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

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  • LifeMeansChange
    LifeMeansChange Posts: 1
    Mine was my last trip to the doctor and it wasn't even something the doctor mentioned. I was in for a sprained ankle and they took my blood pressure I noticed that for the second time in 4 months, my systolic blood pressure was around 123. Although this isn't horrible, it's worse than it had ever been for me even though I've been over 200 lbs for most of my adult like. I noticed that this change came with an extra 20lbs that I hadn't even realized I'd picked up until this visit to the doctor. I decided that day that something had to change. So I'm back on the MyFitnessPal wagon. I hadn't taken it seriously before because I wasn't really unhappy with the way I looked. I'm still fairly pleased with my physical appearance. But this is more than that for me. I know that I need to do something now to improve so that I don't regret it later!
  • MissusMarvel
    MissusMarvel Posts: 6 Member
    My oldest son was featured in a local art exhibit and we took a picture together in front of one of his paintings. It took three takes before I realized it wasn't just an "unflattering angle". I am really that big and unhealthy looking.

    But, my son was so handsome in his suit and he smiled and still had his arm around me. That is my motivation. I want to be around for many more of these occasions with him and my younger children, and I don't want to be camera shy because of my size.
  • sapphirependant
    sapphirependant Posts: 2 Member
    I wanted to wear something pretty but my body won't let me. And I don't want to be unhealthy and get all those lifestyle-related illnesses just because I let myself go fat. I WANT TO BE HEALTHY.
  • jetblue11
    jetblue11 Posts: 3 Member
    I saw a picture of myself. Snd oh my god I looked huge! Something had to be done.
  • dianalee9
    dianalee9 Posts: 134 Member
    I had lost 31 pounds and then got lazy again and gained 8 pounds back. I still have a long, long way to go. I realized that my relationship with my husband is being affect by me being so self conscious. I love my husband and have always said that if anything ever comes between us, I will kill it...so the fat is going to die!! :devil:
  • Uzoh
    Uzoh Posts: 10 Member
    I weighed myself for the first time in 2 years and I was 50lbs heavier than my heaviest weight ever!!!! I downloaded the myfitnesspal app that day and I have never looked back.
  • theprez92
    theprez92 Posts: 12 Member
    When I was 13 I had to see my doctor to get a routine physical, I weighed in at 234lbs at the time. My doctor came in and showed me a line chart of the weight of a typical person at my height (5'10") as they age, vs my estimated weight. The "normal person" had a line that seemed to go up to around 180-200lbs tops and leveled off with increasing age around 25/30 yrs or so. My line went completely off the chart's parameters, I think it said I would be 350lbs by 25. My doctor turned to me with a smug look on his face and told me all the health risks associated with obesity: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, different cancers, hyperglycemia, heart failure etc etc. and then asked what I'm gonna do about it. I made a point by dropping down to 180 by the end of that school year and have continually built up muscle ever since. And now I'm a personal trainer and in school to be a physical therapist hah. My old doctor was a total *kitten*, but honestly I think I needed to hear something like that, and I'm glad I did.
  • momof3boys090808
    momof3boys090808 Posts: 69 Member
    Oh man, where to begin. I started April 2011 on this journey. I had a great workout partner who kept me on my toes. She was always free to walk walk walk, run little walk some more. We always ate healthy together and we joined WW and I lost a total of 52 lbs. my husband took me and bought all new clothes and I dressed cute daily. Took kids to pool all the time but still wore thanktop to swim in but not shorts for first time in my life. I felt wondering about myself. I ran my first two 5k and was so proud of myself and everyone around me always complimented me on how I looked. Then everyone kept saying eat something your too tiny, or your obsessed to logging etc