What prompted your lifestyle change?

Last May I had two back to back kidney infections (first ever in my life) and was tired of feeling like cr*p all the time. So I decided I needed to get healthy, give up soda and start moving...one thing led to another and here I am. I'm almost in the best shape of my life. In two or three months I'll be as fit as I was when I played basketball in high school.

I saw guys flirting with everyone but me, and felt so ugly. Nothing a lot of people don't experience, but it prompted me to feel better about myself

My meltdown point was after my son's 1st birthday party. I saw the pictures of myself during the party and compared them to what I was before I got pregnant. It made me sick. I was such a outgoing healthy person before and I want to be that person again.

I just decided on january 16th of this year that i had enough of being fat.

I started listen to myself talk and it was not pretty or nice. "boy you are fat","does my a@@ look as fat as hers", ect I wasn't happy inside Changed my thoughts changed my world ...... "your trying you will get there" ect
Started exercising first about a year later 30 lbs down, but needed more had this app on my phone that whole first year tracked sometimes but not all the time. Came on the web site and now I track all the time and love it! so thanks everyone for being here and teaching me important lessons about me.

it was a number of factors i woke up on dec 31st 2010 and just knew it was time for a change. i was tired of feeling tired i was tired of feeling depressed all the time but most of all was my diabetes was getting kind of out of control. when i first started weight watchers im not gonna lie it was very hard but after the first week when i weighed in and lost 6lbs i knew i could to do it. im doing this for me and i could care less on how long it takes. as long as im happy is all that matters. my dads philosphy is you put on the weight yourself you can take the weight off yourself. mine is it takes alot of courage to admit you need help with changing your lifestyle. he believes weight watchers is a diet. he fails to see that its not a diet its a lifestyle change and a lifetime commitment. i realized joining the gym would only help me not hurt me.

I'd been wanting to lose weight, but when the doctor told me casually to "get some of that weight off of ya," I decided I never wanted to hear that again. Something just clicked, I wasn't mad at the doctor or even embarrassed, like I normally would be, I just got it. I got the motivation.

First came the decision and the act to stop smoking, then to do sports again, then to want to take better care of myself, then the desire to lose weight and finally (when I got stuck at a particular weight), to seriously reduce alcohol consumption.

It makes me feel so much better.

But, in the past, I quite enjoyed my limitless lifestyle as well. But I had lost control, and knew that all switches would be flipped at the same time, at some point.

I joined the Air Force in August 2010 and have since started exercising on a regular basis (because it's mandatory). Food-wise, I'm not there yet. I am working on having a healthier lifestyle (including healthy eating). Before the military, I started working out a few times, but kept quitting. Now, I don't have a choice but to have a healthy lifestyle if I want to keep my job!

Also, both of my parents have recently (within the past 5 years) been diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure). Since my mom's diagnosis a couple of years ago, I have cut waaaaaay back on my sodium intake. Did I mention that I LOVE salt? So, that has been no easy feat for me!

This winter, we were going at a hockey game and we ran from the parking lot to the door because we left our coats in the car, and I thought I was going to die. We "very lightly jogged" for about 30 seconds. And on top of that, we had to escalate flights of stairs to get to our seats! It took me at least 10 minutes for my breathing to get back to normal. I didn't feel my legs anymore. My face was lobster red. That's when I knew something had to happen!

I now have so much energy, it's like night and day! :-)

I had been having some trouble with one of my legs/feet and my doctor made the offhand comment that the swelling was likely caused because I wasn't getting good circulation to that leg. He said he usually recommends walking but for me (because I have severe arthritis in one ankle) he thought a recumbent bike would be a better choice. This scared me into making this change when even diabetes didn't. My mom had both of her legs amputated due to poor circulation! I'm sure he didn't realize how much impact his one comment made on me. I'm also pretty sure he didn't really expect that I would start exercising :blushing: That very afternoon I joined a local gym but didn't change my eating habits (just wanted to get the circulation going ). When I started to see results it spurred me on to changing my eating habits too.

