Weight Watchers - What was your deciding factor to finally do it?

We all looked in the mirror every day and ignored what was happening to our bodies. But there's always that one big push that finally makes you decide to get real and do it. What was yours?

For me it was a sunny afternoon, sitting on the front porch with a friend and I looked up and saw my reflection in the window on the front door. Sitting is a much different view than standing! I saw Jaba the Hut looking back at me. Yikes!

~Dolly

I think it was a mixture of being winded every time I walked up one flight of stairs and noticing I didn't have an awful lot of pics of me with my brand-new baby. Never being noticed anymore by the opposite sex also really sucked.

Well, it was a combination of things for me. I turned 33 this year and I just had this feeling that this was a year of change. I have been floundering since January, and I was listening to the radio and the host said something that got me thinking. He said he use to be heavy and he would see someone in good shape and say, "I'd kill for a body like that." Then he though, well if I would kill why wouldn't I work a little harder?

So I decided that getting healthy was the most important thing in my life, and I'm fighting and I'm not giving any ground.

I've been trying to lose weight for a long time. I was a healthy weight as a kid. In HS I was a healthy weight. In college, I ranged from being within a healthy weight for my height and being a few lbs over the maximum that is considered okay in the BMI. But after the birth of my first child in '96, the weight just crept up, up & up. By the time my son was 4, I was more than 60 lbs heavier than I had been pre-pregnancy. My weight didn't pile on with pregnancy. I gained somewhere in the 30 lb range. After my son was born, I had 12 lbs to get to my median weight (not exactly my pre-pregnancy weight b/c I had lost some, but my median weight from during all of college). I never lost it and only gained.

I guess I didn't really start trying any definite weightloss/get healthy plans until 2006. We had had a second child in '04. I had started out obese...196 lbs on a 5' body. But I only gained 8 lbs, then lost that just fine. It wasn't until my weight started coming up again in '06 that I decided to try a program. Then it was Eating for Life, which was starting to work for me. But I ended up with a hospitalization & emergency surgery for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, which of course slowed things down. I had a 6 week ban on lifting anything over 10-15 lbs. I had to take it easy due to the nature of my incision (big, vertical, with staples). And whenever I looked back to estimate time of conception, I found it coincided with when we started working on losing the weight, and that really impacted me.

It took a year to overcome my aversion to any dieting, but I have still been unable to overcome a ridiculous aversion to EFL. As healthy a plan as it is, I still get emotional over our loss and I still associate my using that plan with the time of our loss. So a bit over a year ago, I started on the next quest. I tried South Beach about 3 times. Had a quarter-hearted attempt at You On a Diet once or twice (but started to gain each time). Tried Slim Fast for a month or two. I did lose a few pounds that I managed to keep off before starting WW.

My deciding factor to try Weight Watchers was my sister. My mother-in-law had been talking about WW for a few years, but I didn't feel it was for me for some reason. Perhaps I was just too headstrong about trying the other plans. Perhaps I was unaware at the time that I could do it at-home.

But my sister...I have two sisters. One has always been really skinny. You know, the type who was able to get back into skinny pre-pregnancy clothes within just a few months of her pregnancies. She has never been over a size 7/8 ever...other than during pregnancy of course.

The other sister has struggled with her weight since hitting puberty. In '97-98, when she was single, childless, in her last year of college, and could afford it, she did Jenny Craig and did great on it. But once she got married in late '99 & started having kids mid-May '01 (2 of her children are 17 mos. apart, there are 3 years between 2 & 3, and just barely 2 years between 3 & 4) and couldn't afford all that food anymore, she was back to struggling.

Her husband's sister, who had had tremendous success on WW, gave her a WW kit as a gift. My sister shed over 20 lbs in 3 months and even when she was off-program, she maintained that. I'm not sure how she's doing now. My husband recently asked her how the diet was going and she said she had been off it for a couple months due to a lot of stress (sick kids all the time, money stress).

She is also our most shy family member but really lit up when she was explaining how it worked. She really loved the flexibility of Flex, and didn't feel she was denying herself. And she had such good success with it. Those things really sparked the interest for me. After she sat down with me and showed me her materials, I decided was going to give it a try.

I'm only down maybe a little over 10 lbs since I started on April 8, but that is still 10 lbs less of me since then! 10 boxes of butter. 10 cans of soup. 2 bags of sugar or flour. I enjoy the flexibility and I'm learning things about myself. I know my loss could be greater if I stayed on-program all the time and incorporated more exercise than I do, but I get off track quite often due to traveling to see family and TOM. I'm trying to do a better job of staying OP when we're away, and I'm learning what foods trigger me getting off track for more than a day.

