Moment or situation you realised things needed to change

The moment I realized I needed to change was when I was driving my brother to the airport because he was going on vacation. He's always really blunt and just told me that he was really concerned about me, and the path that I was going down, and for my life because of my lack of care about my health. A couple days later I just started to completely change my lifestyle and food choices, and everytime I feel like giving up I think about it.

(:

For me it was series of events starting with my uncle's passing in 2000 of an enlarged heart/ sleep apnea. But it wasn't until my dad's second heart stint procedure and grandfather's funeral in 2005 that I got serious. I knew that it was to be me if I didn't do something.

I stayed in good shape until 2007 and then fell off the wagon. I had the classic "all or nothing/orthorexic mindset". I tried too hard to be perfect. I would just say **** it some weekends and go nuts. It caught up to me when I got sick and had to miss 2 months of working out.

I recommitted in 2012 after a year on blood pressure pills. I'm just too young and intelligent to accept that. I got control of my health and my eating habits this time around. I've not had an epic binge that wasn't planned since before 2012. I've got a much more healthy mindset towards food and accept that I can work certain treats into my diet without overindulging.

I was applying for an autism service of or my son, had to video record a talk about why he needed one. The video was horrendous. I looked like Jabba the Hut.

A couple of things:

* My aunt who was a good 15kg less than me had developed diabetes. Yeah, that kicked me up the butt.
* I'm 30 and never had a relationship. I would like to be able to get married and have babies...and at the weight I was, there was no chance in hell I was attracting any nice guy.
*I struggled getting into an amusement park ride (mainly cos I was short, but it was even more upsetting as I'm a resounding 'fatty fat fat' with my stature).

Not this past winter but the one before I came to my epiphany. My fiance and I love to snowboard. Well, the winter of 11-12 I was 200 lbs. I couldn't put my snowboarding gear on without huffing and puffing. Going down the slopes was almost a joke. I'd have to stop and hit my inhaler every few hundred yards because I couldn't hardly breathe & once I actually had to break out the nebulizer. I realized that if I got any bigger I wouldn't be able to board any more. So here I am. 50 lbs lighter and a lot more fit I hardly ever need to use my inhaler anymore! I can't wait for this next season. Hopefully by then I'll be able to fit into my old gear!

Well, from 2000-2012 I gained over 100 pounds.....in the back of my mind I knew that that I needed to lose about 80 of it, but I kept putting it off.

Shortly after I turned 30, I was rearranging furniture; I was winded from moving a dresser and a few other items.

That was the wake up call, I could not believe how far I had fallen........

When I had severe acid reflux that made it feel as if someone was ripping out my esophagus and I thought I was dying, that was my motivation.

My husband and I broke up, and I pretty much just felt like doing what I wanted to do. I wanted to make myself happier, and taking care of myself was the place to start

moment of realization: a birthday photo, taken from the ground up (until then had instinctively avoided cameras, even though i was in denial of reflection and actual pant size. photo = no room for error! no room for anything but my voluptuous face!)

moment of *action*: breakup. not just because i was angry etc (which i was), but bc i had more time to think things through, plan, etc, and less mental/emotional distress obstructing constructive action

The moment I realized I needed to change when a co-worker said that I was going to need a clothing allowance.

Even though you made the change, that is quite mean

This moment for me came in November 2008 when I was 32 and on a business trip. I was with my boss who was normal weight, and I was at my lifetime heaviest (307 I believe). I'd been having some problems with my feet and ankles swelling which worried me about my health, and despite a pretty good checkup at the doctor (with just the usual comment about weight loss being wise), I was nervous. My boss and I were taking Amtrak and had to rush up about 3 flights of stairs, and I could barely keep up with her and I was really out of breath and dizzy. I'd been overweight since childhood but I always seemed to be in fairly decent health, able to move quickly, etc...and that was the first time I ever found myself so desperate to breathe well and keep up others' pace.

The day I returned from my business trip, I went to look at bicycles but I was scared that I would weigh too much and break the display bikes in the shop. Instead I started walking every night, about 0.5 mile and then got up to 2 miles per night. I did not change my diet at all, though. It took me about 2 years but I got back down to a more "normal for me" weight of 272 and felt 100% better physically.

Last year I got a divorce and met the love of my life soon after. He collects and restores vintage bicycles! So now I have two bikes I ride, even though I'm still not great at riding (it had been over 15 years when I started up again). I go walking and swimming etc, and I've become pescetarian. I was around 260 when I started MFP at the end of March 2013. Now I am around 230 and all of a sudden people are really noticing my weight loss and increased fitness!

For me it was seeing other girls in the same mirror. Like, I would think of myself as skinny, but when I saw my reflection at stores and stuff I'd be like "woah, you do not look skinny...".
I took a while for it to really sink in though. But my family didn't tell me I needed to lose weight until I started asking them If I was chubby. They would say "well, you're not exactly 'skinny'."
And, of course, when I got out the scale..... and took my measurements.

hitting the age my Dad and Gpa both were - when they had their first heart attacks.......and realizing that being 300+ lbs is probably not the best way to treat my own heart.......

When my daughter said mom eat less you r too fat ,its embarassing for me

Not sure if I can call it my moment as much as for my family. My sister-in-law called me crying because she stepped on a scale at GNC and it read 171 lbs. She's 5' 3 and it was the highest she had ever weighed. When she married my brother she was a size 2 and barely 115 lbs soaking wet. I told her I was going to find a program to help her log her food, and I found MFP on my iPhone. She initially lost 17 lbs in 3 months but got busy and while she doesn't log on every day she is more aware of what she eats.

Personally, I'm a runner and thought I didn't need to lose any weight but I've vastly improved my eating habits just by tracking my food. I've also done more circuit training work to shape my body and my running times have improved dramatically. For example, my half-marathon time dropped from a 9 minute mile to a sub-8 minute mile.

I'll always log onto MFP because I want to set a good example for my family and hopefully they will see the importance of it one day.