What was your Rock Bottom?

iam_thatdude
iam_thatdude Posts: 1,266 Member
in Motivation and Support
I think all of fat muthertruckers all know we need to fix things, but we constantly rationalize, buy a bigger shirt or pants and say "hey, t his looks good enough"....but for me I had two things hit me...and it still took me getting cancer 4 months later to actually put talk into action.

When my son "graduated" elementary school I took a pic with him (as you know us fatsos try to avoid being in pics to hide the truth from ourselves) and when I saw it I was horrified. It didnt stop me from pigging out at lunch after the graduation tho.

THen two weeks later my brother was in town and we hadn't seen each other in 3 years and his first words to me were "dude, what the F happened to you?"

My point is, inside I saw and heard these things, felt HORRIBLE, yet did nothing until cancer...it COULDVE been too late and luckily it wasnt...so I say....to you....dont ignore the truth. If your FAT, get the F up and PUT SOME WORK IN.

Replies

  • guamSUPERgirl90
    guamSUPERgirl90 Posts: 255
    Well said! I too was all talk... thanks to you and my other mfp friends Im able to get up and look forward for another day full of health and exercise... what we NEED. Our health is not something to procrastinate about because once we're gone, we're gone! Don't let others remember you as someone you could've been. Life's too short...
  • guamSUPERgirl90
    guamSUPERgirl90 Posts: 255
    where's that dang "thanks" button...
  • myjourney2
    myjourney2 Posts: 424 Member
    I ended up volunteering at a 5km last October because I just couldnt walk. I had to use my mil walker just to get around. Nothing physically wrong with me - just morbidly obese.

    As I sat on my walker at my post watching all the fit people go by and feeling totally depressed by what I had become, I made a promise to myself that I would run the 5km next October.

    I have lost a total of 15 lbs since then and am starting to feel good about myself.

    Doesnt sound like a large weight loss but I have lost 7 of those lbs by joining the gym last month and finding MFP.
  • newgirl512
    newgirl512 Posts: 58 Member
    AWESOME!!!! See if you can find a running group that has a couch to 5k program. Try contacting small running stores in your area. They can help you get the info you need. I know several people who have done this. The friends you make along the way are even better than the weight lose. AND you have people to keep you motivated and accountable
  • Jph6701
    Jph6701 Posts: 55 Member
    I have been making excuses for myself for far to long. But I have been making changes in my life seeing a therapist etc etc which helped me start my new path. I got up one day looked at myself hated myself even more that normal had what they call a Eureka moment and kicked myself up the *kitten*.
    I have an amazing girlfriend 4 kids and I wanted to feel better about myself and be able to do more things with them and enjoy life better.

    So as you say us fatties all have the same excuses buy bigger clothes,make excuses about not being in photo's try not to do anything that makes us accountable to anyone else.
    That is what I like about this site even though I may not know anyone on here in a real life situation I am still being accountable
    by my Mfp Friends. I find that helps me so much and I really enjoy some of the challenges on here and groups.

    And to add my rock bottom moment was feel crap about myself all the time.

    I Hope your doing ok with your cancer I wish you all the best.

    If anyone wants to add me feel free the more the better.
    Have a great day.
  • nicholettebell
    nicholettebell Posts: 414
    I love what you had to say. It's all true. Even with all the denial of how we look and feel overweight there is a small part of us who are very much self aware of what is going on - prime example would be avoiding pictures.

    A few years ago Oprah was doing a segment about obesity and had asked this one person who had lost a lot of weight, "What was your 'a ha' moment?" The moment where you say to yourself, "I'm not doing this to myself anymore". So because of this I continued to live my very crappy life waiting for this mystical "a ha" moment. Then I reached over 300 lbs and really started questioning myself but even then it took a year or so from then before I finally said "Enough!"

    My rock bottom was waiting for a moment that did not come. My "a ha" moment was the realization that I did not want to wait for that "a ha" moment.

    How are you doing with the cancer? I hope all is well with you.
  • JadeRabbit08
    JadeRabbit08 Posts: 551 Member
    The too long didnt read version -

    I had been feeling desperate for a long time my ahah moment had happened about 40 pounds lighter but I just didnt have the tools to make the change I needed. I had tried a number of times to lose weight with little success. I was getting more and more worried about my health and so frustrated because I remembered my fit active self and I missed all those activities.

