What was YOUR motivation to start this journey ?

About three weeks ago, my moms side of the family decided to go on a 12 week challenge to lose weight and said it would be fun if I joined in.
I started doing that, but about a week ago I looked in the mirror and just decided it was time to get in shape and look better for my husband.
So I guess my husband is more of the motivation. I don't want to be one of those girls who just stop caring when they get married. I want to look hot for as many years as I can.

When I realized I was the "fat" mom makes me so mad I let myself go on this long and get this over weight. I cant stand the way I feel

My jeans became really tight within a matter of months. I'm tried of feeling self conscience. I want to be strong, fit and healthy for once in my life. I always give up when I start feeling comfortable with my body again. This time I am really going to do it!!!!

Being the matron of honor in my sister's wedding (which was last year). I knew I had to do something serious to get the weight off instead of the crap I was trying to do before that clearly wasn't working.

I started MFP and it made the rest of my family start it too So we all benefited.

My moment was when I was sitting at my mother-in-law's breakfast table and she was talking about her friend who had just lost fifteen pounds. I was feeling gross anyway because my big pants were starting to get tight (I'd outgrown my thin pants and my regular pants months earlier). After she made one more comment about her friend's amazing diet, I told her, "Well, I don't really feel like losing weight right now." She said, "Oh, no, of course not. Your thin enough already." I went home and immediately looked up MFP because a friend of mine had such success with it. When your mother-in-law starts lying to you, you know you've got to do something.

Health, I am afraid of all the health issues being obese can cause, name just about any disease and being obese gives you a higher chance of getting it than a person at a healthy weight. Not to mention heart attack, I am not afraid of death but I do not want my family to be like "If only she had lost the weight..." when I am gone. However the motivation to start is never my problem it is the motivation to keep going I struggle with.

My 20 year old daughter is pregnant and I went to buy some maternity clothes for her. The helpful saleswoman held up this cute shirt and remarked how great it would look on me!!! I advised her that I'm fat, not pregnant, lol!

I have a 2 yr son that I want to be an example for! I want him to see that eating well and working out should be your daily routine. I've gained 50 lbs in five years and it's time to lose it!

I was about to break the 200 mark and realized I had crossed over into the "obese" category. I'm now back to "overweight" and headed for HEALTHY!!!

mainly when i realized if i gained another 10 lb, which i would with the way i was eating, i'd hit 200.

For me, it was probably to get myself out of a rut I have dug myself into. I've always been pretty big, averaging close or around to 300 lbs. But I was happy with myself because I grew up with the notion that it wasn't what you looked like on the outside that made who you who you were, but who you were on the inside. And I believed it for a long time. But then, I discovered that who you are externally and internally go hand-in-hand.

So, I lost some weight about 2 years ago (about 80 lbs) and I never felt so happy. I had confidence, energy, and just an overall more positive outlook on life. So much that I loved the idea of going shopping for clothes because I got to wear sizes I thought I would never wear. But then I hit a wall and I hit hard. I gained back weight and, each time I did, I lied to myself into believing I would lose it all like I did before. Then it just got worse and worse and now I am in the worst shape of my life so far (almost 330 lbs). I have a closet full of clothes that belong to a much happier, healthier man where as I wear practically the same clothes every week. I'm tired at looking at the clothes I can no longer wear and feeling miserable about how I've let myself go.

Today is my first day with MFP, so apologies for the long rant. I don't normally open myself up to talk about my weight issues. All I know is I want change and I want it to start today. I already gave up drinking soda cold turkey before joining, slowly weaning off snacking too much/what I snack on, and I have an outline for a workout routine that I hope helps. I am open to suggestions, tips, advice, criticisms, anything from anyone to help me meet my goal. Obviously, 50 lbs is a start for me as I'd like to lose much more. But I need to remember this process will take patience.

In answer to the question: what's my motivation? Simply put. I just want to be happy again.

I have 2 motivating factors 1) I'm getting married in October and I want to feel proud of myself, not ashamed of gaining so much weight, and 2) Now this is the funny one....I have horses and my young guy in the picture with me ABSOLUTELY hates ground work. He hates it so much he tries climbing out of the round pen if I try and lunge him without a rope. So there I was jogging along side my 1000 lb pouty baby trying to encourage him to trot, completely out of breath and mad because I realized I was upset with him for not wanting to exercise, yet I had got into the habit of not exercising myself. So I made a deal with him that I wouldn't ask him to do anything I wasn't willing to do as well.

Pictures from my sister's wedding where I was about twice the size of any one of my siblings (one of the pictures is in my profile here). Also, the desire to be healthy in order to conceive and then be a role model for any children I may have.

Just was so tired of feeling self concious in my clothes. Was more than ready to start feeling good about myself. AND get dressed without trying on 7 things to see which hid my pudge the bast.

For me it is because I am about to have hip replacement surgery and I will be able to have my life back. I can't wait to be able to go hiking and walking without pain. I want to be fit strong and healthy. I have wasted way to much of my life sitting around partially because of the pain but honestly my weight made me lazy. I don't want to miss out on anything else...life is to short to sit it out..