I have been thinking what was every ones rock bottom with there life, that made you lose weight? Mine would have to be serveral things. 1-i couldnt really stand to take a shower anymore it litterally took my breath away, 2-not being able to go into a restaurant n getting in the booths. 3-when i was 23 i had weighed in at 300 n the doc had asked me if i ever thought about getting gastric bypass n all i kept think was im still young how dare u he made me feel horrible nd i must have cried for about a month and then i had dropped like 65lbs, but then gaining back up to 372. n the main reason y i was living on my own n i had no 1 to cook or watched what i had eaten. so i ballooned back up. n now im starting all over again n i feel great again even tho im still 311. i can breath better. n walk more than 5 feet and not have to sit down. i get excited to go n work out. i just hope this time that it stays at my goal weight and i dont lose my friends cuz when i had dropped that 65. i lost all my gf's and the only friends i have left are guys and they think its great cuz they want to see me as a hottie. and they told me that they wouldnt leave me cuz they know i need this and that i can call them up n say ya i just another 5lbs or im dress size smaller cuz they get happy but it doesnt hut them as if i were to tell gf's. lol maybe just my experience wit the guys vs girls, cuz when i had my gfs some were thin n once i lost it i became a new person and i guess a threat lol and then i had some were plus sized and u ask them to do it with u i think they think that ur saying is that ur calling them fat but i just needed some 1 to do this with me to have support. and with guys there happy and i dont really think it phases them all too much tho lol. well im down for now i thought i would get that off of my chest. lol

any thoughts or comments just let me know

Hrm. I didn't have a single moment or even a handful that made me want to lose weight.

One day, after finally figuring out where this particular WW center was, I just said "Ok. Time to do this." That was it. And so here I am. I have no horrible single moment to look back upon. I think I have some strong goals that I'm looking forward to, though, and that's what has kept me going.

I also don't think I've lost any friends due to changing. First of all, I don't really have many friends. (I don't know why, what with my amazingly charming personality ) Secondly, even if I did have some, I'd be able to alienate them through other means as I always do

Hm, I have always been big. Since I was like 5 years old. I just kept getting bigger and bigger. I got into a serious relationship 2 1/2 years ago and for some reason we just starting gaining weight together. My highest was 258 and I just hated the way that I looked, my girlfriend dropped her sorority, I was always getting sick, etc. Finally we just decided this was it...we needed to get back on the program for each other more or less. I don't want to have a family and be really fat or get too old where I can't get it off.

I've lost half of my weight in the last year and a 1/2..what pushed me this time was my gf saying that my weight was affecting my personality, etc. She wasn't feeling close to me anymore. Also the doctor told me that I should be 120lbs. I was like WOW. I should be a string bean (I'm 5'7.5). I just want to be healthy.

Curvaceous: I am so proud of you for taking the initiative and getting the weight off. You're doing great so far! Keep up the good work! I was so embarrassed to go tot he gym, I thought I was too fat and people were looking at me. I finally got over it and am going to my first kickboxing class tonight.

OH have you tried water aerobics? Those are great....I am starting that on Thursday I think. It's not nearly as hard and the weight comes right off!

illbehot - 120?? That sounds kind of low to me, I'm approximately the same height and NEVER want to see 120. Yikes. I digress.

I didn't have an "aha" moment either... it really didn't start occuring to me until maybe my final high school years that the weight wasn't going away on its own. My mom always called it "baby fat" so I just assumed it'd eventually melt away without me really noticing. I remember getting my first stretch mark on my stomach when I was about 180 or so... I was about 190 in my first year of college, up to 206 in my 2nd year and down to 180 again on my first go with weight loss... Got married and found myself looking at 216, my highest weight ever. The primary reason I want to lose weight is so I can start a family in the near future. There's no way I'm going to have a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy at my current weight. My sister develoepd gestational diabetes and I could see the same happening to me. I also want to be leading a healthy life to set a good example, you know?

I've also never lost friends due to weight loss... My friends have always been very, very supportive of any effort I make. I guess there's one person I can think of who's less than supportive and tries to sabotage me in little ways ("want to go to McDonald's and get a shake before class? I know you're hungry." "your pants are too loose? why not eat more?" etc) but I'm pretty good at weeding those out. I'm sorry to hear you've had people in your life who don't want to see you get healthier and treat your body as it deserves. You're probably better off without them in the long run, huh?