    When I woke up one day and my feet had swollen up and my mobility was starting to be threatened I went to the doctor.
    She was great and suggested a faceted approach to the problem and setting up a health plan. I was booked for a longer appointment to put all this together when before that date I stumbled on MFP.

    I hit the ground running. Luckily I had decided to eliminate gluten and dairy fom my diet the day I joined as I had suspected for a long time that it had been causing health problems.

    With the elimination of gluten and dairy my binging behaviour and cravings stopped cold. It was like a miracle. All that time beating myself up about being weak willed and pathetic and all it took was to remove those two components from my diet. 90 days later and counting their still hasnt been a struggle with that issue.

    I have no idea about what the science may be about it but I have had no further problems and my energy levels started to increase within the first few days. Day four I woke up and normally my feet would be tender to walk on but this morning there was no pain. When I looked down at my feet they were normal size. The fluid and swelling had disappeared. There had been so much swelling on the top of my foot that I had excess skin that I could pinch and lift off the top of my foot after it went down. (Thats gone now).

    I believe MFP has saved my life. I really needed this tool to understand and take control of my calorie intake. If I hadn't found it no doubt I would be throwing money I really dont have on one more diet companies program/ products. I have learnt so much from the many people on the forums and its motivated me to do my own reading and research and take responsibility for my health with informed choices.

    The short version

    The last 4 years before MFP were my rockbottom with emerging social phobia from being selfconscious about my appearance, and increasing illhealth as my weight continued to reach new highs, and I didnt get out until MFP threw me a rope.
  • 170isreal
    170isreal Posts: 151 Member
    Rock Bottom:
    ~ It wasn't when I hit 300lbs the first time, it wasn't when I lost 18lbs and promised myself I would never be 300lbs again only to immediatly exceed 300lbs.
    ~ It wasn't when I hated every picture of myself
    ~ It wasn't when I got easily winded
    ~ It wasn't when my face started to become unattaractive

    I hit rock bottom when I couldn't fit on the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios!! It seems I could have had better reasons but this was my aha moment. I started my journey the next day.
  • LisaEileen
    LisaEileen Posts: 185 Member
    I kept telling myself I needed to lose weight for my daughters wedding last August. I knew I had no choice but to be in a billion pictures. As everyone here has said, I avoided the camera like the plague. But, that didn't even scare me enough because I didn't lose an ounce and I look like a blob in my daughters wedding pictures. :(

    Fast forward to Christmas. We were at my Mom's house. She is morbidly obese and doesn't seem to care one bit about taking care of herself. She is on a ton of meds and has every "fat disease" there is. She was having yet another hypoglycemic attack. She was going on and on about how she doesn't understand this because all she at that day was a waffle in the morning. When she said she ate a waffle, she meant one of those HUGE waffles with all the whipped cream and sugar that you get at a restaurant. She ate all that sugar, no protein then didn't eat until 5pm. She does this all the time. It was right then and there that I decided I was NOT going to be her in a few years. No way, no how. I needed to find some self respect and do something about where my body was going. Yes, I have challenges. I have fibromyalgia which is what contributed to my weight gain in the first place. But, I can't get better if I don't try to push past it. It's been a huge struggle and the pounds are very stubborn about coming off, but I'm going to keep going. I refuse to be in the shape my Mom is in.
  • getthisweightgone
    getthisweightgone Posts: 36
    I think all of fat muthertruckers all know we need to fix things, but we constantly rationalize, buy a bigger shirt or pants and say "hey, t his looks good enough"....but for me I had two things hit me...and it still took me getting cancer 4 months later to actually put talk into action.

    When my son "graduated" elementary school I took a pic with him (as you know us fatsos try to avoid being in pics to hide the truth from ourselves) and when I saw it I was horrified. It didnt stop me from pigging out at lunch after the graduation tho.

    THen two weeks later my brother was in town and we hadn't seen each other in 3 years and his first words to me were "dude, what the F happened to you?"

    My point is, inside I saw and heard these things, felt HORRIBLE, yet did nothing until cancer...it COULDVE been too late and luckily it wasnt...so I say....to you....dont ignore the truth. If your FAT, get the F up and PUT SOME WORK IN.

