What was it that made you start working out?

Ghostlight1
Ghostlight1 Posts: 21 Member
edited December 2 in Fitness and Exercise
I think everyone has to hit some point where they just say "that's it, time to get in shape" What one thing prompted you to start taking your health seriously? For me, I was going through a separation from my wife and felt that if I was in better shape it would help our marriage. Well needless to say it didn't and we got divorced a year later. Now I stay in shape for me to keep active and travel.
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Replies

  • patrickblo13
    patrickblo13 Posts: 831 Member
    I couldn't enjoy the activities I enjoyed doing because I was out of shape
  • CincyNeid
    CincyNeid Posts: 1,249 Member
    Couldn't ride a roller coaster at Kings Island amusement park.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Cabin fever. I don't like sitting on the couch feeling life pass me by, but my anxiety goes away as soon as I start doing something. Even just being outdoors helps. Going for a bike ride with friends is more fun and fulfilling than being at home.
  • kevinf2380
    kevinf2380 Posts: 256 Member
    I stopped liking what I saw in the mirror. I can hardly recognize myself in photos now from when I was in shape. I'm sorry to hear about your divorce Ghostlight1.
  • badnoodle
    badnoodle Posts: 216 Member
    I started losing weight well before I began doing purposeful exercise. But I was terrified of losing the muscle I knew existed inder the blubber, and the only way to do that was to make it work, hard and regularly.
  • SkinnyFatBGone
    SkinnyFatBGone Posts: 59 Member
    Pre hypertension at a relatively young age.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    High blood pressure, pre-diabeties, etc - all were scary but not nearly as scary as the thought of missing out on seeing my daughter and grand kids grow up because I was too lazy to do something about my health when I could.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    I was 37 with terrible flexibility, cardio endurance, etc. I pretty much decided that wasn't how I wanted to spend the next 30-50 years so I needed to do something about it.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    Fear of premature death.....
  • Anabug81
    Anabug81 Posts: 161 Member
    I was tired of buying large size clothes!
  • tiggerlove
    tiggerlove Posts: 225 Member
    Tired of buy 2x clothes and because of my knee and back and better overall health.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    When my son poked my beer gut and asked "when is it due?"...and I am a dude. It made me lose a 50 pound beer gut that I had for twenty five years. So glad he did that, but not at the time.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,282 Member
    I wanted uninterrupted time with my 9-year-old daughter. We did our own version of C25K before I knew what it was. I found that running at a talking pace was actually fun and kept going. Then, I just loved being fit and finding out how fun and easy more strenuous activities were (climbing a mountain) :)
  • gnruggirello
    gnruggirello Posts: 5 Member
    Depression. I started working out again because I was super depressed from the meds my doctor prescribe me. I also gained weight on them. I wanted to be happy again and my therapist continuously told me to workout to release endorphins.
  • MCTay23
    MCTay23 Posts: 20 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    When my son poked my beer gut and asked "when is it due?"...and I am a dude. It made me lose a 50 pound beer gut that I had for twenty five years. So glad he did that, but not at the time.
    yeah same for me, my kid said I had boobies like mommy :(

    a combination of that, lack of intimacy with girlfriend likely because of weight, and was tired of sweating in public places just from walking around the grocery store having to carry a washcloth

    now, i hit the gym where sweating is encouraged and acceptable
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    It's two different questions for me...
    "What was it that made you start working out?" - a bullying culture at school, I started working out at age 14, bullies tend to leave people alone who fight back.

    "What one thing prompted you to start taking your health seriously?"     - turning 50 was my trigger and a reality check, a bit of it's now or never feeling. I was fat and fairly fit through my 30's and 40's but thought the likelihood of being fat, fit AND healthy beyond that seemed unlikely.
  • Zenwenner
    Zenwenner Posts: 166 Member
    I was sitting on the couch watching the Olympics in 2010, and I thought to myself - look at what those people can do...why can't I? So I shut off the tv and got up off my butt. 60 lbs and 6 years later, here I am. Still working on it, but in far better health that I've ever been!
  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
    Getting more difficult to breathe with my gut as that impacted my asthma.
  • WynterDreaming
    WynterDreaming Posts: 83 Member
    Because all my goals require me to not only loose weight, but to be able to run and jump as well.
  • Bee_Le
    Bee_Le Posts: 48 Member
    My clothes stop fitting!
  • cgvet37
    cgvet37 Posts: 1,189 Member
    edited July 2016
    I was very active from High School through my time in the Military. When I started having arthritis pain in my back, I gave up over time. As I could not do simple tasks at times. Last year I suffered a heat stroke at a pistol match. That was the last draw for me. I started going back to the gym, and wound up signing up for personal training. Now I'm much healthier, and my back feels much bettet.
  • CarlydogsMom
    CarlydogsMom Posts: 645 Member
    Walked by the TV as a pro football game was on, the announcer describing one of the players as "a really big guy, 6'2", 220 pounds..." and I was a 5" 10" female weighing 221. Literally stopped me in my tracks when I realized I was as big as a pro football player. Yikes.