I am a Mother of a two year old an 5 month old and last season of Biggest loser there was is woman named Lisa who daughter was ashamed of her because she was over weight. I looked at my beautiful 2 year old and I didnt want that to be me. I want to be the mother my children are proud of. I want to be the mother that is running around playing with their kids I want to be the mom who takes their kid to soccor practice and that practice with them without being winded. So my choice to be healthy was easy. I want to be the best mom I can be!

Mine has been an almost lifelong journey. It has evolved. I was a super active kid but when I was 13-14, I couldn't walk due to a couple knee disorders that I have. Though the most overweight I ever was was only about 30 lbs, I felt awful about going from a size 6 to a size 16 that year. I started trying to lose weight by taking diet pills, then when I ended up in the doctor's office with uncontrollable shakes, I quit that and went on a diet of nothing but bread, apples and milk. Then, other equally bizarre diets I made up. None of them worked for more than a month or so. Then, as a young adult, I was actually anorexic. One day, when I was alone at home, I ate a bowl of cereal after months of having nothing but milk and gum. I felt so ashamed of myself for eating that I actually made myself throw up. That only made me feel worse about myself though. That was the moment I knew I needed to make some serious changes. So I wrote a letter to my mom, knowing I couldn't face actually speaking the words outloud. She got me to a counselor who I only went to 3 times. She wasn't a dietician or anything so she didn't help me understand food any better but it helped me start a heathier relationship with food. Nowadays, I have the opposite problem, I have to really monitor my portions because I LOVE to eat.

My nephew was born on October 19, 2010. On October 20th, 2010 my sister-in-laws father drove to NJ from Kentucky to say hello to his new grandson. He was a great big bear of a man. I had never really had many conversations with him, but from all of the photos I had seen and stories I had heard, he was a guy in love with life and his surroundings. He drove all night from Kentucky, arrived in NJ, picked up his wife and my other nephew from my brother's house and rushed to the hospital. I had taken off work that day and I went to the hospital for some quality family time. A group of us were in the room and we could hear the grandparents and my older nephew coming down the hall. There was so much excitement in the air...a new addition to the family, everyone being together, so much positivity. He walked into the room and spent maybe 30 seconds just staring at the new baby. He turned and shook my hand, said his hellos, and then waited for his chance to hold the new little man. I watched as his eyes batted, his face, seemed to go limp, and he collapsed to the floor. The room flooded with medical professionals. Screams to "call code" and clear the way were frantically being thrown about. He was so big, that he wasn't easily moved to a stretcher or a bed, so we watched as they stuck him with needles and performed CPR on the floor in a room of the maternity ward.

They finally moved him to the ER and I waited by his wife's side, listening to them charging paddles across a curtain. I paid attention as his wife rattled off all of the conditions he suffered from and what medications he was taking. People milled in and out through the curtains and I waited and watched as this woman lost her best friend of 30 years. He never came back. I had witnessed the arrival of a new baby and the death of a grandfather on the same day. The doctors would tell us that he had a massive heart attack, that his brain had been without oxygen for over an hour and that even if they could revive him, he wouldn't be the same man. All efforts were ceased.

I had always loved food. I was an emotional eater. When I was sad or lonely or depressed, I would binge. I always sought solace in greasy foods, fast foods, etc. I had to help drive people home that night after what had occurred in the hospital. On the way home, I passed a Taco Bell and my brain went for a burrito. I just thought about how nice it would feel to just gorge myself on nachos, burritos, all that sour cream and guacamole, and then pass out into a food coma. My brain thought about it and I felt sick to my stomach. I thought about seeing him on the floor in front of me helpless, the horrible energy in the hospital, and all of the things that could have been done differently to prevent it.

I had been listening to some NLP programs and everything just fell into line. Controlling those urges, those food impulses, was what he could have potentially done, and it is what I am going to do. My brain tied that food impulse and the joy that I receive from bad foods to that memory. The negative emotions from that memory far outweigh any positives that I ever felt from eating those foods. I never want the people I care about to have to go through that. I don't want a laundry list of medications and health problems. I want to be healthy and happy and to live past 58 years old.

Because I don't want to be a fat minger anymore :-)