What lit your fire?

I looked in the mirror, how i thought i looked and what I saw did not match up. I was also tired of family members calling me fat!

My mom came to visit me (she lives in Texas and I lived in Michigan at the time) and she had gained so much weight it was terrifying.

I saw how hard it was for her to get around, how out of breath she got just from walking, and found she had the "big girl smell" (you know what I'm talking about so don't pretend you don't.)

She was always over weight but she had ballooned up to over 450 lbs. I was almost 300 lbs then and it scared the crap out of me. She's my 7 year old nieces guardian and all I could think was that she wasn't going to live long enough to see her graduate high school at this rate.

I was wanting to lose weight before, but always found a "reason" that I couldn't, but see what had happened to my mom really knocked some sense into me. My mom is still working with her insurance to get approved for surgery (they've been battling it out for 4 years now) but I never wanted to get to the point where that was my last option, so I started watching what I was eating and joined MFP a few months later.

When my favorite pair of jeans no longer fit. I took a look at them in the mirror and they looked awful!! I felt awful. The last two years I had been in a very stressful environment and had not paid attention to myself at all. When I couldn't zip the zipper I was like screw this!! I dropped a lot of different people, projects, activities, and started focusing on me again. Loving every minute of it too! And I was able create a new healthy environment with lots of people to motivate me and encourage me. Sometimes you just gotta start from scratch!

For me, it was being diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Getting up from a chair would cause such pain, that I'd scream. I know there's no getting rid of it, but I figure if I could drop 60-70 pounds, it will cause a lot less stress on my joints; maybe even postpone a dreaded hip replacement.

Being forced to look through racks upon racks of clothes that are tents covered in sequins, glitter and flower appliques while my friends get to wear cute, stylish clothing! Nothing says "fat chick" like this:

HA!! That is hilarious! For us guys it is Hawaiian shirts and stretchy pants/shorts.

Seeing how I looked in pics and also see that the scale just kept going up and my clothes were fitting tighter and I was not happy with a lot of things in my life so I decided to take control of at least one

I am a single mom with a full time job and a long commute... I came home one day and my son was BEGGING me to play a game with him. I just told him I was "too tired..." He said I'm ALWAYS too tired to play with him. I realized he was right and that I was missing out on his childhood because I'm just "too tired" to be a part of it. I have to work to pay the bills, thats out of my control. What I DO have control of is my body. I knew I had to loose weight to get my energy back and be a better mom.

Since my life kinda took the backwards route: Got a chronic disease at 21 right after I got married, and was bedridden for the better part of 8 years, and then had to take prednisone for 11 years. By all accounts I should have died multiple times by now.

Since I am barren due to health issues, I decided to get credited for a catechesis certificate. I had to take a morality class. Sister Madeleine Grace said one sentence that just reverberated in my mind over and over, "We have a moral obligation to God to take good care of our bodies. No matter what our age or limitations. If we can walk, and we need to walk an hour a day to do our best to be healthy, that is what we do. If we should not drink caffeine or salt or sugar, then we do what we can. This is our Temple of the Holy Spirit"

She considered it expressing gratitude to God when we took care of ourselves. I hate taking care of myself, because it always seems so hopeless, and out of my control. But when she said that, I thought, I can try to take better care of myself. I have slowly lost a bit of weight surprising my Dr. completely. I still have energy issues, but I do what I can and sometimes "fork downs" are all I can do! But I do it, because I am grateful for me. Which is so weird to even hear. I am more grateful for everyone else, but I am grateful for me as well.

My daughter. She's 11 and a few months ago she started to have some crying episodes around bedtime. When I went in there to talk to her about what was wrong, she said she was worried about me, about my health, and about losing me because I am overweight. I am a single mom, and we don't have a lot of family. At her age, she has become much more aware of things in relation to life and death, and she was telling me once when she was crying that she didn't want me to die and leave her alone. So that was it. The two of us started going on walks together, and then shortly after I changed my eating habits. Oh, and the bonus is my daughter is happier. No more crying because she's worried about me. She knows I'm working on changing.

My mom and I bond over going outlet mall shopping. I realized this spring that I no longer fit into 16s, and that was the last size in normal stores. Meanwhile, my mom fits into 8s. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and realized that I wanted to live like her, not like my disease ridden, obese relatives.