What was it that made you start working out?

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.

Enjoyed weight lifting ever since 4th grade. Just my type of thing. 37 years later and I love it more.

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.

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.

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.

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

Realizing that clothes looked horrible on me, not because of the clothes' fault, it was me. My FAT was making me look fat, not my clothes, lol.

Because skinny fat doesn't look great naked.

Honestly, someone who is fit is a damn attractive quality. It shows pride in themselves. I know how I view someone who is super fit and healthy. I also wanted to be that. It's the opposite of laziness. Someone who is active shows so much about them.

Initially started to lose weight in January for the impending wedding in August. My friend had signed up to the gym the year before and went off and on. She convinced me In February to go to a yoga class with her. I avoided the gym before I didn't want to be the fat, unfit one that couldn't do anything.

The instant I started that class was an eye opener. No one cared if you could or couldn't do the moves. They were concentrating on themselves, not you.

When I got to work after the class I signed up for a membership online and started the following week. I experimented with different classes in the schedule until I settled on my current routine which is 6 days a week of 1-2 classes per day, with a mix of weights, Cardio and Pilates.

The pump