What prompted you to lose weight?

I was nearly literally bursting out of my trousers, the zip kept going down on its own!

And fat photos, you know, being thankful for digital cameras so you can delete the fat photos. Only to delete them ALL and have 50 family holiday photos without one single photo of myself. The excuse for no photos of myself was that "I was doing all the photographing". Yeah right.

My preschool aged daughter came home from school crying and said one of her friends told her she had a fat mom. I vowed to myself a long time ago my kids would never be the ones with the 'fat mom.' And I was a mess when she told me that someone said that's exactly what I was.

Plus, I went in Macy's in our local mall and was told by the woman there that "We don't sell clothes THAT big. You should just go shop at Walmart." I want to be able to go shopping in ANY store I choose (which will NEVER be Macy's.)

Like the OP, I randomly decided one day that I wanted to get in shape. I had looked at myself in the mirror and didn't like it very much. While I'm not overweight according to my BMI range, I was at the very top of my range. I want to get rid of the extra flab around my mid-section so I don't have to constantly suck it in.

My husband being in the hospital for the 2nd time with pancreatitis. We tried to eat healthy after the 1st time he was in the hospital but I got pregnant and thought being on diet would harm the baby so I got off that diet. I really should have not done that because it was not really a diet, but eating healthy. After the 2nd time (6 years later and another kid later), i knew some changes had to be made if i wanted my family to have healthy eating habits. I'm glad to have found MFP because I learned so much especially with eating healthy, it was ok to eat foods you enjoy once in a while with portion control.

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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

To fit into and look good in younger clothes
I don't want to go overseas and be overweight.
Sick of being the larger one of my friends

Well, I've needed to lose weight for years. I'd think about it, but never really stuck to any plan for more than a few weeks. Then a couple of years ago my doctor said that my blood pressure was starting to be a bit on the high side. High BP runs very strongly in my family, and I didn't want to end up in the same spot as my mother only 15 years sooner. Also, and this was a major motivator, my doctor said that I wouldn't be able to take BC if I was on medication for high blood pressure. I do not want to go back to the horror that is my unregulated cycle.

Last year, at age 36, I began having heart palpitations. My doctor referred me to a cardiologist, and he put on my medical chart (and I quote): "cannot rule out obstructive coronary artery disease". At that time, I weighed just under 500 lbs. They ran some tests, including an echocardiogram, and it was ruled out. Still, it was being faced with my own mortality that was the wakeup call I needed. My doctor looked at me and said if I didn't lose this weight, I would die.

That was just over a year ago, and I've lost 112 lbs so far. I hit a major plateau, but am now back on track. Having a bit of trouble readjusting my diet, but I plan to stay on it and keep going. Still have another 200 to lose :-)

You just keep on keeping on. That is all that we can do. If each day we make some progress it will happen. I hope everything turns out ok