Why did you come to the conclusion to lose weight?

For me it was watching my Mother's health deteriorate in the span of a few months. She ended up having multiple mini strokes and a brain lesion. She is better now but it was a wake up call for me.

Back story:

My mom has ignored the Doctor since giving birth to me (27 years)
One day while on vacation she collapsed, that finally caused her to visit a doctor at a clinic.
She had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes (type 2) that was left untreated for who knows how long, and now had a long list of pills to swallow.
Then came the brain lesion...without warning I lost my mom mentally, literally overnight my mom went from "fine" to unresponsive. It was one of the worst days of my life
she was in the hospital for a good month before she was healthy enough to leave
You would think this would be a moment for her to take control of her life and improve herself....nope...she is still just as lazy. Only her diet has slightly improved since she now knows shes diabetic and doesn't want to feel ill after binging.

So I am living healthier because of her, because I will not end up like her, I wouldn't want to put my children through that.

I was heavy all of my life, getting heavier every year and nothing ever worked. I was really feeling bad about myself and finally said 'screw it! If I can't win then I'm eating whatever I want and dying happy'. After my doctor gave me another you need to loose weight speech without bothering to even examine me I finally demanded a specialist who diagnosed the hormone imbalance that my previous doctor hadn't even bothered looking for (ten years with her) in about ten minutes. He tells me it might take a few different medicine combinations to figure out what works for me...FIRST medication and I was down 5lbs without having done anything. I ran to renew my gym membership, changed my primary doctor.

Because I realised that I could no longer get to the top of the stairs in my uni library without being out of breath, and I realised that it was pathetic.

So I stopped eating rubbish, started eating right and exercising, lost 140lbs over the course of two years, and have maintained my goal weight for two years and counting!

Got out of the military, moved less, ate more, grew a beard. Everything seemed fine until I decided my beard wasn't growing like I had hoped so I shaved it. I was hiding so much extra face and neck under there! Either had to grow it back or lose the weight... I think I chose the better option.

My dog likes to curl up next to me in bed at night (in the winter). One day she decided I was softer than the bed.

Well, probably my room was just extra cold that night, but it was the proverbial straw meeting the proverbial camel. I joined MFP the next morning.

Well mine started off with an ex-boyfriend breaking up with me because we had different lifestyles (he ate healthy and had lost over 150 pounds and I did not share in that lifestyle or style of thought at the time.) But he told me the main reason we couldn't be together was because he was a runner and wanted a partner that would be able to run with him in competitions. With my weight and weak ankles (old injury from falling off a horse) I was never going to be that girl for him. So after the split, I was depressed, and I decided that I would prove him wrong. I started using couch to 5k (thought I was going to die in those first days) and shortly thereafter I started using MFP. Once I lost 10 pounds, I was addicted to my clothes not fitting, the comments on how good I looked, and running. Soon the drive to prove him wrong was gone and I was doing it for me. (As of today, I am down 54 pounds from when I started running and 68 pounds down from my heaviest.)

P.S. In my first year alone of running I have done 10 5k's, 1 4miler and 1 8k. This next year I'm already signed up for 5 5k's two of which are intense mud runs. They say the best revenge is having a good life, and that's exactly what I'm doing.