what was your final straw?

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13

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  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    I had a total thyroidectomy in 2000 and told that I would gain weight. Every year gaining about a 1/2" on the waist for about 12 years and then last year after signing up to be a den leader for my son's scout troop I was sweating like a stuck pig and absolutely exhausted after a meeting playing kickball. That was it for me.

    I read about some endurance athletes with hypothyroidism, particularly Olympic athletes who were competing better after surgery and realized that this was not the end of my athletic career and got back to it.
  • ClarityPeace
    ClarityPeace Posts: 81 Member
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    inner thighs touched..
  • tampico65
    tampico65 Posts: 10 Member
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    I saw a picture of myself that made me feel so ashamed, I didn't want to go out because I didn't think I look good but when my mother had a hard attack 3 months ago. I opened an account and started my journey towards a healthy lifestyle one day at the time. Some days I feel discourage because I want to eat as much as I want but then I weight myself I know I have made the right choice
  • Nyappykim
    Nyappykim Posts: 57 Member
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    Throughout all my life, I've always gained weight, and would try to lose it. Since I was 12, my weight ranged from 120 to 145 lbs. 145 was my highest weight and that's when I decided to lose the weight for real. Before I made that decision, I was a binge eater and would always buy bags of chips and tons of candy bars and secretly stash them in my room to snack on at night. I ate fast food at least 4 times a week. This was when the weight started piling on. I remember trying to go to sleep and have difficulty breathing - it was scary. I couldn't walk from my parking lot to my school without feeling winded.

    Anyway, I'm now 116 lbs which is the lightest I've ever been in my life. My goal is to maintain between 110 and 115 so I'm sooo close! (: I believe I was very fortunate to realize the bad things that were starting to happen with my health though. If I didn't acknowledge them sooner, the weight gain would have kept piling on and who knows how far my health would spiral down. At one point, I went from 125-145 in just a few months.
  • techgal128
    techgal128 Posts: 719 Member
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    inner thighs touched..

    Wouldn't you have to be stick thin for your inner thighs not to touch though? All I can think of is stick legs. I'm a big girl that could never have a thigh gap so maybe I'm just not visualizing it correctly.
  • Nyappykim
    Nyappykim Posts: 57 Member
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    techgal128 wrote: »
    inner thighs touched..

    Wouldn't you have to be stick thin for your inner thighs not to touch though? All I can think of is stick legs. I'm a big girl that could never have a thigh gap so maybe I'm just not visualizing it correctly.

    It really would depend on your hips. The wider the hips, the higher chance of having a thigh gap.

    You could still be thin and not have a thigh gap because you have small hips.
  • Noodle797
    Noodle797 Posts: 366 Member
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    [quote=
    Wouldn't you have to be stick thin for your inner thighs not to touch though? All I can think of is stick legs. I'm a big girl that could never have a thigh gap so maybe I'm just not visualizing it correctly.
    [/quote]

    I was thin as a child & my thighs still touched. I've always had short, thick legs even when I had a flat belly. I have a stocky, Irish build, think short legs & a long torso. :s
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    I got up to 172 and two things happened: 1. I saw two very large ladies waiting for the elevator to go up one floor in my office, and realized that, while I had a long ways to go, if I didn't make a change I would one day look like them. I had been gaining about 10lbs a year which was great at first (from 120 to 140) and then NOT so good. 2. That same morning my size 12 jeans were really tight, and I couldn't pretend to myself that yet another size was a good thing.

    Something just clicked and I took a walk that afternoon I started logging on here the next day. I kinda eased into it pretending that I wasn't really dieting. I wish I had taken "before" pics and measurements, but as I said I sorta just tiptoed into it. Ended up adding lifting, martial arts, running, mud runs etc over the next year +. Lost 36lbs, decided that was a little small and picked 140 as my happy place. I'm currently back on because I've crept up to 144.
  • techgal128
    techgal128 Posts: 719 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Noodle797 wrote: »
    [quote=
    Wouldn't you have to be stick thin for your inner thighs not to touch though? All I can think of is stick legs. I'm a big girl that could never have a thigh gap so maybe I'm just not visualizing it correctly.
    I was thin as a child & my thighs still touched. I've always had short, thick legs even when I had a flat belly. I have a stocky, Irish build, think short legs & a long torso. :s

    I have a large build and will never be under a size 12. Even when I was considered underweight, I was still a size 12. As much as I would like a thigh gap, it will never be for me. :smile:
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    techgal128 wrote: »
    I was looking at my shadow and realized that I didn't walk, I waddled.
    Oof. That'd do it.
  • tkight3
    tkight3 Posts: 4 Member
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    This year my health has been impacted by my extra weight. I had one health problem after the other the first 6 months of the year, and I felt horrible almost every single day. I realized I want to live a long and happy life and can't do that when I am so big. I am down 22 pounds so far and feeling much better! :)
  • kyrannosaurus
    kyrannosaurus Posts: 350 Member
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    I have an adult sized kicked scooter with a 100kg weight limit. I weighed 94kg and realised if I gained anymore weight I wouldn't be able to use it.
  • unmatcheddiscipline
    unmatcheddiscipline Posts: 101 Member
    edited July 2015
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    When I realized self-pity was digging me deeper and deeper into a hole. I got tired of feeling tired for myself, and didn't think about it. I jumped back on track the right way this time by putting in all the work, and not merely starving myself with a bit of walking. I'm doing lots of cardio, eating my calories and living healthy above all.
  • Diana_GettingFit
    Diana_GettingFit Posts: 458 Member
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    I've been a diabetic since August 2008. I was at my heaviest then, 214 lbs. Oddly that wasn't enough to make me want to change.