    I totally agree. I constantly heard my mother tell me to go exercise CONSTANTLY, but I ignored her advice for the past 5-10 years.

    I came to realize after I graduated June 2011 from a University that I needed to desperately lose weight, as I felt super uncomfortable in my outfit, and wore my gown through my dinner. How horrible is that? Also, the scale was 288...how scary it was to almost be 300. Another is I'm about to be in my 30's in 4 years, as far away as that sounds it goes by quickly. Also, this is when I want to become pregnant. I don't want to be OBESE during my pregnancy, and I want my babies to be in a healthy body. Nor, do I want to weight 50pounds more after pregnancy on top of being OBESE...oh jeeze, that scares me. My grandma was always healthy, but she has all sorts of cancers, and I don't want to incur costs of sicknesses that I could of simply prevented by losing weight. Also, I want a significant other in my life, so hopefully I will be much more appealing. So far, the results are working! :laugh:

    I had an excuse for not going to the gym constantly, until I heard of Insanity, and my best friend signed me up at the gym with her. I now weight 266.

    My goal: to join the AF, this means lose 80 more pounds. I know when I get there I'll be so happy and feel accomplished, cause I'm stubborn like that.

    Thank you for sharing your story!
  • pclarinetto
    pclarinetto Posts: 33 Member
    well said. i eat a lot of candy and in the back of my head i kep telling myself, cut back or you'll get diabetes. i don't want to get diabetes first to turn my life around hence i started my first day of thirty days free of candy and chocolate! i'm going to get the f up, put some work in, and keep the candy out!
  • pclarinetto
    pclarinetto Posts: 33 Member
    I ended up volunteering at a 5km last October because I just couldnt walk. I had to use my mil walker just to get around. Nothing physically wrong with me - just morbidly obese.

    As I sat on my walker at my post watching all the fit people go by and feeling totally depressed by what I had become, I made a promise to myself that I would run the 5km next October.

    I have lost a total of 15 lbs since then and am starting to feel good about myself.

    Doesnt sound like a large weight loss but I have lost 7 of those lbs by joining the gym last month and finding MFP.

    good for you! every little bit counts and slow and steady always win the race. i don't think 7lbs in a month is a little at all so whatever you're doing keep it up! are you doing couch to 5k/how are you getting ready for that race? my first 5k is coming up in a month and i'm super excited. i already feel stronger so i know i'm "winning" but it's going to be nice to participate in something i never thought i could or would do.
  • nicehormones
    nicehormones Posts: 503 Member
    I think it was one I saw pictures of myself at my ex stepmother's wedding and realized I was no longer part of her family. I looked horribly fat and about to cry in all the pictures. I felt unlovable. She had always been bigger but had lost a ton of weight and had surgery for her skin and looked fabulous. It was one thing we had always shared in common- our struggle. I figured I would have to love myself for the rest of my life, no one else, and I should start taking care of myself.
  • pclarinetto
    pclarinetto Posts: 33 Member
    I love what you had to say. It's all true. Even with all the denial of how we look and feel overweight there is a small part of us who are very much self aware of what is going on - prime example would be avoiding pictures.

    A few years ago Oprah was doing a segment about obesity and had asked this one person who had lost a lot of weight, "What was your 'a ha' moment?" The moment where you say to yourself, "I'm not doing this to myself anymore". So because of this I continued to live my very crappy life waiting for this mystical "a ha" moment. Then I reached over 300 lbs and really started questioning myself but even then it took a year or so from then before I finally said "Enough!"

    My rock bottom was waiting for a moment that did not come. My "a ha" moment was the realization that I did not want to wait for that "a ha" moment.

