a light sweater and went for a walk..... I started to find myself AGAIN. And said to myself I need to take care of me.... make myself strong, mentally as well as physically. I was tired of always feeling fat and disgusted at my imagine in the mirror.... my big ole fat gut..... I so wish I took care of myself after I had kids. I wish I took care of myself, period. I am now and I haven't felt better. Bottom line, my ah-ha moment was when my husband pissed me off enough and I said f@!# this....... it's time for ME! My kids see a stronger, healthier Mom and my husband sees a stronger women that's not going to be mentally abused anymore. Time will tell what happens with my marriage, but I will never forget about me again. My advice to everyone..... don't ever put yourself on the back burner.... for no one will ever take better care of you than yourself. :flowerforyou:

I have been saying it for years, but this past December, we went to Disney World and I had a hard time fitting in the seat on the plane. I mean, I fit and could buckle up but if the flight was longer than the 2.5 hours it was, I would have been extremely uncomfortable. I am 5'4" and was 214lbs. I saw BIGGER people than me on the plane and I thought to myself, how uncomfortable must they be? or are they just used to it? I don't even want to be used to it.

Then, once we got to DW, I had to sit on the rides alone for a lot of things like Thunder Mountain because the lap bar wouldn't go down close enough to my kids' laps. They would have let me ride with them anyway, but I didn't feel safe, so I always sat alone. On some rides, they said 3 could fit per row but when I tried, my poor kids were squished, so again, I sat alone while I watched other mothers sitting happily with their 2 children on the same seat.

Then I came home and looked at our pictures and could see how I would conceal my body for pictures. That was when I said ENOUGH!!

Jan 7, I started at the gym. I have only lost 11 lbs so far but I am happy. I would rather go slowly and change things little by little than to do it all at once and fail.

Turning 25 and realizing that for years I've been like "This year, I'm totally going to get in shape." and then not doing it and telling myself the next year was the year I'd crack down. And I've been putting it off for at least 8 years.

And I want a complete lifestyle change by the time I'm 30. So no time like the present.

I'll add that I've had back problems since I was 17, so I've been trying to...or wanting to get in shape rather since I was diagnosed with those. But I get stressed about things and put it off.

Seeing a picture plastered up this side and down the other on Facebook during a business trip in India last year. It had me crying for days. I use that pic as my before in most of my comparisons and it's in my profile pics. I hate that pic but at the same time, grateful it was taken because it got my *kitten* in gear.

Edited for typos

When I reached climax.

When I reached climax.

you mean when you could no longer see it happen?

LOL

The day I realised I weighed more than I did just before I gave birth to my babies.......:noway:

Jean

I was getting ready for a meeting where I was to give a presentation in front of 100+ people. And none of my smart clothes fitted. It was humiliating wearing a stretchy dress and cardigan instead of one of my lovely tailored skirts and blouses! So I decided I need either an entire new wardrobe (again) or drop a dress size. I dropped a dress size.

My "moment" was looking at picture seeing that I was "really THAT big". Deleting pictures off my camera "because that is a horrible picture of me"...then realizing I was deleting ALL pictures with me in them.

I started MFP, much more seriously and am seeing that the hard work is paying off. I am so glad that I started the journey again. My kids need me and I want to be in their life, actively, for as long as possible.

I realised that I had only lost 3lb in the two years since I ended up in A&E with dangerously high blood pressure and had done nothing about my weight in all that time; my blood pressure had not been checked since I was discharged therefore the thought that I could end up back in hospital has made me determined to finally lose the weight once and for all.

Like above, lots of little ah-ha moments from 17-22 til after a series of panic attacks I shot up in just a few months whilst recovering with my french bf (many pain au chocolat!) and avoiding anything that raised my heart rate or id end up crying! It was the sudden change (rather than the slow weight gain that you dont notice day to day) in weight and in my shape that was my AH-HA?!?! moment.
Now Im on here and can read other peoples progress its so much easier to keep on top of changing myself for the better. X

I've always been fat and I've always wanted to lose it, even when I was a kid. I realized when I started college last year that a lot of people are at the prime of their health at this point in their lives, but I'm certainly not. I figured, if I want to lose the weight, now is a good time to do it.

I guess a lot of people see pictures of themselves, huh? Same for me. It's a sobering experience seeing a picture of yourself when you have such a different perception of yourself.