What Was Your "Aha!" Moment

a drunk middle aged woman at a bar told me i looked like rob kardashian and she meant his new obese look not his old look and i was mortified.

I put on a pair of shorts that used to fit, and they were too tight. So I thought to myself, "what happened to these shorts?" Which is a ridiculous reaction, but it's honestly what I thought! Of course, it wasn't the shorts, it was me. So I decided then that if I'm going to do this, it has to be with food. I love to exercise and have tried to exercise my way thin for a long time. It has not worked. For me, it's going to be 100% about what I eat. Then the exercise I will do because I enjoy it and it's good for my body.

What Was Your "Aha!" Moment

I think it was back in 1985. Somewhere around that time frame.

Brilliant.

Mine was when my doctor ran blood tests on me and my cholesterol levels came back high. I have had blood work done many times in the past, and I was always in the normal ranges, so I thought I was one of those "big & healthy" people. But at the young age of 28 I realized a lifetime of obesity was starting to catch up with me, and I decided to reverse it now before any other complications come up.

For me It wasn't a single event. It was a series of unfortunate events: My mom got diagnosed with Diabetes. Then I found out I had precursors Diabetes, and final straw was my 8 yr. old at the time was diagnosed with High Cholesterol.

This is the simplest part of a much longer chain, but ultimately these last three things, changed how I viewed my life, and started the chain of some very fortunate events, that has lead to life long healthy habits that will NEVER be broken!!

What Was Your "Aha!" Moment

I think it was back in 1985. Somewhere around that time frame.

Love this video!

My Partners Mum wanted to start swimming and asked if I would go with her I tried on my old swimming costume but it wouldn't fit so we went into the city and bought new costumes. I knew I was fat but I always thought that My Partners Mum was much bigger than me and when I realised she was trying on costumes the same size as me all I could think was that I have the same body as a woman 25 years older than me and it made me feel misreable but I didn't really do anything because I kind of resigned myself a long while ago that I have always been big so I was meant to be that way.

So a couple of weeks later we went swimming and I had forgotten how much I loved it, my partners Mum didn't mention it again but a couple of weeks later I woke up early on my day off and thought I could go for a swim so I did and I went again the next week and the next and when I went for a routine visit to my doctor he weighed me and I had lost 6lbs and I thought wow after weighing the same amout for 10 years I just go swimming once a week and change nothing else and I am 6lbs lighter and my brain suddenly clicked and thought I CAN DO THIS! and now I have lost 14lbs just through little changes and have set myself little goals and am content for it to take me a while, I think when I have done it before I have tried to rush it and that is how I have failed.

When I turned 28 this year. I'm not sure why exactly, something just triggered in my brain. All the excuses I'd made previously didn't fly anymore, I just finally clicked to the fact that the only thing really holding me back was myself, so I went looking for a site like this to help me along and started doing some exercise (I literally did almost nothing before.) Maybe I just figured that 30 will come before I know it, I could be half way through my life already, and wouldn't I rather spend the rest of my life in a body I don't hate? I've spent my whole life hating my appearance but all I ever did was comfort eat and complain about it. I think I really just got sick and tired of the weak person I've been. I'm now losing weight and taking serious steps to try and overcome my social anxiety which has crippled me since childhood; I guess I just wasn't ready before, but I am now.

My former boss and mentor told me something that really has stuck with me:

"People only change because of inspiration or desperation."

A disease, cholesterol, heart attack, upcoming wedding... those are desperate moments that lead to change. Your family, someone else's success, looking in the mirror... those are inspiring moments. One is not better than the other, but I find it to be so true.

Lots of people are listing their "Aha Moment" as their moment of inspiration or desperation. To me... those are the trigger moments. My "Aha Moment" for me is the moment when I transitioned from external motivation and thoughts of "diet", "lose and maintain", "eat healthy now and change later", to thoughts of "This is how I am going to live the rest of my life."

For me... Aha means, "I get it now. I understand what it entails."

Surprisingly, that moment for me came after a moment of weakness. After 4 months of hard diet and exercise, and losing over 60 pounds, I was out for lunch, alone, at a bakery, and the chef offered me a huge complimentary piece of cake. I had been so strict for four months, depriving myself of any little ounce of "bad" food. But... I just snapped. I took the cake, ate it, enjoyed it, and felt horrible about myself the rest of the day. The next morning, I stepped on the scale, and I was down a half a pound since my previous weigh in.

That was my moment. That made me understand that food is not an enemy, and treats are not to be feared. The enemy is ignorance. The enemy was the years of not knowing what I was actually putting in my body and what I was using up as energy. A piece of cake, a bowl of ice cream, a cheeseburger... They are OK. As long as I can track it, validate it, measure it, and understand the consequences of the choice of eating it, and maybe impact those consequences through choices as far as exercise and activity, I can live a life of great balance.

So now I understand it's not about "diet and exercise." It's about choices and consequences... and I have far more control over those.

I had moved back to Ohio to help my mom. I had played up how awesome the hiking is in Ohio, trees with leaves! That's what I would tell myself! (I live in Colorado, where pine trees are the only trees around for all intensive purposes). So anyways, there I was in Ohio and I realized that I had only gone hiking once in fall. How could I have messed that up??? How could I have wasted that precious time? I was sick of being stuck in doors all winter after a fall of squandering time.

So February 28th I decided to go for a walk. I remembered that Give It 100 movement and made a pact to give it 100 days of hiking. About a week in I realized I had lost a couple pounds and started caring again about my diet. The polar vortexes gave me pause but I just bundled up and saw it through. But I enjoyed this spring so much. I watched the flowers break free of winter's grasp and the trees bud. I couldn't remember the last time I actually saw the world wake up from winter. It was magical and I was so much happier and connected to the world. The real world, not the world of work and bosses.

By the end of the 100 days I had lost 27 pounds and walked over 200 miles. Just awesome times and awesome pictures. So I doubled down and started a 100 days of Running and Weights. I'm on Day 4 of that new challenge

Side Note:

I'd HIGHLY recommend a give it 100 challenge. It keeps you motivated when you'd much rather stay on the couch. I had made so many excuses about why I couldn't go hiking, mainly the weather. But when I was into the challenge I learned that what I saw as "crappy weather" was really just jacket and gloves weather. It was really about not being able to make excuses that helped. It kept me in the game to see the number or days go up. Sounds silly but that kept me motivated until I could really see the weight loss. Then it was a game about weight loss and I was already winning. Then when I hit a plateau, the days were there to keep me in the game until the plateau was broken.