Why did you come to the conclusion to lose weight?

in the car venting about my weigh gain and all the gray hair that all of the sudden appeared in my head and your daughter tells you... "mom you are old wrinkle and overweight, realize it" these are very hurting words from a person that you gave birth too
I am proving my self that a 50 year old can look great!!

This is my 50th year of life. In the last couple of years, I have battled a lot of inflammation (tarsal tunnel syndrome in my foot, tendonitis in my forearms) that has interfered with my ability to do things I have always taken for granted - like go for a walk or pick up my tea kettle. I thought: what is my old age going to look like? I looked around at all the women over 65 at church and most of them are barrel bodies with skinny legs (which is what I look like) and I thought: that is going to be me, too, if I don't get off my butt and do something about it. I work in healthcare and specialize in aging, so I know what the future holds for me if I don't make some long-term changes in my life. In 20 years, I can be the awesome 70 year old who kayaks down the Baja with her lady friends every winter, goes hiking in Spain with her silver fox husband, and goes on cycling tours through France, or I can be the 70 year old couch potato who sits at home by herself, struggles with depression, and wonders why she has so much chronic pain and disability. Menopause does not make losing weight easier. I want an active old age, where I can climb stairs and not be out of breath. Where I can climb mountains and feel victorious at the top. So, here I am climbing my own personal mountain and feeling successful, darn it!

My 15 year old nephew and I were sharing seats at a theme park Attraction. They had to delay the ride while they rearranged seating since we were both overweight and the bar wouldn't close. To top it off there was a huge audience of people waiting, it was evident by their gestures they felt bad for us. We didn't say anything but it was clearly an embarrassing moment for both of us). Next time I saw him he had lost about 20lb... Then I asked him if the theme park incident was the reason for his new found healthy eating and drinking whatever instead of soda. He replied yes, and I realized this 15 year old kid saw a problem and fixed it all on his own. Then I started right after. He has lost about 50lb and I've lost around 32lb.

I was always feeling lazy. Too lazy to get dolled up, too lazy to clean, too lazy to cook, too lazy to have sex, too lazy to get up. I was always LAZY. I was tired of it; can't believe I have only lost close to 5 pounds and already I feel so much energy and a big boost of confidence. Cant imagine what my goal weight will feel like.

I made a bet with my best friend on NYE. I told him if he can quit smoking ( somethign he's been trying to do for years ) then this upcoming NYE I'll buy him a steak dinner.

He said if I can get back in shape ( I was 280 at the time ) then he'll buy me a steak dinner on NYE.

I have faith in him, but I also know he also suggested teh weight thing to me, because we both used to be around 190-210 ( A great weight for 6'2 considering we worked out together, played street hockey together and lived together. Also us being the same height helped ) and he wants me to get back the confidence, swagger and iron will I had when I was healthy.

That and I can play sports again ( Pool, hockey, Football(soccer), baseball, jogging etc)

I'm down to 253, and I can taste that steak dinner already.. lol

A lot of little things started to add up really.
I know what had made me overeat. I realised that by eating the issues would not go away, but by getting rid of the after effect I potentially could address the issues.
Basically my work was stressing me out, or rather a restructuring which left me with a manager who was less than capable at his job. I was noticing clothes did not for well anymore and that getting up to our bedroom (3rd floor) was hard on my breathing (I have asthma).
The turning point was when I had to adjust my favourite sewing pattern yet again and I just could not reason it away on the fabric. With tears in my eyes I finished that piece of clothing. It was also the first one to be thrown out.

I full well knew that what I was doing was trying to eat away the stress and that I was sabotaging myself if I wanted to leave my place of work as my self confidence was not at it's best. I decided that I could not control the work situation If HR was not going to do anything, despite the whole team complaining (which they did not) then I had to get out on my terms. The first was to get to a point where I felt confident in my body again. I knew that nay form of tracking food always worked well for me Searched on line for a modern version of a notebook and found MFP