What prompted you to lose weight?

Hubby bought a scale that went high enough to read my weight. Our old scale did not and would give you 3 different weights if you stepped on it 3 times. I had an idea of what I weighed but in reality weighed 15lbs more than I thought which was already 30lbs higher than I had been just 6 months before.
I knew I had to fix it so the next day I started. That was October 18th. Found MFP on a friend's suggestion in November.

Mine was vacation...
I went on a cruise with my family last June and as I sat on the Lido deck I had a good look around. I was AMAZED by the number of people that (a) couldn't fit comfortably in the chairs (b) were just eating platefuls of food (c) the general unhealthiness of the majority of the passengers. I decided I did not want to be "one of them".
I had not gotten totally out of control yet but was well on my way. From the 2nd day of the cruise I went to the ship's gym everyday, chose the steps instead of the elevators and tried to make healthier and more modest food choices. Oh, and I still had a GREAT time on the cruise...my sister (who was doing weight watchers at the time) was thrilled about my revelation and went to the gym with me and helped my decide what to eat.
Once back from vacation I continued what I started on vacation.
Although I had a plateau from Dec-Feb, I'm back on track now and have lost 41 pounds since that cruise.

Wow, this list could be so long, but I would have to say:

1) I have a 5 year old son and I want to be around for him as long as possible

2) I see the health struggles my father is going through and I DO NOT want to go through that as I get older

3) Clothes: who doesn't want to look and feel good in clothes

4) The beach: every year we take a beach vacation in Florida and I hate the photos afterwards.....

5) I work on an offshore platform facility and I do a lot of stairs everyday. I want to be able to go up and down those stairs and not be winded when I get to the top

6) Be a good example for my family

My story is pretty much the same. I saw myself as overweight and according to the BMI that is what I was considered (barely but I was there). I am 5'4" and I was 160 at my heaviest. Now I know that is not "fat" but to me, and on me, it was.
I just finally got tired of my clothes getting tight that I realized I needed to change.
I would also just have very little energy, plus just everything about myself seemed slow. Then a friend of ours (who is only 31, 2 weeks younger then me) had a heart attack. That shocked my butt into fear mode. I realized that I want to be around for my kids. I want to be healthy. I don't want my husband to have to love me when I am not at my best.
I also found Zumba and kicked soda (which was hard but now I don't even want one). I have lost 12 pounds since the beginning of January. I still have about 17 more to go but I feel so much better. I am able to buy size medium shirts...shopping is fun now!

my size 24 jeans getting tight. that was it!

I also left a very stressful work environment that I had used as an excuse for a long time to just not care about myself.

so now, no excuse and a big ol' pair of jeans staring at me in the mirror. LOL

april of last year I was diagnosed with melanoma in my eye and had to have my eye removed. Because I had had a tumor in my eye for over a year, they were really afraid of it spreading (the first place it spreads to is your liver) and i had to have a ton of tests run. The bloodwork showed that my liver was slightly damaged, but the worst part was that they couldnt really tell if it was damaged because of the cancer, or because my weight was way over what it should be and fat had started forming around my liver. I began to lose weight then, but I stopped worrying about it becuase my blood tests (which i had to have every 3 months) showed the damage going down- even though it was still above what it should be.

This year I finally have health insurance again, so at the beginning of the year they started to run blood tests nad have me see different doctors, and I found out that the damage was starting to increase again. At that point I knew I was going to have to do something about my weight- I am only 22 years old, and I do not want to have to have a liver transplant before I'm 30 just because I can't get my weight under control.

One of the worst parts about it was that I am the smallest member of my family, and even all of my close friends. If my liver was showing damage and I was the smallest member of the family, what was happening to them?

Since then, my mother and I (and occasionally my husband and his best friend) have started working out each weekday and making an effort to eat healthier (my sister, who is the largest member of our family at almost 400 lbs, works out from home and continues to eat very poorly). While we sometimes fail miserably, I hope that through my success I can help inspire my family and friends to do so as well, so that we can all be as healthy and happy as we can possibly be

Live Long and Prosper

Have always been overweight for as long as I can remember, but never really done anything about it.

Decided I wanted to change my life completely and looked at joining the Army, went to the careers office, and was told to lose some weight and then they'll talk to me, fair enough I guess, they don't want to waste their time with someone who isn't ready.

That was October time, managed to lose 3 stone so far, another 2 stone and I can walk back in and start my application.

Well my daughter turned one on Feb. 1st and I realized that with my son now 2 and her 1, I couldn't fall back on the excuse that I had just had 2 babies anymore. I had no excuse for the way I looked or the fact that I weighed more than ever before (except when pregnant).
I had been wanting to go back to the gym for months and had even attended a friend's zumba class for a week. But I just couldn't do it. It put way too much of a strain on my family to try and be gone in the evenings and there wasn't time for me to drive anywhere in the mornings before my husband had to leave for work.
So I started researching workout videos. And since it seemed like most of my friends were doing P90x, I thought that would be a good place to start. Except I have several physical limitations. So I decided that P90 would be the best place for me to start.
Today is P90 Day 30 and even though my scale has been stuck for a few weeks, I am still proud of myself just on the fact that I have actually stuck with this for 30 days. Oh and at the same time I ordered P90 I discovered MFP. They have both been awesome tools to keep me going.
So I didn't have like this one time epiphany that I was fat and needed to lose weight. I had known it for some time, but my daughter turning one was what made me decide to find a plan I could stick to.

Starting Zumba again tonight, at least twice a week, then working out at home the rest. Has anyone tried out Insanty Workouts???

I did the first fitness test of Insanity, bloody hard work lol. Sadly I only did that as I couldn't do it every day at home.

A few things prompted me:

1. I weighed more than I did when I gave birth to my child :frown:

2. All my "fat clothes" we're becoming my too tight clothes

3. I weighed more than my boyfriend

4. I was sick of pulling up my pants and pulling down my shirt everytime I stood up.

5. I hated the way that I looked in every photo.. I used to take pictures all the time and I had begun to avoid them like the plague.

6. My grandmother died at 65 due to complications from diet induced diabetes and my mother was diagnosed with diabetes at 35... Thinking that I could only have 9 good years before diabetes attacked me too because of my lifestyle scared the crap outta me