    That I recall clearly! Right around the same time, someone sent a photograph that they thought was cute of my husband and I, and it shocked me. And, again at the same time, I was wallowing about my weight to an acquaintance, just barely, though, and he said rather bluntly "well, nothing won't change on that front unless you make it a priority."

    AND...realizing I was 48.5 years old, looking at 50, and knowing I didn't want to start my 50's being that heavy.

    Karma that all of this happened within about a week. That did it.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    edited July 2016
    Enjoyed weight lifting ever since 4th grade. Just my type of thing. 37 years later and I love it more.
  • madguru7
    madguru7 Posts: 37 Member
    For me it was high cholesterol. Either exercise or go on medication. I chose exercise.
  • amandaeve
    amandaeve Posts: 723 Member
    I fell madly, madly in love. He picked someone else. I channeled all the energy of heartbreak into exercise. I lost 85 pounds. Fitness gave me an explanation for enduring leaving him. Life without him just didn't make sense, I couldn't understand it. I spent hours every day exercising, it gave me focus, and helped place a meaning to it all.
  • pattyandthemoos
    pattyandthemoos Posts: 79 Member
    Midlife crisis. LOL. I started working out when I was 39 because I just felt like it was now or never. I am in way better shape now that I am my 40s than I ever was in my 20s.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,693 Member
    I'm not sure what age I learned to crawl ... but I've been active ever since then because it just seems like more fun than sitting around and doing nothing. :grin:

    Although I'm saying that with a smile, it is actually true. I was born into an active family and I've always been active. Both my parents were into cycling and hiking, so we walked and cycled and hiked everywhere. I started commuting to and from school by bicycle when I was 6 years old. In school, track and field was my thing all the way through to about Grade 11. When summer came, my family and I were off cycling and hiking somewhere.

    At the age of 12, I introduced my parents to cross-country skiing because we had a series of cross-country skiing classes at school, and I loved it. My father wasn't really into it, but my mother and I would go out skiing quite regularly through the long Canadian winters.

    I got into long distance running and a bit of weightlifting in my late teens/early 20s, and then into bodybuilding with a coach for a couple years.

    About that time I rediscovered cycling and that has been my main sport ever since, although I do cross-train with walking, hiking, running, canoeing, rowing, and weightlifting.

    The reason I came here was because I had gradually crept up into the overweight range between 2011 and 2015 for various reasons (lots of travel, lots of moving, very unsettled, less exercise, more eating). So, I guess, an answer sort of related to the question would be ... we moved to a very hilly island and because I had gained a bit of weight, I was struggling to cycle up the hills. I'm not a hill climber at the best of times, but the extra weight certainly didn't help.

    At the beginning of summer 2014/2015 (December 1), I decided that was the summer I was going to lose some of the weight and get strong enough so that I could cycle hills. I cycled, walked, and weightlifted through December ... and lost several kg ... and started making it up some hills. Then all of a sudden I was side-lined in January 2015 with two urgent surgeries (two unrelated cancer scares ... one is still an ongoing concern, one was all clear). So in February I joined MFP to start tracking my calories while I built up my activity level again.

    Happily, I lost all the weight I originally planned to lose, plus more, in 2015, and can cycle longer and stronger again. :)


  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    In highschool I started working out because I realized I was fat when I weighed in at the doctor at 170. Throughout my 20s I went to the gym very inconsistently as well. No fitness goals or anything. I eventually stopped.

    One day I was feeling quite fat and very anxious about my relationship at the time, so I went back to the gym. I told myself that I could do ANYTHING I wanted if I went...including sitting on a bike and reading a magazine like the people I had scoffed at in the past. And that's exactly what I did. Then I went home and got really drunk on whiskey and listened to early 90s hip hop but I digress.

    In an attempt to get slim I also signed up for a 5k and it sucked. I decided to never run again and for the most part have not.

    Shortly after that a trainer saw me using the machines in the gym. I ended up purchasing some sessions with her and she taught me to squat and deadlift. The rest is history. I'm signed up for my first power lifting meet this September.
  • abitofbliss
    abitofbliss Posts: 198 Member
    I didn't have the desire to start working out until I was dedicated to my diet and water intake for about a 2 months. Then I craved it :)
  • lauraesh0384
    lauraesh0384 Posts: 463 Member
    It was when I first made the decision to lose weight. I didn't know any better and thought to lose weight I had to work out. Come to find out I actually enjoyed it once I found something I loved. For me at the time it was Turbo Jam. These days it's walking, DDR (though I don't do it specifically for exercise) and strength training. I don't enjoy strength training as much since I hold it in the same regard as doing chores. I don't want to, but it's gotta be done. :D Maybe one day I'll come to love it.
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