Reasons for starting the weight loss journey

1) To look healthy
2) To feel healthy
3) To be able to buy normal sized clothes
4) To not have any health problems
5) To not be classified as being obese

That's my top 5 answers.

I've always been overweight. Not outrageously so 5lbs above the top of 'normal' so about 15 above the middle of the band.

But since we had kids, various life changes and stresses have meant I went up by a few pounds here and a few more there until in May this year (2016) I was 210lbs (BMI about 32, I think) with bp 180/95 and my doctor asked me to come in for a blood test to check for diabetes, etc.

Well, for whatever reason, I felt like I really could do something now. I don't know what the psychological 'switch' was but I started on my weight loss journey then and by the time I actually had the blood tests 3 weeks later* I was walking an average 12000 steps a day and had lost 9lbs. My bp had fallen to 134/80 in just that short time too. Wonderful thing, walking.

Anyway, the blood tests came back and I'm clear on everything so I consider I've caught myself in time and I am determined to hit my target - to be in and stay in that 'normal' range. I've now lost just over 30lbs and have about 20 more to go.

I'm lucky I don't have to go into work in August because I don't have many clothes that fit right now. I look ridiculous in the ones I was wearing in May and though I can get into the one I intend to wear next month, they are 'snug' so there's a reminder there if I do feel I can take a fews days off the program that I really can't! (I've not felt that way yet.)

Anyway, getting back to the question..

I don't really have A reason. I've never been happy being overweight, we all know it's unhealthy, etc. It's just that, right now, I'm in a mental state to fix it.

*I was not an urgent case and the dept was short staffed because of holidays so I couldn't get an appointment until then.

I'm fat and I don't want to be.

And I'm weak and I don't want to be.

Its pretty much that simple!

Because i would like to keep my clother and not buy larger ones and for my asthma

I was struggling cycling up hills ... and I couldn't fit in my cycling jacket anymore!!

I started because I honestly don't like myself. Not just physically (though that was a good part of it), I just felt crappy all around. Depressed, anxious, very overweight. I've lost 30 lbs in the last 7 months, could I do better? yeah. Am I happy with that number? Absolutely. In these 30 lbs I've learned to like myself a little more and I haven't been as depressed (this stint I've been in and out of the last two weeks not included) either. Is it hard? yes. Am I going to give up? No. I might fall off and be a little slow to get back up but I keep pushing. Slow progress, is better than no progress and it's more about loving myself and bettering myself than losing the weight.

I used to be the skinny kid. So much so that I was often teased about it. Stayed that way for a long time, until my 30's, then it started to slowly creep up. I looked at a picture of myself from about a year after I retired from active duty and was appalled at how heavy I had gotten (guessing around 210~215, didn't have a scale at the time). Lost some weight over 2 years, but didn't get serious about it until three months ago and am almost out of the "overweight" category for most forms of measuring such things.

Well... in 2013, I was doing boot camp classes several days a week, sometimes twice a day. I was in the best shape of my life!! In Dec of 2013, I got pregnant but continued to do bootcamp through May. Had a quick delivery (I think the exercise helped). I have not done one lick of exercise since my last bootcamp session. I have gained 25 lbs.. I weigh more than I did when I started bootcamp! And, to top it all off, I was just diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I had gestational diabetes but I never thought I'd be one that ended up developing type 2. So, to be very blunt, I need to get my fat *kitten* in shape so I can hopefully get off this medication.