What made y decide to get healthy?

Being diagnosed diabetic was the slap in the face that I needed and now I feel like a new person.

a breakup

My weight loss journey didn't originally start off as one where I aimed to lose weight, but had more to do with the fact that I was having some severe stomach issues and could not pinpoint what it was. Neither could my doctor. I decided to do some research on my own and opted for a healthier lifestyle and approach when it came to food.

I had gained quite a bit of weight in my first and second year of my undergrad and didn't feel all that comfortable in my own body. While I was doing research into my stomach issues, I also did some research on fitness. I decided I wanted to be able to bike long distances, swim far, and run without feeling like I was going to die. The weight loss is a by-product of all this. It wasn't a diet, but more of a lifestyle change. I love the way I feel after a good workout/run/bike ride/swim/etc. etc. and couldn't picture myself sitting on a couch in front of the TV as my main means of entertainment.

Turned 49 last week. I'll turn 50 next year. I have the time now. All our children are flying on their own. It's my time and I need to take better care of myself. Starting today.

My riding instructor tactfully told me that I would probably progress more with my riding if I were fitter. I was also surrounded by lots of slim young ladies and 'to be fair' wasn't looking great in jodhpurs.

1 year later I'm 35lbs lighter, can run 5 miles and have just started lifting.

I can also spend an hour trotting and cantering without going purple, so all good!!

For me, as I put on weight over the years, I didn't notice even notice the small gains. A few years back (probably 10 yrs or so ago) one day I looked in the mirror at my body (something I really don't do that often)... and was mortified. At that point in my life I felt like it was an insurmountable feat to try to get in better shape, there are too many foods I like & don't want to completely give up, my mom & practically every woman in my family is overweight (might be in the genes, right? lol), I just wasn't ready to tackle it because I was sure I couldn't do it (for one thing, I knew nobody in my household back then would support me & it would be so hard to do it entirely alone). Since my divorce a couple years ago I started thinking I was finally almost ready so I created an acct here but didn't start using it, then last year I knew I was ready to do whatever it takes (as long as I didn't have to completely give up certain foods). I started logging for a couple weeks just to see how things looked, I've always said "I don't really eat that much" and was surprised to discover that although I wasn't eating a lot, almost everything I was eating was high calorie / high fat, etc.

Overall I think my "aha" moment was - not a lot of quality single men would want an almost 50 yr old overweight woman, there really aren't a lot who are willing to look beyond the first impression to see the inner person. Combined with that was my own mental picture of what my life was going to look like as a single woman. My parents are retired and my mom is very large, she just sits all day on her couch, gets no exercise, etc. I knew that was NOT what I wanted so if I didn't want that to be me in 30 years, I needed to re-invent myself, & the new me had better be in better physical shape & not a couch potato.

I decided to lose weight and get healthy because I realized that my life was passing me by. There are a lot of things I don't do because of my weight and that is not the way I want to live anymore.

my moment was when i took a picture with my fiance and realized that my arms and stomach was getting larger, then i took a before picture and it startled me at what i was seeing, i couldnt believe my fiance was sexually attracted to me, granted yes i did have a child and it took a toll on my body, but i realized that i wanted to be so much more then just the responsible mom, i wanted to be a sexy one

Ending up in the ER with vertigo and a host of other issues and having the diagnosis of "no known origion" and the doctors shrugging thier shoulders.

Did it for me.

.. When my son asked me if I was pregnant.

I am not enjoying my life the way I should. It hurts to walk, to run, to play with my boys--to clean my house--to cook.
I am tired all the time. I dread going to the store, mall, amusement parks. I want my life back.

I just had blood work done and my levels were fine. Looking at me, you'd think I had high cholesterol and diabetes. I don't, but I do have high blood pressure--which sucks. I hate that I'm on meds. My goal is to get off of them. Diabetes runs in my family-I do not want it!!!!!!

For me, I was really just getting to be too large to fit into normal human life. When I didn't fit into one or two restaurant's booths, I reasoned they were abnormally small. But when it got to be where I couldn't fit into most booths and had to get a table, I knew I was getting too big. Two years ago, I flew to Oregon in First Class and could barely squeeze into the seat.

I flew to Oregon again a week and a half ago and fit into a normal Coach seat on Southwest Airlines and I could even tighten the seatbelt a couple inches. No more seatbelt extenders!

I saw a picture of myself and couldn't believe that was me....ugh.

^ This

And my bloodwork came back and instead of being just below normal for BP and cholesterol, I was now in the mid of normal range.

Being diagnosed pre-diabetic and seeing my blood pressure go up and up.

My first practical lab in mortuary school. My group of five had a complicated first case (long bone and skin donor) but the other table had a morbidly obese woman. I would estimate she was close to if not a bit over 400 pounds. Her arteries were so shot that trying to raise and inject through any of them was extremely difficult as they had little elasticity left and were packed full of granules of crap (technical term!)

At one point I looked over and saw the instructor trying to raise a femoral; her hand was in this woman's thigh well over wrist-level. That was the breaking point for me.