    A couple of years later when my size 40 pants started feeling a little snug and I was in danger of going up to size 42 I got semi serious and went down to 190. I went down to size 38. I guess I was happy enough with that for the time being even though I still didn't like the way I looked in the mirror or in photos.

    But in December 2014 my A1C was 7.2 and the doctor wanted to put me on a second medication. I've already been taking Metformin since 2008. Something in me just snapped. Enough was enough. I didn't take that second medication. For one thing when we researched side effects we saw that the new drug can cause liver damage. In March I started walking daily, then graduated to running. Then I found this site and I stepped my weight loss up a gear. By the middle of June I was down to 171 lbs. I even stopped taking Metformin in April because my fasting sugar was becoming so low (averaging low 70's) I became genuinely afraid my sugar would start crashing. I tested daily and my sugar averaged in the 70's and 80's even without medication. So I was looking forward to getting a blood test and seeing what was going on. I went back to the doctor middle of June and my A1C was 5.8. The doctor seemed almost as happy as I was. I guess they don't often see patients have the willpower to get off medication through diet and exercise. Anyway, I went from being on the verge of being on two medications for diabetes to no medication at all. I love my new lifestyle and while I'm still not totally happy with the way I look, I know I look and feel much better than I did six months ago.
  • ABabilonia
    ABabilonia Posts: 622 Member
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    I used to wear pants size 36 and I was a little chubby then, so I said to myself that I needed to get back to size 32, unfortunate things went from bad to worst, and instead of going from 36 to 32 I went from 36 to 40, that was my ephipame and my sign that I needed change in my life. Right now I am back to 38 and there is no turning back now.
  • DylanThomas2
    DylanThomas2 Posts: 78 Member
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    After being left for the third time in a row for a guy with six pack abs I decided enough is enough time to get myself in shape and take control of my disaster of a life.
  • woodybush
    woodybush Posts: 55 Member
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    I had a partial gastrostomy (70% of my stomach removed due to a tumour) last year. The surgeon warned that my food intake and tolerance would be much lower and I would actively have to work on putting on weight for the rest of my life.

    Well, it couldn't have been more backwards - I put on just over a stone in the following months and realised I was making myself really ill by eating so much and so often (my body cannot handle certain foods and large quantities but I ignored my body and hence got ill and put on weight).

    Now I have fixed the diet I am no longer ill and the weight is steadily dropping off :smile:
  • Iri_2
    Iri_2 Posts: 349 Member
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    My jeans where getting too tight and I didn't want to buy a bigger size.
  • saraevelyn21
    saraevelyn21 Posts: 23 Member
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    I went to my niece's 7th birthday party at a beach, and was left sitting alone while everyone else swam and had a good time because I didn't want to wear a bathing suit

    And I had bought a pair of maternity shorts to wear to that party, because they were more flattering and smoothed everything out better than all the other shorts I tried on

    My family keeps telling me that I look like a plus size model - which I'm sure is a compliment, but I am not "plus size by nature" - I gained weight after being incredibly depressed for a long time after the loss of my child, and now I'm ready to start feeling better about myself.

    I am so tired of shopping in the plus size section. I'm tired of having to order clothes online because stores only offer a limited amount of what they carry. Cute plus size clothing is so freaking expensive.
  • Firefly0606
    Firefly0606 Posts: 366 Member
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    Noodle797 wrote: »
    My final straw was a couple of things. Big family reunion last summer in which I was only in 2 pictures because I was parked on a picnic bench all day which started me thinking about how I was missing out on my life. Then right around Christmas I was reading Where's Waldo with my 4-year-old nephew, who had to stand next to the rocking chair instead of sitting on my lap because i have no lap, and he said, "look auntie Cole! A big fat lady, just like you!" I know that he didn't say it to hurt me, in fact he often says he likes to sit next to me best because I'm so soft & squishy, but that hurt me more than any stranger's comments. I knew at that point that i just couldn't live like this anymore. I'm incredibly lucky to have the support of my family, friends & most importantly my boyfriend, it's much easier when you have people supporting & believing in you. And my nephew loves that he can go hiking with his Auntie Cole now.

    Kids huh! My final straw was my 5 year old daredevil son being so excited he nearly wet himself about going on a roller coaster for the first time. My hubby and daughter are big scaredy cats and refused to go on, so rollercoaster duty was left up to me because he was too small to ride on his own. We sat down, the lady tried to pull the lap bar down over us. I had to suck it all in HARD and push my back hard into the seat. The lap bar came down - with my gut rolling all over the top. It was soooo close - another 1/4 cm and I wouldn't have fit.

    Instead of enjoying the ride, I spent it running the scenario through my head, the scene playing out in my head of walking back down through the exit, explaining to his sad and disappointed face that we couldn't go on the ride he had been counting down the day until because Mummy was too fat. I decided I wasn't going to ever have that conversation, and I realised that I was missing out on life with my kids.