What pushed you over the edge?

For me it was a few things.

Every summer I would have to go and buy new clothes (shorts etc) because last year's were too tight. After this year it got to the point where I just decided I was NOT going to do it again! The next time I buy new clothes it will be because my stuff is too big. I was also finding it harder and harder to shop at "normal" stores, and being forced to shop at plus-size places more, which I disliked. There is just no choice for larger girls, and I am quite alternative and don't like a lot of the clothes in Evans etc (except for work stuff).

Secondly, I will be thirty in May and it seems like a turning point. I have spent all of my twenties being overweight or obese and I want to leave that behind me as I enter a new decade of my life. A friend of mine has her birthday a few days before me and we're planning on having a joint celebration. She's a size 8 and I don't want it to be the thin girl and the fat girl's party.

I had always seen dramatic weight loss as something that didn't happen to "real" people. I saw it on celebrities in magazines and those "slimmers of the year" you see in the paper, but that was about it. Then my cousin lost three stone and was on the cover of a slimming magazine looking gorgeous. I also found out that a girl in my office who is *tiny* but looks amazing (I'd guess a size 6/8) used to weigh 17 stone. I decided that if they could do it, so could I.

Also, despite always struggling with my weight I had always been attractive and never had a shortage of male attention, lol. I gradually realised that I had turned from being a hot girl who carried a bit of extra weight into just a fat girl. The turning point was when a car of blokes drove past me, wound their window down, yelled "fatty" at me and drove off laughing. I was so upset but it gave me the kick up the bum I needed!

My husband called me fat during a fight. I know he didn't intend to be so mean, but it hurt me so much.

I hope you ripped him a new one!

For me it was a bunch of things. The lifts at my work are all mirrored. I would get in and look down because if I looked at myself I'd want to cry. None of my clothes fit me. I felt like ****. Talking to one of the girls I coached and her crying about her weight gain and me responding with 'you ain't got nothing on me' Going through old photos and just crying over how pretty I'd been (and never realised it because of my weight) Having a talk with a girl at work got me to do the snap decision though. I rang Jenny Craig back after I had that talk and went that night (and cried all night after I weighed myself and realised I'd put on 20kg in 6 months) The next day I started drinking water as opposed to the gallons of soft drink I'd drunk before every day.

A month later I have lost 7kg. I go to the gym at least twice a week. I feel fantastic and even the depression is gone. I don't look in the mirror and hate myself anymore, I look in the mirror and say 'You're going to be healthy and hot soon!'

A lot of things happened to lead me up to it, but the last straw was having gallbladder pain that wouldn't go away. Again. Just another sign that I was getting more and more unhealthy, and I knew that if I didn't get healthy, I'd have to give up some things I love doing and some future goals.

When my boyfriend started talking about how 'we' needed to start working out together, that 'we' were getting soft. Well . . . he's 5'10" and 190 lbs of solid muscle (with the exception of a cute little belly bulge) so I figured he must be talking about me. I've always been above-average in weight ('but you're so tall, you carry it well!' Thanks Mom but let's get real, k?) but now I'm 194 lbs.

I'm 5'10" and my wrist measurements indicate that I'm small framed which for me is really hard to believe because I've never been small. My profile pic is me at 17ish and I was about 165 lbs. Stats say I should weigh around 140 but my goal is 170.

Anyway, back to the boyfriend ... kind and encouraging, tells me how proud of me he is, etc. etc., but the 'we' working out lasted for about 2 sessions, so I got the picture. Bless his heart, he has a very physical job, outside all day, and well, if you haven't experienced a South Texas summer, try to avoid it if at all possible. He eats TONS and like a 13 year old. Surprisingly I've only gained about 8-10 lbs in the 2 years we've been together.

It's time to lose those and some more.

My older sister, who had four kids and was heavier than me (with three kids) invited me to a Bollywood class at a local park district. When I saw her, she had lost a lot of weight and looked fabulous in workout gear. I, on the other hand, wore a large black t-shirt that tented at my midsection. If she could do it, with four kids and a crazy schedule, I could do it. I didn't want to feel bloated and fat anymore. My sister had given me the Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred in February for my birthday, but it wasn't until I saw her in mid-March that I opened it and started using it.

In mid-May I gave up drinking Coke cold-turkey. I turned my eating habits around and joined MFP in July. Tracking calories has been elemental in helping my weight loss.

I was ready to settle for the mindset that my kids would see me forever as the chubby, fat mom. But once I committed to losing weight and started doing the work, I knew that I never, ever want to be as big as I was or eat as unhealthy as I did. 32 pounds lost and I'm not going back!

A picture on my daughters 1st birthday, I'd kinda been kidding my self i looked okay as i weighed more or less the same than before i got pregnant, BUT i have lost alot of muscle tone which has been replaced with fat. so i do look bigger. Also i can out-eat my husband and he has a big appietie, and when i asked hubby if i was looking fat he said "your not there........yet"

Facebook.
Can't go anywhere these days without everyone taking unflattering pics and then tagging me! I have to say that was my final straw because I was forced to look at myself in pics all the time which I usually tried to avoid.
Sad, but true!

I had an epiphany on my birthday this year in January and simply said - I'm not going to try to keep any resolutions. I'm just not going to procrastinate any more. I'm fed up of waiting for life to happen to me. I have to make it happen!

Then my brother announced he was getting married at the end of August (next week in fact) and that really solidified my resolve. I did not want to be the fat bird in the photos.

So I have lost 36lbs and love how I look in my purple trouser suit. I have further to go, but I am tall and don't look chubby any more. I can hold my head up high. With my heels on I'm 6ft so carry my current weight quite well.

I've been anorexic in my teens so I was always afraid I'd go too far and I think that held me back from trying to be slim again. I have engaged my friends and family to intervene if I go below my safety weight this time round and I feel confident that I will maintain control and not go too far.

I should be at goal by January. What a difference a year makes! I'll be 39.

I turned 25 this year. I realized that I have never been happy with my body because I have always been overweight. I want to look in the mirror and like what I see, and I want to do it while I am still young.

Realizing I always hid from the camera & that I have very very few pictures of myself with my son. Also the fact that I am in very few pictures from family functions & holidays b/c I always ran when people started getting the cameras out. When I do see a picture of myself from one of those functions or holidays that someone did manage to get a picture of me I am not smiling. Then last but not least realizing just how BIG I had gotten from the pictures from Christmas of this year. I was truely disgusted with myself & realized just how unhappy I was with it all. I pretty much hated myself & hated how I looked. How was anyone else supposed to like me little on love me if I hated who I was. It was the MAJOR kick/jump start that I needed to make up my mind to do something about my weight. When I logged in & seen that I was in the obese catigory only pushed me harder!

So, I decided that Jan 1st I was going to make a lifestyle change. AND I have stuck to it!