What was the last straw?

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Replies

  • linkirving
    linkirving Posts: 121 Member
    edited February 2015
    This is a great thread. It's cool to see what started people's life changes.

    Seeing a 3 as the first number on the scale. I hadn't weighed myself in a while. I got on a scale at my mom's house just to see what it would say... 301 lbs. That was the final straw.

    I went on a crazy unhealthy 1200 calorie diet and got down to 230 lbs. I quit because it was too hard. Bounced back and forth between 230 and 250 lbs til a year ago when I found MFP in the Google Play store.

    The first number on the scale is now a 1. 193. 40 lbs down from last year at this time. It's been slow, but lifelong, sustainable progress. I love MFP!
  • beachbum4044
    beachbum4044 Posts: 57 Member
    My son has a weight issue, he is 14, he is my last straw. I had my health screening at work and my BMI hit the obese range. 5' 4 and 178 lbs and I was obese. My son is 5' 10 248 lbs at 14. I had to take control of my eating, show him and the rest of my family what portion control is, how to make better choices and that we can do it together. He wants to lose 40 lbs. He played basketball this year and is so proud that he can now run a mile without stopping. He has lost some weight along the way, but he is my last straw. I need to be a better role model for him. I need to show him we can do this, and to us this as an opportunity to be closer to him, to share this journey with him. Since January 6th I have dropped almost 15 lbs and over 7 inches. Mostly be diet alone. This week I have added 60 minutes of exercise and am for every day. My body is starting to change, I sleep better and I feel better. Its a win win.
  • Talkradio
    Talkradio Posts: 388 Member
    I don't know that I had a "final straw", but more of a lifelong accumulation of being unhappy with my weight. A few months after having my first child in 2013, I bounced back up to my highest pregnancy weight and have been there for over a year.

    I started karate in October, but didn't change my eating habits. My asthma was really making it hard to get through sparring matches, and I just felt so discouraged that I was getting out of breath so easily.

    Right before I rededicated to mfp, I had to buy a new pair of dress pants, and they were the highest size I'd ever bought. Two weeks later, they literally fell off of me when I wore them again. I'm hooked.
  • berry987
    berry987 Posts: 11 Member
    My stretchy, everyday yoga pants are now tight and uncomfortable.
  • CindyCalories
    CindyCalories Posts: 13 Member
    2 Weeks ago on the 6th February we were at my sister in laws house it was her birthday and I overheard my husbands niece telling my mother in law "Cindy gained so much" wow I was shocked and the next day I joined MFP and started doing Zumba, I don't see this girl a lot but hope when I see her again she will say "wow you look great"... XD
  • benboyd85
    benboyd85 Posts: 60 Member
    I used to be very active when I was younger, and now that I am older and have started gaining weight I wanted to get back into shape again. I went through a breakup and it motivated me to take that time to focus on myself.
  • Lissa_Kaye
    Lissa_Kaye Posts: 214 Member
    Doing bloodwork and finding out I have metabolic syndrome and am considered prediabetic. Also having 50% body fat. It's all too much. Way past time to do something.
  • Smallc10
    Smallc10 Posts: 610 Member
    I was contemplating how to enjoy the beach while not having to wear a swimsuit on my honeymoon. I started working out/dieting that day. I lost 20 lbs in 9 months after that.
  • David2788
    David2788 Posts: 94 Member
    for me it was just being fed up of continually putting more weight on so decided to do something about. I think the main thing was seeing the pictures around Christmas
  • My doctor told me I was pre-diabetic, and I read a really scary article about visceral fat. That did it.
  • Reema_capricorn
    Reema_capricorn Posts: 1,032 Member
    I was very fit and thin till I was 20. My depression screwed up my body and my mind of course. I started gaining weight from 21 years of age. The rude, personal comments finally got to me and I decided to get back to my mfp account created in February 2012. What jolted me out of my 'fat' slumber was in December 2014 when I tried bungee jumping, this rude *kitten* who helped me to ground stuck his tongue out coz of my weight. I am so tired of this fat body. Like literally! I live on 2nd floor and I pant like nuts so now it's time to get healthy
  • samhennings
    samhennings Posts: 441 Member
    I had a go at mfp toward the end of 2012, plateaud at 12st 5lbs and figured that was my natural weight.

