What was your wake-up call?

I like food.

I saw this quote: "If it's important you'll find a way. If it's not you'll find an excuse" and it jump started something in me. It motivated me to lose weight more than anything else ever has, as well as pretty much eliminated excuse making in any area of my life.

Not being able to catch my toddler, increasing pain in my arthritic hip, elasticated waist bands and not being able to see my winkie when I peed

I quit smoking. For two years (minus one brief spell) I had ignored the weight gain, LIVED in sweat pants or stretchy pants with long sweaters etc. It got so bad that I developed 5 ulcers, couldn't breath hardly, my knees were useless, EVERYTHING ached. I was in denial and would stand on my Dr's scale backwards so I couldn't see the truth month in and month out.
I was diagnosed with fribromyalgia and put on meds...I gained another 10 lbs and the symptoms weren't really going away. I finally faced the scale on January 3 and to my horror it was 253 lbs. I started bawling right there in the Dr's office. Nope NO MORE. From that point on enough was a enough. I even told my husband my true weight...I had NEVER in 13 years told him that, even when I was slender.
I knew the garbage I was putting in me was causing not only gain, but the pain and medical problems I was having, I suspected were from the food choices I was making. I cut out white bread, pasta, and 80% processed foods. Probably a bit more, but I like over or underestimate where appropriate lol. Anyway, I'm making better choices and not over eating and making changes I can live with because enough is enough.

My Dad dying of cancer at age 64 and Mom dying of an aneurysm 3 months later, also age 64.
Not weight related but I knew I wanted to get healthy asap and not put my kids through losing parents too young.

I went to my dr for a basic appointment and when she took my blood pressure she was in shock. She said it was so high I was in stroke territory. That was it for me! At 32 years old I didn't want to be dependent on blood pressure meds for the rest of my life. She gave me 90 days to make lifestyle changes and see if it went down. I went back to that appointment 28 pounds lighter with completely normal blood pressure. All of my other panels were good too.

Being sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, photos (ugh!) and the scale motivated me to get off my butt (literally) and do something about it! One month in, I've lost almost 15 pounds, my clothes fit better, I look forward to getting up at 5am and going to Boot Camp class three mornings a week, no more indigestion or feeling bloated and defeated. I haven't felt this good in a long time.

I'm another one who had a "photo" wake up call. My husband and I were at the grand opening of a bar with some friends and pictures were being taken of all the patrons. Needless to say when I found our picture on their Facebook page a week later, I about died. Something snapped in me finally and I realized that as a 28 year old woman, I had no business looking like that. My weight may have not been that horrendously high but on my 5'4" frame, weight is proportioned so I look probably 20-30 lbs heavier than I am, easily. From that night on, I vowed to change it and a year and a half later, I'm happy to say I am over 30 lbs down and most importantly am in a daily habit of working out, making more conscious food choices and have regained my body confidence that I haven't had in over a decade.

Mine came when my fiancé and partner for 6.5 years walked out on me out of the blue on January 5th 2014 to be with another man. I don't know that it was a much as a wake up call to lose weight, per say, but more of a kick in the rear for me to try to better myself in general. I really didn't pay attention to the weight loss until a week or so after of not eating when I decided I needed to make something positive come out of this all and started paying more attention to my health.

"If it's important you'll find a way. If it's not you'll find an excuse."

Great quote! Thanks.

I went to Ireland for 3 weeks. Realized what I wanted, though when I came back I tried going back to eating/drinking crap and my body rejected that. So it hit me that I was ready to change and my body was pushing me and encouraging me to do so.

Met a girl at the beach wearing the same bathing suit as me. I thought she was a little bit slimmer than me, but I also thought she was a bit taller and smaller chested. It wasn't until we met each other in the bathrooms and I caught a glimpse of the two of use in the mirror that I realized that her height and chest size about matched my own. But I was much larger than her. It made me really realize just how much weight I had put on. I finally faced the scale and I was one pound away from crossing over from overweight to obese. I realized I needed to change. So I did.

:laugh: :laugh: :blushing:

When all the simple things now required grunts and groans....tying shoes, picking things up off the floor, etc...time to do something about that!

I work in a job where I have to wear suits every day, and all my suits were fitting TIGHT after Christmas. I was in denial and didn't want to weigh myself, but I finally did and I had gained 10 pounds over the course of a month! It was a good wake up call as I had slid into some pretty unhealthy habits due to always having a good metabolism that never gained weight no matter what I ate.