What was your moment?

There were three separate incidents that happened to me that finally encouraged me to get serious about weight loss:

1. I visited an amusement park with my family and was too fat to ride any roller coasters. I LOVE thrill rides and was so embarrassed and let down that I couldn't enjoy the rides
2. My mom, who has Type 2 diabetes due to her weight, experienced a sudden drop in blood sugar and I had to help her walk to the car, then get out and get her something to eat because she felt incapable of walking. It is scary when your mother, only in her early 50s, tells you she can't walk without help.
3. My aunt, who has battled her weight all her life, developed sleep apnea and now has to use a CPAP machine.

That all happened in the course of six months. I started losing weight a year ago and am now 65 pounds lighter!

Great thread idea! Mine was going to an interview and wearing a suit I hadn't worn since a christening a few months before, and it was suddenly really REALLY tight! I'd woken up on the morning of the interview and after putting it on and realising, it was too late for other options and I had to just wear it. Horrible feeling and I felt awkward the entire interview.

i just... decided i was tired of being fat. i was confident and happy with how i looked, my overall health was good (BP and sugars within normal ranges)... i was just tired of being fat and looking fat in pictures. enough was enough.

Do you remember that, "Ice Bucket Challenge," from last year? I got nominated by my cousin so I did it... When I watched the video I thought, "I can't believe I'm really that big." hahaha that was my turning point.

Not a single moment but several added together.

Twice I was walking somewhere with my family and watching them get further and further ahead of me despite walking as fast as I could. My leg hurt and I just wanted to sit down on the sidewalk. It was just a couple of blocks not a 5 mile hike! I don't want to be left behind or have people have to slow down for me. I was only 40 years old. I don't want to end up stuck in a chair or a bed while life passes me by for my remaining years.
Climbing a couple of flights of stairs and being almost out of breath.
Increase in pain and discomfort. I would spend a lot of the night tossing and turning because I couldn't get comfortable in bed.
Spilling something on myself just before going out and realizing none of my nice clothes really fit anymore.
That isn't how I want to live.

After losing 24 pounds and feeling really good now, I know that I didn't fully realize how poor my condition was getting. At the time I wouldn't have said I felt bad. I told myself I was okay because I wasn't actually sick but there were a lot of things I wasn't doing because of my weight.

There was this pic...and then I yo yo'd..then there was a doctors visit and I found MFP...that was 2 years ago...haven't looked back.

I stepped on the scales one day, just out of curiosity, and I was at 99.7kg. So close to the dreaded 100... That spurred me in to doing something...

My son being born. It was like "well crap, it's not just about me anymore". Tried eating less, failed. Tried moving more, failed. Found MFP and I'm down 40lbs in 5 months. Just had to find that sweet spot!

Whenever I can't fit into my red jeans, it's time to buckle down and count accurately.

My moment was when my fiance and I set a date and I thought about wedding pictures.

Mother's Day. We went to lunch with DH's family. I insisted on on a group photo. I was wearing a white dress that I thought I looked cute in. When I got home and saw the photos in Facebook I wanted to cry. I am wearing a size 4 but I look like a whale. That was my turning point. Took a few weeks to start with a trainer and such, but I'm on the right track now.

I woke up in the middle of the night, dizzy, nauseated, and anxious. I made an appointment for the doctor and confirmed my suspicions that it was due to high blood sugars. I'm prediabetic, but thanks to being on top of it I'm very early in the process. I started eating better that day, and when the blood results came back showing my A1C was elevated slightly I really kicked my butt in gear.

I've been exercising and really paying attention to what I'm eating. I had lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks at my last appointment. This is the beginning, and I feel confident I can control this with diet and exercise, which is a huge blessing. My dad was type 2 diabetic, too, and succumbed to complications of the disease when he was only 52.

I never had that moment and I still worry that when I'm done losing, I'll gain it back. The statistics are sobering.

I began losing because I had health problems that might be fixed (or at least helped) by losing weight, so I went in with an "I have to do this crappy thing. I have to give up what I like and eat what I don't." Mine was not a Woo Hoo! kind of deal.

I didn't even know I was going to lose weight. It was all about getting better. The weight loss was an added benefit and I got really into it!! But it was always Health First and the whole How I Look thing (and weight loss thing) was a distant second.

But it's great to lose!!!

When I saw some pictures of myself,I just cried. I mean ugly cried. Sure I had just had a kid a year ago & had been more focused on his milestones. But, I worked really hard before I got pregnant and Lost a bunch of inches and I felt like i had failed. Especially after seein those pictures.

All my pants were worn at the inner thigh from friction