Why did you come to the conclusion to lose weight?

I have arthritis in my knees. I'm on high BP meds. I struggle to trim my toenails. I hate to have my picture taken. My sister has lost close to 100lbs. I want to be alive and healthy.

I started really when I was 12. I have been doing the up-down cycle for a long time. It led me from being an athletic youth, a quickly developed pre teen. I worked out (Jane Fonda Days) and ran. Fast forward to my early 20's It was in a club, I encountered amphetamines. THIS to me was all I needed! So I thought....

In 2002 I stopped after 10 years strait. I had to surrender and was in treatment. MY weight of course went up but it was at this point I knew it was way out of hand. I made a commitment to become the health and wellness professional I had intended, I started back to running and light weights. I knew I had to do this the right way..

Since then I have been on the right track. I ran marathons and competed in figure, During that time I also was extreme and ended up withdrawing from the competitive world and focused on finishing my degree.


Loosing weight is just the tip of the iceburg for me. I have come to realize how precious life and health are. MY motivation is deeper than looks, a pair of jeans. My final decision is based on spirituality, and believeing the body is temporal, but is a house of our soul. I focus on the enlightenment aspect, self awareness and want to serve others as a positive example.
BAsically, I feel closer to God, to my true feelings when I am thin and fit. I spent so many years in a consatant self defeat and insecure. Now I remind myself daily what really matters. I just do not feel good when I am over weight and it holds back the deeper peace within me.

While my profile says I've been a member since 2011, I really began my weight loss journey on September 11, 2018

When I joined in 2011, I weighed 150 pounds, and wanted to lose 10. I lost that 10 pounds, so I quit logging in.

Fast Forward to September of 2012. My husband was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. What would follow would be hours in hospitals, and doctors' offices... and 50 pounds on me!

I had never weighed over 150 a day in my life, and all of a sudden I found myself over 200 pounds, and with arthritis at the age of 46.

I was miserable with myself, had no energy, and was hopeless. I felt hopeless, and I would eat. I wondered if I really could lose the weight.

i went to the doctor on September 10, 2018 for just a sinus infection. My regular doctor was out that day, so I saw another doctor in the practice. At one point, he looked at me, and said, "What are you eating? You are putting on weight right and left." I was unable to give him a straight answer. I left his office upset and hurt.

I really don't know how to describe what happened to me next. Maybe it was anger at how that doctor had treated me, maybe it was anger and disappointment in myself. It's like I snapped (in a good way), and I haven't looked back.

The next day was September 11, 2018, the day I embarked on this journey. I am now 36 pounds lighter. All conversations about high blood pressure medication have stopped, and I am no longer pre-diabetic.

My Fitness Pal has made this journey easy and bearable. I have 15 pounds to go before I reach my final goal. I am so close.

I love what @VegjoyP said,

I just do not feel good when I am overweight and it holds back the deeper peace within me.

That is very much how I feel. I am at an age (56) where it is normal and almost expected to gain weight and, sure enough, it was creeping up on me. Never a lot, but I noticed there were more and more things I "couldn't" wear because they were no longer flattering. What the heck. I am not a person who believes there is my body and then there is me, sitting off in separate corners. This amazing vessel holds all that is me and I decided to treat it better.

I stopped drinking. That was actually the biggest thing. The more I read, the more convinced I became that alcohol was not doing anything good for my mind or body at this point in the journey. I am really at my ideal weight now. I can wear anything I want and look pretty darned good (including a bikini last week!) I feel more aligned with myself inside and out. Life is good.

I had a couple of straightforward operations and at each pre op I had abnormal ECGs, went and had heart tests, the best they could tell me was non specific changes, no real cause found, don't worry, off you go.
Then my sister aged 57 dropped dead, no cause found, then 3 years ago my brother aged 59 dropped dead, no cause found.
The Coroner said Sudden Unexpected Adult Death Syndrome.
A few months ago I had another operation, another ECG, still abnormal, went off for more heart tests.
They said I had abnormal conduction of my heartbeat and being technical ..widening of the QRS complex & inverted T waves and after more tests no cause found, hmmm.
So, there's nothing I can do about my badly behaved heart, there's nothing to fix, they can't find the reason and maybe this is why my 2 siblings died, I don't know.
So in a nutshell I got scared enough to think what CAN I do to help myself.
Starting to lose weight and a gentle walk everyday is doable. I'm too scared to join a gym or to do vigorous exercise in case my heart packed up, but a nice long walk never hurt anyone as far as I know.
If I get to my 60th birthday in October of this year I will have lived the longest out of my whole family including parents, plus I'm fed up of being sad & grieving. I'm going to throw the biggest party.
I want to feel better and have a fresh start and forget about my heart. Nobody knows how long they've got , but while I'm here I want to lose weight, put some happiness back in my life, try new things, travel. I feel excited at the prospect, I cannot wait to shed this and other loads, put down my burdens and feel good again.
I don't feel deprived starting this weight loss journey, I feel liberated.
ETA I have about 80lbs to lose and can I ask for new MFP friends so we can motivate each other.
I'm also an empath & good at supporting other people, so if youre shy, struggling, depressed or have any difficulties, I like to think I'd be a good friend so please feel free to add me .

When there was embarassment from other members of my family on my behalf regarding the size of my PJ's that I recieved as a Christmas present.

I was going to the gym already, but they were offering a boot camp starting January 7th and so that started my eating well program too. I lost 7kgs and 20 inches in those eight weeks. Still going strong and keeping up with PT and classes as well as eating well!