Brutal Honesty - What was the final straw?

For me, it's a little different. I'm not technically overweight (yet ... I'm only about a pound or two away from that line), but my body fat percentage is in the sewer. And I'm surrounded by family, friends, and coworkers who are all battling weight problems -- up to and including morbid obesity -- and suffering mild to severe health problems. (An aunt-in-law nearly died earlier this year from a diabetic episode.)

I've always said "I don't wanna be there" and "That will never happen to me," because my metabolism had previously made things easy for me. Yeah, I was lucky. Until I hit my 40s.

Between 40-45, my metabolism slowed seemingly day by day, and it became a struggle to keep the pounds from piling on. Two flights of stairs would have me winded. Over this recent holiday, I wore larger sweaters to hide the fact that I couldn't button my pants. And a look in the mirror proved that my belly had passed my boobs : )

So 1/1/2012 was my marker -- better diet (though I'm battling chocolate cravings every day!), more consistent exercise, and no skimping on an exercise because I'm "getting" tired -- but instead powering through it until I hit my goal for the day, even when my arms and legs are jello!

A few things, however, the most recent was going to youth convention in October with our youth group and being out of breath from walking to the conference center half a block from the vans and then not fitting in the seats so I had to go find a chair and sit away from the group or stand behind them which screwed up my back and feet. I thought, wow, how did I get here? Even so it took me two months to get to the Dr. and see I weighed a heck of a lot more than I thought and that was when I started to get serious on here. Dec. 1. Next youth conference I WILL be able to be more active with our teens and not feel embarrassed because of my weight.

For me, it was putting on my husband's 34 32 relaxed fit jeans; even they were too tight. I wanted to cry and I was angry. "You reap what you sow and today is your day of sowing from all your choices." That is what I heard myself say when I looked in the mirror. My choices, my fault, and if I don't start improving my health it won't get better. I have heard it so many times from other people - this has to be for life. Not a quick diet exercise program then I can ease up until my clothes get tight again. I am in my mid 40's and my friends are beginning blood pressure, cholesterol, and pre-diabetes medications. I need to be healthy and have energy to see my oldest daughter's wedding this year, grandchildren grow. Spend time with my youngest daughter now kicking the soccer ball or shooting baskets, later high school and college graduation, and then her wedding and more grandchildren. I don't want to be on the sideline with health problems keeping me from all of those things.

Oh my gosh. What an inspiring story. You are amazing. Keep up the great work!

We had cared for my wife and my parents from 1995 to 2000 (ran 3 house and both worked full time jobs) And in the course of a year and a half starting in june of 2000, we lost all of them (my folks died 6 months to the day apart) I shut down lost my faith and turned to food for comfort. I few months later I blew out my knee at work and spent several months trying to get back to work (drove truck/delivered beer for budweiser) but never could and had to give up my job.... after that I shut down. Spent the next several years eating myself to death. By may of 2009 I was all but homebound at 560 lbs. had not left the house in over 2 years and could barely walk from my recliner to the bathroom. My family was there but moving on without me (they had pretty much given up on me and was just waiting for me to die) and that was when I felt totally and utterly alone. The walls felt like they was closing in on me and I spent 3 days in my recliner literally deciding my fate. (yes that means exactly that, hand gun in hand) At the end of the third day my wife came home from work and I said the two words she had wait the better half of a decade to hear... "Help Me" so she took the next couple days off and we started the process of doctor visit, therapist, etc.... Even though I didn't have a clue of how I was going to do this (staring at having to lose 300+ lbs., I had given into the process and stop resisting and saying no to everything and started saying Yes!! It is never to late to change your path no matter how bleak you may think things are, there is always a way out. You just have to want it and then go for it!!

Okay, I'm inspired, I'll share now. I can't say it was the final straw, but it hit home hard:

Facebook, Christmas 2010 I found a friend on there I hadn't seen in a LONG time. We were on the same varsity teams, basketball and track. Anyways, between the time I had last saw her at school and Dec '10, I had had two kids...she had 5 (trying for that elusive "boy" after 4 girls)... And she looks *better* than when we were doing two-a-days in our last season together. I couldn't stop staring at her FB pictures. It hit me that there was no reason why I should look/feel the way I do and blame it on "motherhood". I felt bloated and like crap all the time, and here she was with 5 kids, climbing figurative mountains and felt great.

After that epiphany, my best friend called me on Jan 1, 2011 and said she was tired of looking like a fat mom and was going to start something. I said I had decided the same thing and we've been supporting eachother ever since. She also introduced me to MFP on January 14th 2010 and I've been fighting the good fight here since then. I haven't made it to my goal weight...BUT, I've ran a 10K-82-obstacle-mud-run, a 5K, a 7K, a half marathon, and now I'm training for my first triathlon, I'm on two amazing volleyball teams, I can keep up with my two autistic children now, AND I gave my scale to my friend (who has lost a whopping 30 pounds and looks FANTASTIC! way to go mimi!). I weigh about 10-15 pounds less than I did last year, but I'm 2 sizes smaller and I can run circles and out lift that physically pathetic mother I was last year And this year will out-shine my 2011 self...just watch

you asked for brutal honesty, it was following the seperation of my husband and I and I was feeling a bit, er, lonely, and the men that were aproaching me were not of the standard I was used to and the men I typcially would be with were not interested in me. Took a look in the mirror and went, oh, right, of course that makes sense now