The unique thing about my experience with WW (and I do it at-home) is that when I fall off the wagon, so to speak, I keep trying. I might be off for a week, but I get determined to start again and I do. This is the longest I've been on any plan, even if it's on again, off again. I find no faults in WW. I know it's me. I have no excuses. With SBD (and I still love their recipes), I was able to say: "I can't do those first two weeks without grains/breads/cereals or fruit!" and I meant it. With Slim Fast, I was able to say: "You know, the weight is coming down, but #1: I'm feeling conflicted about using foods that all contain corn syrup, and #2: I don't know how long I can go having to drink the drinks and eat the bars, even though I'm also eating real food."

With WW, I only have myself to blame for not losing 15 or 20 lbs by now. And I'm okay with that. I'm learning a lot. I don't feel like a failure; I don't feel like I can't try again. I know I can, and I really enjoy how much I can do with Flex.

I know this turned into a "what led me to WW and why I still love it post." Sorry!! Bottom line, my sister's success and enthusiasm inspired me to give it a try. I figured there was "nothing to lose" (except the weight, of course) and have been very happy with the choice to give it a try. Looking forward to losing my next 10 lbs!

I looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw then I realized for myself that I need to look and feel healthy. I wanted to have better self-esteem. For me its a lifestyle change not just a diet. I started today and I'm gonna stick with it for the rest of my life.

Mine was going to the doctors and knowing that I've gained weight but having to actually see that AWFUL number, the biggest number I've EVER seen on a scale for myself before..... That and having my younger brother ask my parents if i was ok? because I look like ive gained a lot of weight. =\ But i know it was never meant in a mean way.... its the ones who love you who notice things. So someday I'll thank him.

Buying a $75 bra and having to sew my own underwear, guilt about throwing family pictures away, and watching a show called "You are What You Eat" on BBC.

Trying on a bikini, and having to go to the doctor once every three months for a while.

I LOVE that my obgyn is excited for my weight loss :)
(i've lost 4 lbs with the past 3 visits hehe!!)

I've always wanted to lose weight, even more so when I was in Europe. I felt like I missed out because it was hard for me to climb the Alps, I was so winded! What made me really start losing weight was when I ran out of excuses not to. My employers gave me a gym membership, they bought healthy food, and I realized I had to motivate me. I said I couldn't go to WW because I'd be the youngest and they wouldn't have a time for me to go. I am the youngest, and so what! it hasn't killed me, and there is a meeting that I can make! Also I know I'm going back to Europe this summer and I want to be able to fit on the train seats, and have energy to spend two weeks with non stop adventure. I want to be able to enjoy myself and to shock my Italian and German host families!

being at my highest weight ever and hating the way i looked in pictures made me start. i want to see the person i know i am reflected in my picture/mirror.

When I stepped on my scale and saw a number I have never seen before in my life. I don't know why but it really hit me then. Also I think it's because I'm turning 30 in October and I want to start this thirty thing off right :)

When my mood due to hating my weight was effecting the way I was with my kids. Always crabby and never wanting to do anything.:(

With my 40th birthday approaching far more rapidly than I would like, I reached 98kg. That's when I realised I was 8kg heavier than when I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant, and was going to hit the 100 mark if I didn't do something about it.

I've done weight watchers before with success, but my then-husband wouldn't let me keep going (that's a whole other story!) So I signed up for online because my work schedule means I can't go to the same meeting each week. Plus between here and the WW forums (which aren't as good as 3FC, by the way!) I can hopefully get the kick in the pants I need to change my life.

to make my gf happIER.

when my "heavy" clothes began to get tight...when i took photos out with friends, i couldnt find myself in the picture, kept scanning past the biggest girl there and i couldnt believe that was me...when i got home for summer vacation and my mom didnt over react and say how beautiful i looked...and when i stopped feeling sexy around my DH to be...nothing worse then the way you feel about yourself...

Someone asked my mother if I was pregnant!! - Yup! That did it for me!

Someone asked my mother if I was pregnant!! - Yup! That did it for me!

Oh, no! That's the worst, isn't it? I had similar things happen a couple times and it really upset me.

When I called about insurance for myself..the original quote was 83.00,when my weight and height was added in,it jumped to 125.00..That was what decided it for me,I'm tired of being discriminated against just because I weigh more than the person before or after me and I'm just as healthy if not healthier than they are and don't go to the doc 1/2 as much...it really burns my hiney!!

