When was your last straw that made you want to change?

I've just wrote a post in the introductions and saw this. So I hope its okay to repost my text here- but it is very relevant to the topic as I explain what has started me on my path to healthy eating and weight loss....:

I'm 37 and need to lose weight. I never thought I would ever be in this position. Up until 10 years prior I was a slim guy with a great body. I was the kind or person people would say was fit and I was always complimented on this and the fact that I could eat what I liked and not gain weight. I liked how I looked in the mirror it was great. As I started to do better at my job and started to jump from one great job to the next the money started to increase. I didn't need to think twice about eating at the best places and slowly my weight started to pile on. I think I was in denial this was going on, even when I was spending on clothing which were increasing in size every few months and a belly was starting to develop and get bigger and bigger.
A couple of events have made me look at myself and what I'm doing to me. My one uncle died due to heart issues related to his weight. Another uncle suffered a stroke last year. I realise now that I'm going to go the same way if I don't do anything. I had one last high calorie unhealthy meal on the 31st of December. 1st January I decided will be the first day of my journey back to healthy eating and exercise. I have basically told myself it's either healthy eating and exercise or death in a few years. Maybe it is overdramatic but I need the shock to my thinking or I will carry on as I always have.

I have a bad knee and I'm used to it hurting every evening when I get into bed. However, lately it's been hurting badly by lunchtime, and both knees ached by bedtime. I realised that I was now so overweight that it was putting me in this near-constant pain and losing the weight has made such a difference to that. Now even the bad knee can go days without aching.

Two things:
- I've been to two funerals this year of people in their 50s and it's given me a real sense of my own mortality.
- I went to a high-wire assault course with my colleagues. I'm a powerful lass, and I went round that course feeling like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But then I saw the photos from the day and realised I looked more like the big ball that was rolling after him!

My 42 year old friend died of a massive heart attack. I am fifty, so don't want to go there.

Mine was last summer while visiting the beach in August. I was embarrassed to take my cover up off and go in the water and play with my children, so I sat around and watched them. I did finally take the cover up off but only went in the water once, I felt ashamed of my body.

While leaving my children said they were sad that I did not have any fun and just sat by the beach towel & umbrella. That was my WTF is wrong with you moment. I started making slow changes and finally late September I joined MFP. This summer I will be out there playing with my kids, enjoying family time.

I've battled depression for the past 5years! After giving birth in 2011 I managed to get my weight down. I looked and felt fabulous! My partner would just randomly stare at me and tell me how beautiful I was and how I was glowing . I just want to get back to that! No one should hate themselves I realize this now and know its upto me to put it right and lose some weight re gain that confidence

Mine was on vacation back in September. I was heavy and miserable and knew it would affect my trip. The plane ride there and back was horrible. Not only didn't I fit into the seat, the seat bar which didn't come up cut into me making it painful. Next was when I went snorkeling. We had to change boats and they had to hoist me up into the boat like a huge whale. So embarrassing. Such a beautiful experience and my weight kept me from truly enjoying it.

My moment hit me when my husband started talking about having kid number 2. I weight 238 lb for the first one and was trying to lose weight after she was born, but it was a year of deaths for me. Both my grandmothers and my mom who had been in the hospital for awhile. She went in with a skin/blood infection and her diabetes made the situation worse. She went to a rehab facility and was ~2 weeks from coming home when she threw 2 lung clots due to being in a hospital bed for so long. It took some time for me to get serious, but a couple months back my husband started talking about kid 2. I DID NOT want to go through another pregnancy obese AND my daughter is getting really active and I love being able to keep up with her. I need to be/stay healthy for my family, so they don't go through what I have gone through. :frown:

I was on medication for some health issues which I'd had for many years. One of the side effects of the medication was migraines. Over the years my weight went up and the migraines got worse. When I was at the doctors to have the prescription refilled I was told by the doctor he would not refill the script as due to my weight and migraines with a combination of the medication I was on I was now in the high category risk of having a stroke. Not a good thing to be told at 41.

I haven't lost all the weight however am pretty close to my goal and couldn't be happier. I now focus on eating healthy and being fit as I love my lifestyle. I'm also in the middle of training for my first half marathon.

Best of all I no longer need the medication and no more migraines. ????????

A few things:



Never had a weight problem until my forties, then it started creeping on. Jeans started getting snug. Hard to move around in bed and especially pull up to a sitting position.



One day I sat in a wine tasting store and watched women in their 50's walk by and noticed how overweight and out of shape they were.



A few overweight friends/coworkers in their 50's advised, "I looked like you in my forties too and if you don't get it under control now, you'll look like me."