Every time my husband left for a deployment, school, or long training, I would manage to lose 15 to 25 pounds. The last time he deployed, I had managed to instead gain weight.
When he came home for R&R, I was so dissappointed in myself and felt so unattractive that I let it affect my relationship with my husband and I almost ruined the precious 2 weeks I had with him before he had to go back to Afghanistan. The day he left to go back, I vowed I would lose a minimum of 20 pounds before he redeployed.
I started out by eating a little bit healthier and exercising 30 mins, 4 times a week. After 3 months I had only lost 10 pounds. With my husband coming home in 5 weeks I decided I needed to try harder. My daughter told me about MFP, so I decided to try it and I upped my workouts to 1 hour a day, 6 days a week.
The day my husband was back home safe, I had managed to lose 21 pounds.
We had planned on renewing our vows for our 20 year anniversary, which was in 4 months, so that gave me the drive to keep at it. I lost 50 pounds by my vow renewal party.
Now, after one year on MFP (today), I have lost 72 pounds. And after I lose another 4 pounds, I will be at the weight I was before my husband and I got married.

I went on vacation with some friends in October. We were around some beautiful wine country scenery and all of us were taking pictures. A friend took a picture and I was in the background also taking a picture (not realizing he was shooting). I remember seeing the photo later and thinking "wow that would have been a good picture if that woman hadn't been in the way..."

I then realized the larger looking woman in the picture was me... clearly I was in denial.

If that experience hadn't brought it home for me, hitting 200 lbs and having the next size I went up to be an official "plus size" made it official.

i've always had issues i know what they are ....I go drastically one way or the other but really i just want to be at a happy healthy weight and finally practice what i preach to my teenage daughter so she NEVER FEELS how i feel about myself.

I refuse to buy UK size 20 clothes. Trousers/ pants specifically, because of my shape, are always a trial to find in regular sizes and lengths, let alone plus sizes!

I also refused to see 200lbs or more on my scale!! I've come close! Closer than ever before this winter, but I am determined to get off a lot of the extra weight i'm carrying.

I have Fibromyalgia and the excess weight i'm carrying around my butt, my tummy and my hips can't be helping with the pain and difficulty I have walking, thanks to the condition!

My family has terrible medical history of heart disease and diabetes (type 2) so I want to avoid that at all costs!!!!!

I've spent too much of my life being forced into miserable situations because I've felt its whats expected of me! Which used to put so much pressure on me!! Which made me eat!! Which made me feel worthless! Which started the whole cycle over again!

Over the past 12 months or so, I've learned to say 'NO' and make sure that my first priority is keeping me happy and healthy! other priorities are very high, of course, but none as high as these!

I'm well on the way to a new me, mentally, now its time to start taking care of the physical side too!!

xx

When my husband rubbed my belly and asked "Are you gonna work on this sometime soon?"
I was devastated and cried for days.

Ouch! I might have slapped him up side the head

"yeah honey, I want a divorce and everything including the house car and dogs"

My brush with brutal honesty was shopping for family (not group) health insurance a few months ago. Despite having no serious health problems, my weight alone meant many companies excluded my entire family from consideration. This, even though we were never uninsured. Our previous company was just increasing our premium 25% a year until it became unaffordable. There's a happy ending to the story--We did get reasonably-priced health insurance for a great rate, but the process of qualifying for it was frustrating and scary. Thank goodness for our wonderful insurance agent who intervened and persisted until he succeeded.

Its kind of dirty and embarrassing but in the end I saw the point. An ex of mine absolutely loved it when I would work out. He always asked me if I worked out today and if I did it for him. It was nice and comforting to know that I had someone who showed that he loved it when I worked out. It kept me motivated. One day he asked me to take pictures because he hadn't seen me in over months. It took a lot for me to actually do it. But I decided to do it and I did. When I saw the picture I sat there crying for almost 30 minutes before I actually sent it. Seeing all of the rolls on my back made me decide that enough was enough and it was time to eat right. I tried counting points before and it worked but after a few months it just got boring. I was tired of being hungry every day. I got tested for diabetes. I was very close to being diabetic and my doctor wanted me to walk an hour everyday. She wanted me to loose 15 lbs. I ended up having muscle spasms in my back and wasn't able to do any exercising. I gained more weight because of this. At my highest weight of 170 I decided it was MORE than enough. So I found this app and decided to try it. What I found was an amazing thing. Christmas hit so I got set back. I tried to exercise but it hurt my back and I lost my motivation to keep exercising. I recently talked to my uncle who I haven't talked to in probably 20 years or so and found out he was diabetic with knee and back pain. I to have a bad knee and back pain. He is my dads twin. My dad has been diagnosed with diabetes for over 5 years at least. Diabetes is all over my family. Reading this topic made me remember the picture. I have my second zumba class in the morning and I am also going to try a ease into fitness class. Thank God its my best friends parents studio. They know my problems with my back so they are helping me out.

When I realized that my 2nd degree black belt that I had worked so hard for had been loosened so much that the top letters of my name were missing. I earned having my whole name show, darn it! :happy:

I have literally been over weight for as long as I can remember, I was a skinny kid but when I hit 10 I steadily started gaining weight and by the age of 15 I was wearing size 16 clothes. I just kinda accepted being fat as all my family are, with my Mum having very distructive eating patterns and passing them on.
I realised that I could actually loose weight when I started working full time and cycled to work each day, without changing much I was able to loose 2 stone in about 3 months. Once I started Uni and my exercise dropped I gained again, but haven't gone back up to my heaviest.
Now I am just sick and tired of being the fat one amongst my friends, I'm actually a really active person and I know I can do so much more if I lost the weight. I'm really disgusted with my body, I want to change it I want to feel confident in front of people, especially my boyfriend. I just want to know what it looks like to have a flat belly.