What did it take for you to want to make a change?

I was 6mos postpartum and went to sub at a school...I found out several students and teachers thought I was pregnant. and a coworker actually flat out asked me..she was, of course mortified when the answer was "NO" .My body wasn't "going back" on its on the second go round and I realized it would take some work this time!!! I am very proud to say that although I still have a pot belly..I only look about 4mos preg now instead of 7! LOL

Well all I can say is, I have been trying to bring my weight down for years. I am under 4'11" and every time I get on the wii game It keeps telling me I am over weight. For me exercise is not the problem. I did Shaun T Insanity and I got strong but never lost the weight. my problem was my calorie intake. my friend kept telling me. to loose weight you have to put out more calories than you take in. Finally another friend told me about MFP and it told me I was obese. Well I had had enough. I am 39 and knew that I had to turn things around. and MFP is working for me. For the first time the weight is coming off. I have been on the program for one month now and I have lost 11 pounds. It turns out I was constantly overeating. Well, NO MORE. I don't want to be back here next year trying to fix the same problems.

Scarlet Johansson in The Avengers.

I use to be very thin. Then I started on some medication and gained more than 40 pound in one year. EVERYBODY thought I was pregnant and congratulated me all the time. I hated it, but didn´t have the motivation yet. The motivation really came one day when I walked in to a second hand shop and saw a beautiful dress- to small..! (Yes, such a silly reason!) I really wanted that dress, so I bougth it and keep it on the outside of my closet as a reminder.

Several things kinda happened simultaneously to help me make a change for good. My youngest child graduated from high school and it struck me that we as a family are closing that metaphoric door for good and beginning anew. With 3 children, it seemed like school was with us always. As I watched him walk down the isle to receive his diploma, I thought to myself, maybe its my time now.

The biggest issue though was finally going in for a physical and having the blood work come back with some scary numbers. I decided then and there that I did not want to be put on medicine to control my health but that I wanted to do it myself. I have amazing children and an even more amazing husband and I want to be with them for a very long time.

One was a picture somebody took of me.
I looked like a rooting hog.
In fact, I use that picture for motivation....
HERE IT IS

I have been working from home for the past year and a half. When I switched jobs from working more than full-time in a big hospital system where I was on my feet and running up and down steps and all over the hospital every day....I started to put on the weight, which was on top of the weight from my pregnancy. My youngest daughter will be 3 in August, so I can't use the baby weight excuse anymore! Every now and then I go on business trips. When I went on a trip in March, I noticed that my clothes were tight and knowing that I had trips planned in both June and July, I knew that if I continued going the way I was, I would need to buy new clothes...

The real reason, though, is that I want to be an example for my daughters. I am very tall and so are they. I don't want them to get in the habit of thinking they can "carry" extra weight because of their height. So I made the decision to find that tenacity and commitment I had as a college athlete and get the weight off for good!!! I hated looking at pics of me on business trips with my colleagues and seeing how big I had become. It was embarrassing.

I just came back from my June trip to Denver. I had to buy all new clothes..but because my other clothes were way too big! I am ok with that!!! I hope to have to buy more new clothes for DC in July!!!

Good luck to all of you. We are in the right place!!!!!

When I married my husband. He loved me for who I was and I wanted to love myself too.

Losing my hair. I was like a friggin' lionness before - a big ol' mop of fine-but-shedloads-of-it blonde hair, complete with a thick blunt fringe (bangs). And then one day I just noticed that there seemed to be less of it.

Hot date with Google...bam. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which is what was likely causing that oh-so-shameful hirsutism. Male pattern baldness. Grrrreat. I was gonna be a fat balding man - I'd always fallen back on my hair; if it was a Fat Day it was at least a Fabulous Hair Day. Now, I didn't have that guarantee.

I was losing what I felt was my best feature; so decided to stop my body being my worst.

My problem is that, while I KNOW I am about 20 pounds overweight, I am NOT really motivated enough to make a radical change... I am healthy, not worried about my longevity, I can still buy a "normal" clothing size... but when I look in the mirror or at some photos, I'm shocked at how old, flabby and out of shape I appear. Wish there were something more dramatic ("doc says if I don't take the weight off I'll keel over" kind of thing) to motivate me to stick with a program!!

You are in the spot that I was in for about 10 years. I'd bounce from 172 to 180 and back but didn't feel inspired to lose weight more than that. I always intended to go lower but by the time I'd get down to 172, it was getting cold outside and Thanksgiving and Christmas would roll around which meant foooooood! Before I knew it, I would be creeping back up. I was in the size range where I was unhappy, but not motivated.

I don't know that I had a specific moment of motivation but MFP happens to satisfy my "engineer" instincts that let me calculate my improvements and the reason for them. The simplicity of the site has made it something that I've enjoyed.

being diagnosed pre-diabetic. I have never been thin, but I don't want to do diabetes so I am going to change this now.

If you aren'e motivated then you aren't motivated. I think 20 lbs will lead to 30 lbs to 40 lbs until you do get motivated. You are here get into it and you will really be happy!!!

Basil

I've always been a skinny girl, often getting teased for being "anorexic" etc (totally untrue, I ate like a horse!). When I went to uni, however, what with running around and working late into the night, I realised I was very very skinny, so I went to my GP. He told me that if I continued the way I was going, I would have limited chances of falling pregnant at any point during my life, as well as cardio and bone risks.

So yeah, it took my doctor telling me I'd have limited chances of falling pregnant to make me change for the better.

I strained a side muscle wiping my butt, I lost my breath tying my shoes, and Dr. Diagnosed me with type II diabetes. I have a 4 yr. old daughter I wanna see grow up!

It sounds as if exercise would be something that would yield the best results for you. Diet doesn't do anything for flab except make more of it. Exercise gets rid of it.
Exercise can be anything that involves movement. In my case I HATE to sweat so I go to the local rec center and workout in the pool three days a week. I use a combination of calisthenics (weight lifting) and water walking/jogging. In the beginning I was doing a half hour; now I do at least an hour. I easily go longer than this now if I get to chatting with friends during my warm up/cool down phases.
Some of my friends use biking/weight lifting. Others walking/running/weight lifting. Caring for a horse is good. Grooming etc uses a lot of muscles. Whatever, a combination of weigh training and aerobics three times a week, 30 minutes a time will do wonders.
Weight lifting alone will do amazing things to tone you up and make that flab disappear. Good luck.