What Finally Motivated You to Lose Weight?

Pain and people calling me pregnant every day.

courtniekrebs wrote: »

Mine started with an Ultimatum from my BF. Be at 135 by June or we're done. I started at 175 and now am at 155. Here recently two of my really good friends are competing in figure/bikini competitions so that's inspired me to work hard and have a goal and not just do it for a stupid guy.. LOL

Since you referred to him as a "stupid guy", I really hope that means you dumped him.

When I first said to my husband I wanted to lose some weight he was super excited for me. But supportively excited. I mentioned that I would need new clothes and he said "I will buy you all new clothes if you lose 30 pounds". He has never been mean about it. Never said he would leave me if I didn't reach the goal. He keeps me motivated, while still making me feel like he loves me no matter what.

Find a guy that will support you and encourage you, but will leave it to you to decide what is best for you.

When my previously larger friend told me I can have her old (larger) clothes

I was bought a model makeover photo shoot for Christmas. I felt so bad about how I looked, I cancelled it. Even though it cost my mum a lot of money.

My nephew asked why I'd cancelled it and I said I wasn't feeling great about how I looked. He replied 'don't worry, they only take a photo of your face, not your fat belly'. Out of the mouth of babes!

doctor said my BMI was 25.1 and I was now officially overweight.

I need knee surgery due to a variety of reasons (including some misspent and reckless youth activities) but Doc said my weight was an issue. He suggested the bariatric program, but I refused - said I wasnt likely to learn anything from surgery. He said well, there is a diet component to the program so I said sure - then found out there was a year long wait to get into it. So I said screw it, I'm doing this NOW. And so I am. I am booked into the surgery program now, just waiting for the date...........

November 2014 was a very dark time for me.

I take care of my mom, who has an autoimmune disease (Systemic Lupus Erythrematosus, or SLE) and Cushing's Syndrome from a non-operable tumor. She's suffered 4 strokes in the last year. She'd put on 200 lbs of weight over the previous 5 years because she lost what limited mobility she'd had, coupled with emotional overeating; this put her from big to just plain huge (context: she peaked out at 500 lbs). Assisting her was very difficult, just on the basis of her weight. She can't toilet alone or anything, and when she fell we had to call in the ambulance to pick her up off the floor. So I saw how disasterous being morbidly obese is, and its downright terrifying.

I also have SLE, and in summer 2014 it decided to attack my heart. Between August and November I put on about 15 lbs due to eating but not moving. I was definitely really depressed, and I just wasn't paying attention to my food intake. I was already quite heavy due to major lifestyle changes (thanks, arthritis and multiple serious back injuries), but I was able to do the things I wanted to do before that. However, that month I had been laid up in bed with no recovery in sight, and then I stepped on a scale. 270 lbs.

I went into my bedroom and I bawled. And bawled. And bawled. It was unimaginable, yet there I was. I think I moped for two or three days. Then I realized I had to do something. It didn't matter that I couldn't work out, or dance, or anything I'd loved doing before I got sick, I had to get my weight under control no matter what, so that I didn't make other people have such a hard time taking care of me. I can only say this because I know my mom won't read it, but her refusal to watch her weight at all has led to a LOT of difficulty for my dad & I. And I couldn't do that to someone else.

So I started watching my intake. I got a new doctor who actually LISTENED to me about the severe amount of pain & fatigue I was having. He started me on medication to treat it, and that helped...a lot. But I went from 270 down to 245 between November 2014 and May 2015 without doing anything except controlling my calories.

Today, 14 months later, I weigh 199. I know to a lot of people here, 199 is an unimaginably heavy weight, but for me its a major victory.

I was able to start walking in May 2015, and I've made getting that exercise a priority. I walk *at least* 30 minutes a day, even on my worst lupus flare days (if you have lupus you know this is a major battle). I do a very light resistance training routine twice a week, to recondition the muscles I lost from being in bed so much over the last 5 years. I would probably be very happy to live my life at this weight, because I can do the things I love again. However, I'm aiming for 175 because my immune system still attacks my heart regularly. Its exhausting, and I just don't want my poor heart to battle the extra weight on top of the stress of that. I know I can do it.

My mom's still hanging in there. She's in stage V kidney failure now. She lives in the living room, and can barely get onto her toilet, which is right next to her chair 24/7. I still can't push her around in her wheelchair. What she has to endure is heartbreaking. I don't think anyone can prevent being helpless if they have degenerative diseases like she does, but usually it happens a lot older. I have very complex feelings about her weight; compassion, because I know what she's facing and how painful her life is for reasons that have absolutely NOTHING to do with her weight; frustration, because her weight makes things much harder; anger, sometimes, because she refuses to allow us to do much about it, and because she directly tries to undermine my weight goals; sadness, because of all she's lost in life. And honestly her weight is the greatest immobilizing factor. I can't get her in/out of the house, she cant' use a normal toilet, she can't shower. I do not want this for her, or for myself, or for anyone. Its awful.

courtniekrebs wrote: »

Mine started with an Ultimatum from my BF. Be at 135 by June or we're done. I started at 175 and now am at 155. Here recently two of my really good friends are competing in figure/bikini competitions so that's inspired me to work hard and have a goal and not just do it for a stupid guy.. LOL

In my head, you are going to stay with him until the day you hit 135. Then you're going to call him into the bathroom, show him the number on the scale, then be all "LOL BYE *kitten*" and zoom away in a red Porsche convertible with a hot muscly personal trainer, never to return. If this isn't your plan, please don't disillusion me.

Some of the other people in a Facebook group I was in decided to sign up for MFP. I'd had a few false starts previously and I have no idea why it stuck this time, but here I am 267 days later and counting!

I went over my calories yesterday and looking at photos of myself before I lost the weight is helping me stay on track today despite considerable stress. Looking at the progress I've made always makes me happy!