[gremlina]

All my life I've felt fat. There have been several times in my life I had that eye opener. The first was in 9th grade and I proceeded to lose about 40 pounds. Then gradually I started to put it back on because really I had practically starved myself to lose that weight (I was in H.S. and trying to fit in). Through college I went up and down. Then about 2.5 years ago I realized just how much I let myself go when I went to a recruiters office and was weighed in at 190!!! Unfortantely I wasn't ready to do something about it then and I gradually increased in the next year or so until I hit 210. Then I realized I really had to do something and I got in gear and lost 25 pounds for my wedding. Then I've proceeded to gain it ALL back again and finally about a month or so ago I read the scale at 215 and I was shocked beyond belief..I just said to myself I cannot continue on this way. My grandma died a couple years ago and I remember her saying that she didn't want me to get to be as big as her. My other motivation of course is that my husband is AD military and so I really would like to lose the weight so he can be proud to show my pictures off when he is deployed again.

[Flipsyde]

Mine was two things that happened to occur back-to-back. The first was that I took my "fat and comfortable" jeans out of the dryer and they were waaaaaay too tight. I just chalked it up to the dryer shrinking my favorite pair of jeans down to a size that cut off my air supply. About a week after that, my cousin and I went to a concert we had been anticipating all summer. We took so many pictures, but when they were developed, I noticed how fat I looked in each and every one of them. I literally tore up all the pictures of myself, essentially "cutting" myself out of the event. I also realized I had done this many times before with other things. I was slowly erasing myself from my own past! I cried and cried that night and decided I needed to take control of myself, and my future. I have only been on this diet for a month, but this is the first time I've lasted longer than two weeks and can honestly see making this my lifestyle. Whatever the reasons people have, I'm glad you're all here so we can cheer ourselves on.

[JigglyBits]

My eye opener was reading Bob Greene's book. After reading it I walked to the mirror and really 'looked' at myself. I knew that I could do it. The next day i jumped right in, decided to do a calorie-counting diet and get started.
That was a year ago, now I still refer to his book for motivation.