    you look great and good for you!! way to grab the bull by the horns and keep it up!
  • MrzBlessedLady
    MrzBlessedLady Posts: 164 Member
    I hit rock bottom when I looked at my three driver's license pictures as the years progressed, I took my last driver's license picture last month and I looked so huge I almost cried. From that point on I have been going so HARD.
  • lr8812
    lr8812 Posts: 111
    Rock bottom... realizing, I was 19, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, had the fattest, puffiest and most red face of anyone I knew. I was going no where, had no girlfriends, no self control. Now... I can go out, and feel incredible....
  • xarla16
    xarla16 Posts: 84 Member
    My rock bottom was when my dad sent me a family photo from Christmas on my birthday. I didn't realize how fat I looked until I saw it, I couldn't stop crying when I saw the picture. Initially I hid it away, but I have it hung up now. It took me a few weeks of feeling terrible to realize that I had to do something about it, it was no longer about wanting to lose a few pounds it was about needing to lose them.
  • abberbabber
    abberbabber Posts: 972 Member
    Sending my brother off to the Navy and seeing how horrible I looked standing next to him. And realizing that I was one size away from clothes (women's US sizes) that started with 3's.
  • Bethee101
    Bethee101 Posts: 99 Member
    When I ate at Bakers Square and then bought a French Silk Pie to take home, ended up eating 1/2 of it right when I walked in the door. Felt so sick and disgusting that I went to the store to buy water pills and laxitives to lose weight... what a crappy feeling!
  • achampionsheart
    achampionsheart Posts: 1,020 Member
    I ended up volunteering at a 5km last October because I just couldnt walk. I had to use my mil walker just to get around. Nothing physically wrong with me - just morbidly obese.

    As I sat on my walker at my post watching all the fit people go by and feeling totally depressed by what I had become, I made a promise to myself that I would run the 5km next October.

    I have lost a total of 15 lbs since then and am starting to feel good about myself.

    Doesnt sound like a large weight loss but I have lost 7 of those lbs by joining the gym last month and finding MFP.

    i did my first 5k last saturday after losing approx. 40 lbs.....im not what i consider at my goal yet, but its amazing how a moderate amount of weight lost can be so beneficial.....in no time you will be participating in one, active and fit=)
  • pclarinetto
    pclarinetto Posts: 33 Member
    i remember a moment when i was flying to an audition and saw a guy request a seat belt extender and how i had to expand the seat belt all the way to buckle up. i once flew an entire flight without my seat belt buckled because i couldn't buckle it and was too embarrassed and ashamed to ask for an extender, so i just pretended like i was sleeping and covered myself with my jacket. i NEVER want to encounter that again.

    what's funny is that i still didn't do anything after that. i went home for winter break and met with my doctor because i was having major hand and lower back issues, but i was too dumb to figure out my massiveness led to those things. he suggested that i go to a sauna because i needed to sweat (i never sweat, always hated it) but i HATE getting naked. can't even look at myself so the thought of me doing that in front of people freaked me out. i started running 1 mile a day every day and watching what i ate.

    i guess that was my rock bottom and "aha" moment. my joints were causing me problems and getting stiff, i hated looking at myself, i always felt like people were embarrassed to be seen with me and with all that negativity i finally said "to hell with it" and dived in. signed up at a gym, got a personal trainer, signed up for a 5k and have been working my butt off! it feels great and now i love to sweat! don't know why but it feels so good!
  • xPOOKiEx
    xPOOKiEx Posts: 156 Member
    My rock bottom was a little different. It happened when I didn't eat anything for a week straight. I lived off of water, and diet dr. pepper. I was not at all underweight, or over-weight. I was average size and what any doctor would call healthy. I just wasn't happy with my appearance so I took drastic measures to change it. And it worked. I lost 10 pounds in 1 week. I was a corpse pretty much though. I was severely fatigued and didn't feel well mentally. I knew I needed good healthy food but I decided not to eat it.

    I passed out with friends and they called 911. After being admitted to the hospital I knew it was time for a change. I started eating healthy and working out regularly. I have my bad days where I think it would be easy to resort back to that for an easy weight loss.


