What caused you to have to lose weight in the first place?

I saw some pictures of me at my highest weight and was like oh hell no, I don't want to be fat. I was always skinny in high school and to go from 99 pounds in HS to 170 within the years was not going to work. I am also short...5'3 and I looked like a compact dough boy. So I have been working my butt off since May 2012 and I finally feel comfortable in my skin.

Slowly over the past 8-10 years the weight has creeped on due to osteoarthritix of both hips limiting my excercise ability, it has gradually dibilitated and now is the worse its been. It's very hard but I am now having to adjust the amount and type of food I eat to make up for the lack of being able to get the physical excercise I always could before. I will undergo my first srugery in November with the snd to follow Feb/Mar and then 3-6 months after the last I should regain most all function back. In the meantime the more I can lose prior to surgery the speedier the recovery will be. Wish me luck.

Well true. If put that way. Mine would be just from basically growing up and getting older thinking I had all the time in the world to "Fix myself". Having had 4 children, daily stress and just not eating right made me balloon. Think that's kind of typical though.

My family and I were walking past a store with glass windows and I just happened to turn and look at myself in the glass..... And I thought "OMG I look so damn fat! That's it. This fat is coming off." I've had 2 kids and the fat just kind of stuck around and then some. I can't bend all the way down to tie my shoes anymore. I have to lean at a certain angle to tie them. I don't fit into any of my shirts. They are all too small. That's what motivated me to start losing weight.

I've always been a bit chubby. That was apparent around the age of 8 when I started gaining weight. My household was not the least bit healthy and I ate what I wanted, which seemed to be processed/pre-packaged foods smothered in fat. If only I would have known...
Growing up, I ate comfort food. I'm from the south. People practically force feed you here. If you didn't eat (at least back then) it was almost an insult to your host's cooking.
By 14, I was pretty heavy. I'm guessing I was close to 180. So I used Atkins and lost about 30 lbs, which wasn't enough, but it was much better. I stayed around that weight until junior year in high school. That summer, I started dating someone seriously and gained a few "happy" pounds. His family (not surprisingly) was not into healthy eating/fitness either. So the weight came back, with a vengeance. Then I was put on the pill for my acne. Not a good idea. At all.
It made me crave things I'd never even thought about eating. I'm not saying it was solely responsible for my weight gain, but it certainly didn't help. The combination of cravings and unhealthy people surrounding me made me constantly eat things that I knew I shouldn't be eating.
So for five long years I have had a battle with my self-image and weight. I'd tried dieting off and on, and they probably would have worked if I would have stuck to any of them for more than two weeks. I was totally depressed and disgusted with myself.

My real "epiphany" moment came when I was texting a friend and they asked me if I was happy. I told them "no" and explained why I wasn't happy (my appearance). I also mentioned I couldn't do anything about it until Christmas break, because I was just so busy with school and work. They then said "there will always be an excuse why you can't. if you want something bad enough, you will make room for it."
I had known that and thought about it. But it took someone else telling me that for it to really sink in. No more excuses. It's now part of my life, and always will be. No going back.
It has taken a lot of trial and error, but I am now down ~20 lbs. I feel so much better now that I know my body so well and that it will only get better.