so I relaxed a bit and didn't log everything...then eventually I quit logging for days etc. clothes started getting tighter but I didn't pay attention bc I still fit into my 9/10... But before I knew it I was 50 lbs heavier and I couldn't fit into ANY of my new clothes, I felt horrible about myself. I weighed myself last week and was SHOCKED AND DISGUSTED and so here I am second time around more determined then ever....my health and happiness is so much better then any junk food could offer me and in this one life that I love I want to be happy and do fun things without worry about what people think about me or how I look. So pretty much 1.scale 2. Clothes 3. My husband. I want to look for to him and for him. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE :)
  • amka_2015
    amka_2015 Posts: 16 Member
    One day it just clicked in my head. I asked myself "Do you want to feel like this for the rest of your life?". I decided that I had to get up and do something about it instead of doing nothing and hating myself for it. I've started the process before, even taking pics and writing in a journal but that didn't last long. I wondered that if I had stuck to my diet, where I would be right now and then I decided that I don't want to be thinking the same thing next year. Next year I want to be showing off my progress and maybe inspiring others as others have inspired me. Well I have never felt more determined, that was definitely my last straw.
  • soupastar74
    soupastar74 Posts: 1 Member
    Where to start? Always been a big lad, and even had weight loss surgery to help 'cure' it but whilst that worked short term, long term the weight just returns and you wonder why you did it in the first place(stapled not pretty and not clever). Address the psychological before the physiological or you will never win - a precautionary tale to anyone considering surgery in my opinion don't do it! Now as I watch my father disappear before my eyes due to terminal pancreatic cancer and I reach my fortieth year on this planet I realise that the time has come, and no more can I continue to destroy myself! Started at 285 pounds now at 279 with a calorific intake of around 1500 per day against a bmr rate of around 2400 calories. It's tough but i will get there, alcohol is the hardest thing to give up!
  • RitaMarie88
    RitaMarie88 Posts: 43 Member
    When my fat pants became too tight. I've been wishy washy about losing weight and dieting for about 2 years. We will be celebrating my son's 2nd bday this February and I'm DONE carrying around this baby fat when I have a TODDLER! lol
  • 2dogzrule
    2dogzrule Posts: 245 Member
    Sad.....I felt like a sausage, stuffed into a pair of jeans that I bought in November. Effing holiday food and my lack of willpower in December.
  • RitaMarie88
    RitaMarie88 Posts: 43 Member
    I thought the same thing! if I didn't stop, where would I be now? That was motivation enough.
  • KeepCalmNGetyaSweatOn
    KeepCalmNGetyaSweatOn Posts: 361 Member
    2 years ago I surprised my boyfriend (now husband) with a date to an ice skating rink. When I was younger I LOVED to ice skate. I could skate around and around for hours as well as do a few tricks. It had been many years since I had skated. I thought "Oh this will be a breeze." Well, it wasn't. My ankles hurt so bad from the pressure of the skates. I could barely move on the ice. I couldn't even make it the whole way around the rink without stopping and gasping for air. At this point I was 205 lbs. I was so disappointed in myself for how far I let myself go. That was the day I decided I wasn't going to be a prisoner in my own body.
  • RitaMarie88
    RitaMarie88 Posts: 43 Member
    One day it just clicked in my head. I asked myself "Do you want to feel like this for the rest of your life?". I decided that I had to get up and do something about it instead of doing nothing and hating myself for it. I've started the process before, even taking pics and writing in a journal but that didn't last long. I wondered that if I had stuck to my diet, where I would be right now and then I decided that I don't want to be thinking the same thing next year. Next year I want to be showing off my progress and maybe inspiring others as others have inspired me. Well I have never felt more determined, that was definitely my last straw.