When I went to the doctors and he warned me about my health risks. I don't want to die young, and I don't want to get heavier. I had ignored my increasing weight until then.

Also I know I'm going back to Europe this summer and I want to be able to fit on the train seats, and have energy to spend two weeks with non stop adventure. I want to be able to enjoy myself and to shock my Italian and German host families!Rock on, girl. You can do it.

I didn't start out on WW right away but I still had a moment that turned me around.

I grew up as an obese child and I don't remember a single time in my life when I wasn't very overweight. Fast forward to age 22-23 when I got a great job and ended up travelling for business twice per week on out of town assignments. Due to this, I always had an expense account so I could order whatever I wanted at dinner--including drinks--and not have to worry about the cost. Never having been educated about healthy eating (or caring to educate myself), I made the worst choices based on foolish desires and continued to gain weight.

Finally, one day I got on the plane to go to a client site and I couldn't buckle the seatbelt anymore. It had always been a struggle for me but this time it just would not close. In my shame, I couldn't bring myself to ask the stewardess for a seatbelt extender. It was then I realized that I was putting myself at risk. If something went wrong, I would be in greater danger than everyone else. I then got to thinking that I was putting myself at risk every day with my unhealthy lifestyle. It all hit me like a ton of bricks and I resolved, right then and there, to change.

I weighed myself in June of 2006 at 298 pounds. I lost 72 pounds on my own with a series of lifestyle changes. I'm in no hurry to lose the weight. I want it gone and it's never coming back. I do not diet. I needed to be different. In late November of 2007, I decided to join WW to have a group to be accountable to and lean on when I need support. I have lost an additional 46.6 pounds on WW since then for a total of 118.6 pounds lost overall.

I'm not "there" yet but I know I will get there and I know there's no going back.

When going through some pictures I'd just gotten back, I had to stop to see who the unpleasant-looking person in a certain picture was. Of course, it was me! I've been a Lifetime Member for three years and will work hard to never go back to the way things were!

Susan

I went to my annual appoint one year after my son was born weighing the same as I did the day before he was born. That was awful! It clicked the switch in my brain. It's been a long 3 years with several set backs, but I'm on my way to a healthier me.

It was when I i woke up one day and realized that the weight had finally gotten so bad that the depression, laziness, the late night eating was destroying my relationships with the two people who love me more than anything.

With my boyfriend of seven and a half years - we were so unhappy with how we both looked and felt that we were ripping each other apart every chance we got. After a final blow out, he moved out of the house and I spent a lot of time contemplating how much of our problems were mine due to a lack of self worth and helplessness. We started WW the day he moved back in. Turns out we weight exactly the same (well at the beginning I have dropped 6 pounds and it turned out i only weighed 265)

With my baby sister who is nine, who looked up to me as a role model, and she is now in the 95th percentile of childhood obesity. This change has begun effecting her too... How could I have not changed for her...

My back hurt, my neck hurt, I was spending my days in a recliner. I always asked myself how someone could get upwards of 900 pounds, keep eating, end up on TV and just end up dying wishing they had done something. I realized how it was going to be done. I felt, and truly thought that my weight was upwards of 350 pounds and without a scale in my house, i believed it. I always told myself that being fat was just like having blue eyes - it was just part of who I was. Not anymore.

I realized I was becoming one of those people who couldn't sit in "normal places". The chair swing ride at the fair was too small. Lecture seats in my school had become too small. I was tired all the time.

I think the chair thing was the biggest "OMG" moment, though, because the fact that I couldn't fit in chairs meant for the general public was... scary. I didn't think I was that big.

Hi! This is my first post on this site! I figured this would be a good place to start. I just joined weight watcher's yesterday, so I've not made much progress...haha. I decided to join after lurking around on the site for about 2 weeks and reading all the great things on this board and seeing everyone's weight loss ticker's with such great results!

My name is Jennifer and I'm from Texas. I'm 20 years old and I'm a fulltime radiology student. The reason I decided to start WW is because I'm sick of feeling so unhealthy. I've tried Atkins...I've tried "normal diet and exercise"...I've even tried calorie counting. I started my calorie counting in May and lost 5lbs in about 7 weeks, but calorie counting limits you on a lot of things and I always seem to fall off the wagon and have to jump back on when I don't really feel up to it....at least you can go out to eat and still have your regular meals when you're on WW!