    Im a short and stocky build, so while bmi said that was overweight I looked well proportioned and healthy so I didnt care.

    Over 2013 my eating habits got really bad, without me realising.

    I started a new role at the end of 2013 and in the following January the lads asked me if I wanted to do "Fatclub" with them. Its something the team does every january to shake the holiday excess off. Essentially its a 5 week weight loss competition with everyone putting in a few £££ to make it competitive.

    I figured I stood to lose a few pounds so why not?

    To my mind I had a bit of a beer belly which I should shift, but I couldnt have been more than 12st 10 or 11lbs so its a bit of fun right?

    Weighed in at 13st 9lbs.

    Was a real "shock and awe" moment for me and what kicked me into trying to get healthy.

    I ended up winning fatclub, but then continued to lose weight. Ive now lost over 2 stone, broke through that 12st 5lb barrier I had and am beginning to look to getting fit as well.

    I tried working out while on a defecit but found myself ridiculously fatigued, so figured weight loss first and fitness second.

    T25 is currently kicking my butt, its going to be a long year I think!

  • stevesgirl824
    stevesgirl824 Posts: 74 Member
    Several things at once, were the last straw for me. My favorite jeans had become super snug, I just felt lethargic and depressed. Also, my 10 year old son asked me to help him eat healthier and workout more because he wanted to get bigger muscles he could show off. We had been eating junk and it hit me that my husband and I were setting a terrible example for our children.

    This was all two weeks ago, I'm not sure how much I have lost....but I feel fantastic and my clothes fit normally. I can't wait for my clothes to get too big!
  • Adpalangi
    Adpalangi Posts: 349 Member
    While talking with my daughter about how my 28 yr marriage, ended just like that. Quicker than I could blink an eye, and with no warning at all. Step had brought up how terrible I had let myself go. That I didn't take care of myself as I used to and how sometimes I actually often embarrassed her around her inlaw family, and friends. She wasn't meaning to be harsh. She had just watched me wither away. And feeling that I had no one to care about, she reminded me I had her, my son, grandchildren, and MYSELF. I then began making all kinds of changes in my life.
  • Annabear3
    Annabear3 Posts: 92 Member
    I've always been big, but never really did anything about it. Then one weekend I was at a hotel with my sister and our friend and we spent the whole day at the pool. I just felt so frumpy and uncomfortable in my skin. Especially next to these 2 healthy and fit ladies in bikini's. The next weekend I saw myself for the first time as is in the mirror and thought about all the things that were getting hard to do because of my weight. I couldn't cross my legs, getting up off the floor was a nightmare, airplane seats were getting tight and the seatbelt was nearly impossible to buckle, tying my shoes was difficult.... so many things. Worst of all was I didn't want to play with my kids because I would get so worn out so fast. I sat down with my husband and said push me. I need to do this and I need someone to push me. I logged back into this site, started logging my foods, and went on walks. In the middle of the AZ summer (115 outside anyone?) Now 8 months later I am 85lbs down and feeling better than I have in ages. I still have a long way to go, I let myself get so out of shape and so heavy, but I know I can do it.
  • abarriere
    abarriere Posts: 135 Member
    After having my son, I lost about half of the baby weight quickly, but after I quit breastfeeding, the weight started creeping back up. I have never been thin, but I have never been over 200 for this long. He's a year old and it finally clicked that I don't want him to see his parents with weight problems (my husband isn't overweight, just out of shape). I want him to know us as fit and active people to set a good example for him. I see the generations of overweight people around me and it only gets worse each generation, it seems. That scares the crap out of me.
  • jessiruthica
    jessiruthica Posts: 412 Member
    I had a lot of things going on in my life that I didn't like but couldn't control. So, looking for something I *could* control, I joined the gym and signed in to MFP. That and the fact that my breasts where falling out of my already enormous bras and I was NOT going up to the next cup size!
  • oncem0re
    oncem0re Posts: 213 Member
    I have severals! But here are few of my ULTIMATUMS:

    I been asked MANY times how far along I am - I was with my husband at Home Depot and I was hungry and grabbed some chocolate bar, the cashier said "oh the baby must be hungry, how far along are you?" I really wanted to grab her and punch her specially in front of my husband... my hubby chuckled and I said "I'm way over due!" lol.

    My 4 years old keeps telling me that my tummy is "jiggly".

    My size 14 pants are getting tigther! I'm NOT going to get in another size larger!

    My friend's husband told my friend that he doesn't want her to gain weight and be like me :( or he'll leave her! (ugh the nerves!)....

    We're going to Disney again this year, and while I was making a collage of our trips all my pictures has been when I was huge, all you can see are my huge stomach and thighs! I want to go there this year, slim and in shorts and tanks instead of trying to fit-in black shirt to hide my weight!

    When in the plane, I always have to keep pulling the belt to almost to the end!

    I get short of breath from sex! ugh! and I love sex! lol!

    When I get in a full elevator and the elevator starts making this sound that it's too full and overweight... ugh the humiliation!

    I can't chase my daughter when playing, I run out of breath!

    My large Victoria Secrets underwears wouldn't fit!!! and XL thongs aren't as cute!

    When I hug and kiss my husband, my stomach gets in the way!

    I have double chins, even make ups can't really contour!

    I had a major jaw surgery to correct underbite, now that my bone is fixed, I want to show a healthier version of me to show the real difference!

    I have so much more - but these are my ongoing list! :)
  • Seeing this vacation picture. I was 230 lbs, felt terrible, and didn't enjoy my vacation because I was always too hot and tired. oyfyp5oeao56.jpg
  • crzdirector
    crzdirector Posts: 49 Member
    Oh the alpha story: I wish I had some kind of super cool aha moment. It was really more of a string of moments. My son is a great athlete and I had always been able to keep up with him. Now that he's getting more skilled I was noticing that I couldn't do/demonstrate half the things I was asking him to do #dadfail. The second catalyst was mother's day and me realizing that I was about to outlive my mother who died at 40. She was not super heavy, but she didn't take care of herself at all.

    The real jetison to get it going was the first 10 day juice fast we did at my job as a team. My coworker told me before I started "This will be one of the top 10 decisions you've ever made in your life". He was right. It was less about the weight I lost and more about me waking up my body to how much I had abused it and how much I could really do if I set my mind to it. Six months later, I'm still exercising, losing, juicing, and living a life I didn't know was possible for me.
  • knitapeace
    knitapeace Posts: 1,013 Member
    Woke up one morning in fall 2012 after having a dream that I was running, sad because I knew I would never be able to do that. Then wondered why on earth I thought a relatively healthy 43 year old woman shouldn't be able to run just because she had some extra poundage. Started making a plan that day to start Couch to 5K, changed my eating a few months later, added strength a few months after that, and hit my goal weight in April of 2014. I don't race, I don't compete, I don't even run all year long, but by golly if anyone asks me I tell them for sure...I'm a runner.
  • JillAnne0320
    JillAnne0320 Posts: 21 Member
    I went up for communion at church and father blessed not only me but my unborn child... I'm not pregnant!
  • What started me thinking about it was the fact that I was finally comfortable enough with me as "me" that I wasn't losing weight because I felt like someone told me I had to. I knew I was overweight, but I didn't consider myself out of shape, so it was mostly aesthetic.

    So I kind of messed around, started biking more. Nothing major.