    I am on MFP to re-learn how to be healthy. To hold myself accountable for my intake and exercise. I need to stay here for my boyfriend and family. I need to be healthy for my own sake.
  • achampionsheart
    achampionsheart Posts: 1,020 Member
    my rock bottom was when i was told that i had type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol at the age of 32....LAST YEAR....i was at my heaviest, 232, and am now at 193....it is not easy, but i knew that diabetes has a great track record of KILLING.....so i told my fat a** that i was not going to be one of them.....i have alot to live for and am living proof that someone that thought they could never lose weight REALLY CAN if you put forth the effort, hard work and determination it takes to do it.....i have so many healthy goals that i want to see come to be in my life that i cant stop now.....all it takes, yall, is ONE HEALTHY CHOICE, and one healthy choice leads to another and another and another.....YOU CAN DO IT.....SO GET UP AND GO FOR IT
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    I hit 301bs after getting out of an abusive relationship and having a nervous breakdown. I didn't care I'd been piling weight on coz I hated myself. I was admitted into hospital with gall bladder attacks and told I couldn't have surgery because I was too large. I had a new fiance and 2 step kids, something snapped in my head! I deserved better, the past wasn't my fault and my finace and kids deserved better. I have fybromyalgia and my quality of life was horrendous. I couldn't do family walks etc. Little did I know I'd need major surgery for liver tumours. This was much safer for loosing 56lbs and I'd lost enough weight to have key hole\laprascopic surgery instead of a massive wound. Being active has greatly helped me depression and fybromyalgia. My new life is amazing compared to the quality of life I used to have. I'm 245 now and nothing will stop me from getting to 160 or less. NOTHING! Still have self confidence issues, and the past will always be part of me, but I refuse to let it define me anymore! X
  • Rosa1213
    Rosa1213 Posts: 456 Member
    This may not sound like such an "a-ha!" moment, but a week or so ago, my boyfriend wrote an article for his university newspaper about the increasing obesity epidemic, and its title was "You're Fat". Now, being the loving girlfriend that I am, I read all of his articles, every day, and I wasn't going to skip this one just because it was about being overweight.

    He's never ever made a comment about my weight that is hurtful, and he always tells me that I'm beautiful, no matter what. But I just couldn't shake this gross feeling of how I'd feel if he ever looked at me and said "You're Fat". Then I found MFP, and the rest is history :)

    2 pounds lost, many more to go....
  • kvandver
    kvandver Posts: 2
    My husband lost 143 lbs over a year and a half, but I still wasn't motivated enough. He did it with cutting his diet and taking those weightloss shots, but he never worked out, so his skin was saggy. I didn't want to get saggy skin, so I decided not to diet, and just stay away from cameras.

    Then my family (parents, 3 brothers, all their families) decided to come down in 2 months to go camping. With ALL of them being on Facebook, I knew that pictures would be taken and posted for everyone I knew in high school to see. (I haven't seen many of them in 15 years). I just cannot let that happen. So, I started dieting and exercising. I now exercise twice a day, with walking in the morning and rotate P90x and Turbo Jam in the evenings. So far so good, only been doing it a week. I have already lost 9 lbs and 6 inches...
  • kimanne4
    kimanne4 Posts: 52 Member
    Seeing 249.4 on the scale is what did me in. I haven't weighed myself in forever and when I saw how close I was to 250 I about fell over. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of shopping in the women's section. I'm tired of hearing my ex's voice in my head saying I'm fat. Most importantly I'm not ready to be sick. I don't want to be a diabetic. I don't want to have a heart attack. I don't want my joints to hurt because of the weight I'm carrying around. I guess the ah ha moment is when you decide to take control and fix yourself. I'm so thankful I got on that scale. It's changed my life:)
  • ChristiH4000
    ChristiH4000 Posts: 531 Member
    I love how straightforward we can be on here. Thanks for the topic, dude, you are spot on.
    Rewind to 2009 and the end of a horrific disaster of a marriage. I was at 235lbs and stopped working out 4 years prior because my cheating husband thought I was cheating on him when I tried to go to the gym. My only physical activity was occasionally walking the dogs. I agreed to participate in a 5K walk for a corporate challenge my office was a part of. I finished but was completely miserable, sore, and exhausted. Marriage counseling was continuing to go nowhere to the point where the counselor agreed with me when I brought up divorce. My finances were a disaster. I was regularly binge-eating with zero restraint. My whole damn life was imploding, and all at 26 years old. When people ask me now how I did it, I jokingly say that I got divorced, but it truly was the catalyst for a change in my life. Before I wasn't identifying with my own needs or emotions, and I finally found an age of maturity where I understood myself better than ever before. I let go of not caring about my health, emotionally stability, or weight and started making changes to improve all these parts. I'm almost 29 now, and life is so much better. I work out 4 to 5 days each week, and lost 50lbs. I'm in a new and good relationship, but I loosened up on my eating and exercise gaining 10lbs back. At the beginning of the year, I added back my Saturday work outs. In March I started a C25K program. Almost two weeks ago I joined MFP to get my nutrition right. I want to make my goal weight, and keep fitness as a part of my life forever.

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