What convinced YOU to shed the weight?

Tired of dancing to get my jeans on lol

For the first time in my life my doctor told me to and I didn't like how my weight was getting in the way of my doing the things I want to do.

I turned 30, and realized, if I don't lose weight now, when? I wasted so much of my 20's being obese... No more obese in 2012!

The fact that simple things are becoming increasingly difficult - bending over, walking up stairs.

Honestly, I don't WANT to be fat anymore. I don't hate myself, and am not extremely obese. I want to wear swimsuits and not feel terrible. I want to be able to shop at normal stores. I want to be able to wear nice clothing. I want to stick around for the children I will eventually have.

Being single all my life and my lack of confidence were strong motivators. I felt it was necessary to become fit in order to fix these things, especially the confidence issue. At the moment I think I've got the confidence thing down, I don't feel like crap anymore and am now pretty content with myself. Now to work on the other...

Partially when my wife had to have both her knees replaced and the doc said they would have lasted her a lifetime if she hadn't carried so much weight on them.

Started dating again and couldn't imagine "him" seeing me naked at the weight I was... and my blood pressure was getting out of control.

I saw a sign on a corner from my local Curves with a 2 for 1 special called a friend and here I am 28lbs lighter! It wasnt an aha moment, it wasnt I feel bad, it wasnt I want to be healthy now. It was just getting up and doing it and it still took me 3 days to start after I signed up. The very first day I started exercising I started walking and watching what I ate. Now I look back and think why I waited 20 yrs to do something about my obesity. Everyone at the gym asks me what made me do it now... my answer is always the same...I dont know - I just did it!

Several non-weight related health issues in 2009-2010 got my attention about health and that it's not going to get easier as I get older. Then, at Christmas of 2010 (pic), I felt like a bratwurst about to burst on the grill.
I was physically uncomfortable just existing.

I have a lot of nieces and nephews. Three of those nephews I spend a lot of time with and they are an active bunch, so back when I was healthier I was able to keep up with them better having fun at the park and tennis courts. Weight is just a number and in the end it doesn't matter as much as how I feel. When I am working out I have fewer stomach problems, sleep better, and can eat more ;-) not to mention I have a drawer full of jeans that don't fit and now winter is around the corner. I didn't want to have to go trying on clothes and buy BIGGER jeans when I have lots of perfectly good ones in a drawer at home. So gotta get into them before the COLD starts Thanksfully living in FL means I still have a few months.

For me it was taking a good long look at myself in the mirror while naked. That, and I was tired of having so many "skinny" clothes packed away in tubs hoping that I would be able to wear them again some day.

I want to have self confidence..I always had a horrible self image..

When I could no longer buy clothes at even the plus size stores. It's a problem when you're too big for Big and Tall.

Glad to say those days are safely behind me. Anyone need some size 4x pants??

I helped this huge lady to the bathroom at work (hospital) and thought to myself, I'd better not ever let myself get that big. She was having such a hard time getting in and out of bed. Then I peeked at her weight and it was LESS THAN MINE! People who are fat and get around pretty good don't realize how debilitating it can be with just one even minor injury. The patient population is getting bigger and bigger. We have lifts on our units to move people who are too huge for us to left and scales made for livestock. Americans are getting bigger and bigger and it's scary as hell to think that could be me being lifted up by a machine because i'm too big for anybody to help. The foolishness ends today.

I quit smoking because I saw many people die of emphysema and lung cancer. I quit eating because even more people are going to die from being fat. I don't want to be in either group. (I'll probably get run over jogging, but I'll be the best looking corpse in the cemetery!)

I was starting to move less and less and less. I was avoiding getting down on the floor to do anything and even started to stand around instead of sitting so I wouldn't have to get up! My knees. My poor heart - I have a defibrillator in case it just up and stops (put in last year) for my genetic heart arrhythmia, and having less body to pump blood around in will make my heart a lot happier I think.

All my friends (and all my husband's friends) are not only younger than me, they're all much lighter weight as well. I swear it's not my imagination how many times I wasn't included in things (or even my husband wasn't included!) because nobody wanted the fat old broad to show up. Maybe it's not true, maybe it was my imagination - but I really doubt it, and besides, if things go well and I stick with it, next Summer I'll know for sure one way or another, now won't I?

I was always so out of breath! (This is a huge one.)

My fat clothes were getting tight and I just refused to take another day of it.

My cardiologist mentioned I had put on weight and said do something or I will make you get on the scale.

I sense a real turn around in "Fat Nation" - it seems like either more and more people are turning on to this idea that they need to take better care of themselves OR maybe it just seems like that to me as I've surrounded myself with so many people interested in eating right and working out lately. I wouldn't want to be left out of this new wave!