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

Pictures do not lie..... that's when I realized how much I had gained. I barely recognized myself. That and my sister-in-law told me I wasn't that much overweight.

For me it was the printout from my blood work. I carry weight pretty well, and while I can't honestly say I didn't care about the extra weight, I didn't care enough until I got that printout showing my triglycerides were only a few points from leaving the "normal" range. THAT I cared about. This year they were so low they couldn't be measured with the finger prick test (< 45). :happy:

For me it was the printout from my blood work. I carry weight pretty well, and while I can't honestly say I didn't care about the extra weight, I didn't care enough until I got that printout showing my triglycerides were only a few points from leaving the "normal" range. THAT I cared about. This year they were so low they couldn't be measured with the finger prick test (< 45). :happy:

My highest Triglyceride number was 685 a few years ago. How's that for a wake up call. I lowered my carb level and managed to get it below 200. Looking forward to next bloodwork after my weight loss to see what the number is now.

The endocrinologist doctor I was seeing for metabolic syndrome (high BP/cholesterol/blood sugar) flippantly gave me a weight loss surgery pamphlet as I was going out the door.

I showed him! My BP and blood sugar are now normal and cholesterol is barely high, and I've lost close to 100 pounds.

I'll give him credit though - instead of Metformin he put me on Byetta. It slows down your digestion and helps your body use its own insulin more effectively. What it did was help me to not snack in the evenings and started me on the path to eating better.

Pics, relatives i was meeting after a long time, shopping(XL was starting to get tighter-now i can fit into a M) and mainly looking at myself dance in a stuido mirror. I just hated how i looked/danced. I knew i had to do something to feel more confident about myself

My son. I declined a pool party for him for fear of me having to put on a swimsuit.

After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure my 2 boys told me they were worried that one day when they were married and had kids, they their kids wouldn't have a grandfather.

It wasn't my labwork. That came back beautifully, much to my Dr and my surprise.

It wasn't my clothes. I hate shopping anyways.

It was seeing my mother on 12 different medications. She has Type II Diabetes, and her lipid profile looks like sheer hell. She can't walk a mile without dying, her joints are falling apart, and she's just given up.

That will never be me. Ever. I don't want to give up on my grandkids early like she is. I will see them graduate!

First (though I completely dismissed it), my mother made a comment around Halloween. I was going to wear a costume for the second time around and had taken her with me to find makeup for it, and it came up in convo, "Are you sure you're built for that anymore?" Ouch, Mom. But I was blind and deaf to how right she was. That Halloween came and went, and the photos were horrid... and I blamed the angle.

Come that December, I had another photo taken, at a GOOD angle for me, with out-of-town visiting family. My "good" angle gave me a moon face and made me look like a linebacker with these HUGE shoulders and thick thighs. I was shocked, almost cried, stared at the mirror after for hours trying to figure out how I hadn't seen the extra weight piling on... and joined MFP about three weeks later.

This is kind of funny, one of my friends and I were talking about this earlier. Before I started, one night my oldest son woke up crying his little eyes out. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he had a dream that I died (creepy right...). But anyhow, I thought if he was this upset at a dream, I could not leave him before my time because I was fat. It suddenly became about more than just me. From that moment on, I was determined to be healthy.

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.

pretty much this... wake up call from loving hubby x

No one ever told me I was unhealthy, or overweight. That's OK - I already knew.

My wake up call was realizing I was the same weight I had been at 9 months pregnant.

My doctor, my older sister and my grandmother. I was never overweight, but growing up, I had always been fit and active. I was also late to mature. After high school, I went from 95 lbs, to 125 lbs by the time I was 21. Some of it was things like boobs, hips and a broadened frame, but much of it was fat. Combined with a loss in muscle tone, though I may have looked fine to people who didn't know me, I didn't look fine to my family and doctor. I didn't feel good either.

My sister first noted that I looked bloated and unhealthy. She saw me over a holiday and asked if I was doing okay. She didn't realize it was weight... she really thought I was retaining water and had some sort of health issue they had put me on steroids for and I hadn't told her about.

I made an offhanded comment to my very blunt, tactless grandmother about my weight (she is about my size) and she commented that it was way too much for my smallish, 5 foot tall frame to carry. It hurt to hear, but my pinching jeans, hurting knees and lack of confidence confirmed her suspicion. Still, I put off making a change.

A month later, I had to go to the doctor for something, and she warned me that I had gone from about 19% body fat and an ideal weight (around 110-115), to borderline overweight in a matter of a year (the last time I had seen her) and that I needed to get it under control before it was a big deal, because that is why my knees hurt, I had no energy and my blood pressure was elevated.

The warnings, combined with hating how I felt and missing being active/ having energy, made me join a sports team, go back to the gym and start paying attention to the healthy eating habits that my parents worked hard to teach me growing up. I have been progressively in the best shape of my adult life for 6 years running now. It didn't take giant changes to get started either. I just subbed for healthier snacks, cut out soda and started moving a bit more at first.

No one ever told me I was unhealthy, or overweight. That's OK - I already knew.

My wake up call was realizing I was the same weight I had been at 9 months pregnant.

^^^this too! Worst feeling ever. I realized the same difficulty I had putting on my shoes and getting dressed at 9mo preggo, I was having now.

In the mirror I thought I looked good! Seeing myself in pictures I was like who the heck is that fat girl? I went to my boyfriends families house sat in a plastic chair broke it. Went to his uncles house stepped on their back porch broke a tile! I was mortified! I had always been the skinny person it seemed like everywhere I went! Then I was suddenly 218 and was breaking stuff! I would ask people if I looked bad and no one would tell me the truth! They would say yeah you've gained weight but you're not fat... I would sit down to eat at a restaurant and ask when is my due date? I wait tables people would ask me if I had my baby yet. Seriously? It was horrifying. I've lost 28 pounds so far and it's the best thing I've done for myself!


Oh and my heart dr. Told me I need to find my way to subway...not the best thing you want to hear