Besides yourself and a mirror, who gave you a wake-up call?

Nope. The only time I get comments is when I'm actually doing something to better myself. Seems people not into fitness/ healthier eating don't care what you do/eat until it's something different from what they do/eat... then it's negative. Whatevs.:yawn:

Took a picture with an ex NFL lineman and I looked like his mini-me. That was the wakeup call I needed.

Other than the scale, my husband. He had been overweight for quite some time while I was mostly on the thin side. He finally committed to getting healthy & losing weight/gaining muscle. Of course that would be when I started gaining lol After over a year of watching him lose & get stronger, I told him one day, I want to do it with you & he was thrilled

I saw pictures from our family vacation to California and that was when I realized, "Wow. When did I get so big?" I still cringe when I see those pictures and I can barely recognize myself.

I looked normal and my bloodwork was all good, so nobody said anything. And I was able to perform at a relatively high level (20+ pull ups, 100+ push ups, etc), so I was able to rationalize. Unfortunately, "normal" looks like crap.

Then one day I tried MFP and determined that my caloric intake was significantly higher than I expected, so I modified intake. Fat melted off and I look good again.

When i realized that what i thought was looking good was just look heavy. Power lifting was my life until a disability changed my life. I got into sculpting my body instead and noticed i liked it much better. I always dreamed of abs on my body.

My husband and my son (currently 2), honestly. Not going into deep details but the hubby sat me down and told me he's scared I won't live to see my son graduate high school the way I am now.

I know for some people just looking in the mirror is enough to give you a kick in the rear to get in shape. But did it take someone else telling you that you were unhealthy? Like a family member, doctor, friend, etc? I remember looking at myself one day and thinking what happened to me...

The floor.

LOL no seriously...just the way I felt (sluggish) my clothes...not fitting properly.... not being able to sit on a one-seated chair

I was at a coffee morning and there was a little girl about four years old handing out cupcakes that she'd made. When she got to me she said 'You're not getting a cake because you look like you've eaten five already'. I laughed and then she asked me 'Why are you so fatty?' Haha! That was my wake-up call!!! Haha!!!

My 9 year old son told me he worries that something bad is going to happen to me because of my size. I realized I'd been selfish and self serving to that point by not taking care of myself. He deserved better and so did I, so I did something about it. I'm not doing something either. No quitting. No stopping. I will hit my goal. I can. I will. I must.

Photo from a work x-mas party. I didn't realize it was me. I keep it on my phone as a reminder of who I don't want to be.

I suppose it's my buddy Alex. He gave me a ticket to a patriots game. Our seats were in the 400 section of Gillette stadium. This is the TIPPY TOP of the TIPPY TOP of the stadium. We had to walk up ramps, not stairs, to our seats. I was so out of shape I had to keep stopping to catch my breath, just walking up ramps. We were late for kickoff and I felt like I was going to die. That day my probably doomed to fail New Years resolution turned into a life changing event. I am in excellent shape now, I will be running a half marathon in the fall and earlier this summer I ran a 10K that was held in around Gillette Stadium at the end of which we ran up and down the ramps in the stadium, out through the giant inflatable patriots helmet and across the 50 yard line. If you listen carefully in Gillette stadium you can still hear me screaming "TAKE THAT FAT AL"

I know that little girl was a kid but wow. I hope her parents didn't hear her and decided not to do anything. There's no way I'd let my kid talk like that. Glad you didn't take it too personally though (or at least I hope you didn't).

Anyway, for me it was pretty much the same as what the OP said. I had been wanting to diet for years and just kept putting it off. I hated how I looked and I constantly thought about how I was in high school. I mentioned to a coworker one day about how I need to start counting calories and he told me about the lose it app. So that actually got me to start recording my calories, I had no idea there were apps like that! I was too lazy to do it all in my head so I got really into it. I eventually started wanting more support from people and another coworker told me about her myfitnesspal app so I switched to here
Then I got into working out a different way. I used to play dance central for the kinect and one day my hubby was talking to me about his friend's wife who lost a lot of weight doing zumba. So I looked into that and was going to buy the game but then I found a class right down the street from me and I've been doing that ever since. I recently started to add strength training to my workouts as well

My mother. She's had one shoulder and two knee replacements and is still recovering from one spinal fusion that will have to be redone this coming Friday. She yo-yo dieted throughout her adult life by cutting calories. By this time she doesn't have much muscle mass and osteoarthritis on top of that. I see myself in her and I don't want to be frail and fragile come 70.

My ex had a few things to say, and there's a reason why she's now my ex.