    yessss....I hated looking back wondering where I would be if I didn't stop.
  • cookiealbright
    cookiealbright Posts: 605 Member
    Last year we spent Christmas at the beach. When I came home and dressed for work, my pants were so tight they looked like they were painted on me. I was sick of myself. I went back to the gym and started back on here and this year I only gained 2 pounds over Christmas and they are gone already. We are going to the beach this coming year for Christmas and I hope to be another 18 pounds lighter when we leave. Good luck to us all!
  • RobinB0812
    RobinB0812 Posts: 236 Member
    Mine was very sad. First, let me preface that I had lost 70 lbs about 7 years ago. Then, I suffered a tibia plateau fracture that immobilized me for 9 weeks and I spiraled into my bad eating habits and sedentary lifestyle. Couple that with deciding to quit smoking while battling pneumonia over a year ago and here I am now having gained back the 70 lbs plus an additional 10!

    Over the holidays my father was visiting from out of town. We were at a sports bar and while in an "I've missed you and I'm so glad you are here" embrace he whispered to me, "You've really gained weight since I was here last year."
    Now, he had absolutely no intentions of hurting my feelings, he's not that kind of person, but none-the-less I spent the next 15 minutes sobbing in the lady's room.

    That was it! The LAST straw!!
  • ChaelaMonstah
    ChaelaMonstah Posts: 17 Member
    When I saw the number on the scale.
  • Brige2269
    Brige2269 Posts: 354 Member
    I renewed my driver's license in Oct of 2010. When I received it in the mail with the new picture I took, I was shocked at what I saw. I had NO idea I was THAT bad. I knew I gained, and I knew a regular scale didnt weigh me anymore. I looked completely bloated and I cried. Since then I have lost 100lb and was having a hard time with losing more, so that's when I found MFP. Here I am, working on the next 100lb.
  • FoogooFish
    FoogooFish Posts: 54 Member
    When I reached the point where, out of all my nice clothes, I was struggling to fit into what had previously been my "fat day" jeans. This pair of jeans is a pair that I bought when I was thinner and were always a bit too big on me, so I wore them almost like sweat pants. When they became the only pair of pants that I could still wear, I knew things had to change. I had gotten to the point where I'd wear long shirts and unbutton the top button because my "fat jeans" were too tight. Ridiculous!
  • sarahenagy
    sarahenagy Posts: 65 Member
    My dad had a stroke that killed him. He was overweight, had high blood pressure, and high blood sugar, had had a heart attack and stroke before and did not change his lifestyle. I do not want this to happen to me and took control of my health to try to prevent it. I know I can't help certain genetic predispositions, but it can't hurt to be healthier.
  • NewMnky1
    NewMnky1 Posts: 264
    The Dr. did bloodwork and my indicator for a heart attack came back extremely high as well as borderline high blood pressure and borderline diabetes. That was enough for me. It wasn't even about what I looked like, or cute clothes etc., it was about becoming healthy and living a healthy life.
  • drsarahalia
    drsarahalia Posts: 2 Member
    Turning 30!,
  • dawnlpc
    dawnlpc Posts: 1
    I am 61 years old and I have struggled with food since I was a young adult. I have weighed around 240 pounds for the last couple of years. My husband recently said to me, "don't give up", meaning don't give up on trying to lose weight and be healthy. A day or to later my bloodwork confirmed I have type 2 diabetes. That was the last straw for me!
  • venus_blue
    venus_blue Posts: 103 Member
    My daughter turning 18 and going off to the Coast Guard reminded me that I have been "meaning to" get in shape for almost all of my children's lives. Now I have only one child at home and he will be 18 less than two years - I don't have the excuse anymore that I have no time because I'm too busy raising small children who need me every moment. what they need is a fit and healthy mom who will be around for them and their children for a long, long time.

    Also, my dad has been suffering complications from diabetes, including needing a kidney transplant that they will not approve because of all of his other (mostly diabetes related) health problems. He was diagnosed when he was only five years older than I am now, and like me, his weight was always an issue. I don't want to end up like him: strokes, heart failure, angioplasties and stents in basically every major artery, dialysis three times a week and going blind from this disease that can be prevented.
  • mfwallace
    mfwallace Posts: 2 Member
    I have tried many times to take the weight off, but going to the doctor and having them tell you that you are on the verge of being diabetic, that motivated me. I am determined to loose 100 pounds. I am 10 pounds closer to that goal today. It is hard to say no to the foods that I love, but I love me more. I am determined to get healthy and not have to be on medications ever again.
  • adeleasher
    adeleasher Posts: 1
    Wanting to do something about my lifestyle before I turn 30
  • mrcr23
    mrcr23 Posts: 5 Member
    My 5 year old told me, in the sweetest voice ever, "Mommy, you have a big tummy." It was hurtful to hear that but I couldn't say anything because it was the truth!
  • BrewerByNight
    BrewerByNight Posts: 12
    When I was 250 lbs and would get winded tying my shoes. 25 down! 25 to go (the first 5 or so were lost pre-MFP)
  • RLDeShazo
    RLDeShazo Posts: 356 Member
    a year and a half ago, after being separated for 6 months, I knew I needed to make a change. After seeing a couple of my friends were using this website and having good results, I decided to join in. In 6 months, I had lost 58 pounds. Then I "fell off the wagon" for about a year. Dabbling with it here and there, but not really making a commitment. Then last week, I saw that another friend of mine had joined. So I decided to join him. My clothes weren't fitting anymore, and I was feeling pretty crappy. After weighing and seeing that I had gained back 22 pounds, I knew I needed to get serious again. 4 pounds down.

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