    Then I went to the doctor for an unrelated issue and they had a scale in the bathroom - one of those slidy weight ones. I stepped on, put in what I thought my weight was and it clanked down hard on the other side. I took off my doc martens and put my weight back in. It still clanked hard, when I was wearing shorts and a tank top. I slowly slid the weights up to 206.5 - ten pounds heavier than last year. It hit me that I had been gaining ten pounds a year since freshman year and at this rate I wasn't going to stop. So I really started trying.

    I've lost about a pound a week since that July. It was after I started losing weight that I realized that me being out of breath when giving tours or going to the fourth floor or my pants being a bit tight wasn't a one-time thing.
  • zoomtech16
    zoomtech16 Posts: 100 Member
    High blood pressure medication was prescribed added onto my asthma medicine. That was absolutely all I could take!
  • owlheartt
    owlheartt Posts: 19 Member
    Years ago I told my husband to just 'man up and speak the truth' if I ever let myself go. Then a couple weeks ago he looked me up and down and stated "It'd be nice if you lost 30 pounds." Told him "Eh, we'll see." Joined a gym, stepped on the scale, and discovered at 5"2' I was 168 pounds. 30 pounds? Nope! I plan on losing about 50!
  • crazygooselady
    crazygooselady Posts: 76 Member
    I got the Noro virus. Sounds silly, I know, but I had tried loosing before that and just couldn't. I was hungry all the time. But after getting sick it was like something in me changed and I wasn't hungry. So when my husband said we should take advantage of it and eat less, I agreed. I lost nothing while actually sick, but in the week after I lost about 5, then about 2 more the following week. And it still seems to be coming off. I track my calories here like I had before and know I am eating less, but now I am full. Ultimately, I want to get down by 35 lbs as I started at officially five lbs overweight for my height.
  • Mech9
    Mech9 Posts: 252 Member
    Reading everybody's stories has really touched me. Deciding to lose weight, get healthy, is such an intimate thing...

    I don't know if anybody will read this... For me, losing weight was a very long time coming. I had made various attempts at it but I been strapped for money (couldn't afford food beyond $1/day), over-worked (2 jobs, plus being a caretaker for a bedridden relative), stressed trying to financially support myself and my ex on a shoestring, supporting my family (disabled mother, mentally ill brother), help my ex's family (financially irresponsible), save for a down payment on a house (my own family was going to be homeless soon), and a slew of other stresses along with health problems, depression, anxiety, PCOS, blood sugar issues, and it all came to a final mindbogglingly stressful head when my ex began cheating on me with a fit, attractive, young girl because he was no longer attracted to me.

    It made me realize that no matter what I did for anybody else, nobody cared as much as I suffered. I had to do for me. So I did.
  • ClaireShepster
    ClaireShepster Posts: 15 Member
    After being up and down the same 5kg (11 pounds) for several years (more than 5 kg loss was actually needed) I went on holiday and for the first time I felt very uncomfortable by the pool, my safety dresses (the ones that always fit when I was at the top of that 10 pounds) didn't fit - it was a massive wake up call that the weight was creeping on slowly but surely.

    I am now 10.5kg down (23 pounds). I started yoga and do it every day which is awesome body weigh exercise and I can really see the difference in my body, in fact I am slimmer now that I was when I was previously at my goal weight - with the added benefit that all my back problems are gone.

    I have another 7kg to go (15 pounds ish)
  • Aussiebloke1978
    Aussiebloke1978 Posts: 3 Member
    For me having my kids telling someone that I push them high on a swing and for him, quite innocently, to reply "Your dad is strong because he is so fat".

    After he said it a couple of times I realised that if I didn't change they would hear it all the time and that was completely unacceptable to me.

    Nearly 45 kilograms later and I can say that kid did me a favour despite wanting to find a rock to crawl under at the time.
  • No real aha moment - but I had a group of friends I used to work with who had gym memberships, and I didn't. I had tried to lose weight before and fell off the wagon so many times. So at their suggestion, I went and joined, and went home and got on the scale, and I was a sneeze away from 300 lbs. That was the kicker - now I am about 20-25 lbs away from my goal, and anything under that will be gravy.
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