I have a digestive disorder called Crohn's Disease. I've been chunky since I was a child. My senior year of high school I got really sick and had a lot of rapid weight loss and weighed 186lbs. Then, when I was diagnosed with Crohn's I was prescribed a steroid called prednisone. After taking that for 4 months...I gained 80lbs...and then only ended up losing 30 of those pounds when I was taken off the medication. I have back problems from my weight...and my back KILLS me when i'm at clinicals...and I don't wanna deal with that for the rest of my life. I don't wanna always be bogged down and in pain while I'm doing what I love the most!

So this is a start...towards a new me...I have a feeling it's gonna be a long, hard, bumpy road, but I think I can do it!

I didn't want to be a fat mom. :( I want my son to grow up healthy and the only way I could do that was to show him a healthier lifestyle, I needed to set the example. I was tired of spending twice as much on clothes because I couldn't shop at "regular" stores.

The next size of pants was a 1X. My daughters are 9 & 14 and I want to be around for them. I also wear shoe prostesis and have lymphedia in my right arm. Both of these will give me less problems if I am at my ideal weight.

The reason I decided I couldnt be this fat anymore was looking at pictures of me. I mean I realized I was fat but after taking pictures with friends and family and seeing how big I really am made me realise I need to make a change.

I started this thread, but as I was reading some of these posts I remembered something from years ago. My son was still a baby and I had decided to stay home with him as long as I could. I had no idea how much weight I was gaining until one day I was walking along side some windows outside a store. There was a woman walking along the inside of the window following me, so I finally turned to see who it was and it was my own reflection. I was shocked at how big I'd got. But unfortunately I didn't do anything about it back then and it's been a roller coaster ride ever since.

Thanks for all these great posts. Keep them coming!
~Dolly

for me it was time to get healthy and rejoin my husband doing some of the things we like to do, hike, ski, and cycle...... wasn't goign to be doing those things with the way I feel right now..... plus we go to the UK every year and while the seatbelts on the plane fit fine, it is not comfortable and always a worry..... I feel like a lug when I am running the dogs around the ring.... and I would really like to do agility with them but right now I dont feel like its an option.... I want people to be watching the dog.... not the fat chick running them.....

Just the other day we were talking about going on a glider ride and to iceland and you have to be under a certain weight for both..... and I was under for neither.... so there is the motivation for me

I guess I could quote the old adage "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired."

I just didn't like the way I looked, but mostly I didn't like the way I felt all the time. I knew it was time to take charge and make a change. :)

My little sister was in a Miss Preteen Texas pageant I had pictures of us taken. However when I got them back...I was so shocked. I thought that outfit was flattering !Profile picture! btw. Realizing I had let myself go....was heart wrenching.....and my fat pants I laughed about were a little tight.... so maybe it was all of that and maybe its my superficialness of refusing to buy size 18 pants....either way, here I am :)

Two things finally pushed me over the edge...

Family trip to Costa Rica (husband's family) and we wanted to go scuba diving. They didn't have a wet-suit big enough for me to train in. I was mortified and ended up not going on the dive b/c I was afraid I'd get out there and wet-suit the trainer was going to get for me wouldn't fit, either. I've ALWAYS wanted to scuba dive and I couldn't.

When I got home, my bad knee (old track injury, I've torn cartilage 4x and had surgery once) was stiff and painful. Went to the ortho surgeon who said the 3 magic words: TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT. I was 36 years old at the time, and he gave me 5 years.

So a mixture of humiliation and anger that I couldn't do something I've always wanted to do, and then the threat of a super serious operation a good 20 years before the majority of people go through it. I started WW two days after my doctor's appointment.

I stepped on the scale on a random day (July 6th) only to find that I weighed in at 324 lbs. I stood there shocked for a moment before I actually cried. That was the highest weight I have ever been, including during my twin pregnancy, and I vowed then and there that enough was enough.

I started WW that day.

I was squatting down in the bathroom to get something and glanced in the body mirror, I had the hips of a fat person. Also I was able to see my profile in a friends bathroom mirrors,, and noticed I had a double chin.

A few things did it for me -- I looked pregnant at my wedding last year because I was so big, but big financial problems caused stress and the inablity to buy healthy options. Kept putting it off longer and longer until I was so tired of sleeping 10-12 hours a day, not fitting my clothes anymore, and being tired from simple activity. My mom joined WW back in January, and seeing her do it really inspired me to think I could too. I've definetly got the swing of things now but I still call her at least 2x a week with questions, haha.