Good for you taking the initiative, though. Doesn't it feel great to feel in control of your body? You can make it work now in ways you couldn't before! I love that feeling, that's the feeling that gets me back up and exercising after a long day. Keep up all your excellent work!!

i guess my "ah ha" moment came when i was listening to myself complain about being fat for the 3430495830th time that day. i went into my closet and had "nothing to wear" mind you i have rows of clothing that i'm just too big to wear right now. finally it happened...i got sick of listening to myself complain.

i'm tired of complaining about this and if it were any other problem i would have fixed it ages ago. if my car was acting up, if i had a bill i needed to pay, a wall i needed to paint or anything else...i would have up and done it. why not this? why not fix this problem too?? why is it okay to complain for months or years on end about needing to lose weight but not actually doing anything about it. my own silly logic finally beat me down and i decided to do something about it.

that's pretty much my story. sick of listening to myself and wolfing down pizza at the same time.

when my jeans started showing my gut again...I grew back my highschool jean bulge..definitely time to shape up!

I gained a lot really quickly due to prednisone, around Nov or Dec. this year I developed sleep apnea (cortisone-type drugs cause fat to build in the neck/face/abdomen, which was cutting off my breathing when I laid down), hip pain, terrible cramps in the lower back just from walking to and from class, gut overflowing the jeans, bras didn't fit, stretchmarks like tiger stripes all over my abdomen, I climbed up the ladder into my parents' pool and my hips wouldn't fit between the ladder sides anymore, but all of that didn't cause me any "aha" moment.

What REALLY freaked me out and made me decide that I have to start exercising more and eating healthy? When, on several different occasions, people I thought I knew well didn't recognize anymore. Like, I'd talk to them in a class and they'd ask me my name. I looked that different that they didn't know me any more, they'd last seen me at 135/140 pounds and suddenly here was an apparently totally different person who weighed 210 or thereabouts.

After Christmas break I gave up soda and started walking at least 4 miles a day, lifting weights, and restricting calories for the first time in my life. (I gained a good deal of weight once before due to antidepressants and lost it after by exercising like a madwoman, but not restricting foods at all).

I find that a lot of it was just being depressed and eating or just not giving a crap about it or anything, laziness and not paying attention; so now I'm trying to be more aware of what I do and do not put into my body. Trying to respect myself instead of hate/not care about myself. [/end rant]^_^

I recently discovered that I am afraid to lose weight because I don't like male attention.

I have an awesome boyfriend but I've always had unwanted male attention since I can remember. My current boyfriend is the only guy that has liked me purely for who i am. I used to have a decent body in high school but in college after being abused, (I was also molested in high school) gained weight and felt happy that I didn't get a lot of unwanted male attention.

I really dont want to sound shallow. But I am just afraid that if I lose weight then guys will hit on me (I honestly hate that, I really do and it makes me feel so uncomfortable). I live in a college town with hoards of sleazy men.

But then I got cancer and then came the depression, so on came the weight (I didn't have to have chemo). So my doctor expressed concern so I've been slowly losing weight. Honestly, it was my doctor.

When I met my boyfriend I was on a strict regimine, and i was down to 163 from 239 which was the lowest i've ever been. After we got together we were too busy, and i wasn't making it a huge priority anymore, and i stopped. So over the course of 2.5 years it's turned into 30some pounds, and unhappy me. I've probably gained and lost about 50 pounds through the 2 years dieting and exercising for a few weeks at a time, and then giving up.

Rock bottom....All of my skinny clothes stopped fitting long ago, so it's not that. I actually saw some pics of me at the bar, and i was like wow that's not possible...i worked so hard to lose that 70 pounds why is it back?? I told myself last year I'd be in a bikini and i wasn't....i told myself a lot of things that never happened. i guess i'm sick of letting myself down, and not having the courage to do things. I'd like to get a new job, but am too embarrassed to go on an interview like this. I'd like to go to school, but i'm too self concious at 23 to enroll, and the clock is kind of ticking! Looking at the big picture and the longterm scope of things i started noticing that things were going a certain way and i never thought they would. I was the popular girl at the prep school who was the captain of the softball team, and smart, threw the good parties, and was going to become a doctor and everything was supposed to be great....and it's not. and staring at failure was my bottom. I came home one day and told Mike that i just didn't want to be me anymore that i needed to change.

I guess they always tell you that if something is preventing you from solving a problem then remove the variable. My weight seems to be interfering with me leading a successful life, so it's time to take care of it.

I didn't really have an ah-ha moment, either. I went to the OB/Gyn a few weeks ago, and although I'm not overweight, I'm getting there. Diabetes runs in my family (mom and grandma have it) and I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, which raises my risk of developing Type II diabetes later on. My doctor said something to me, and said he's concerned about my weight, so I decided to look into developing healthier habits. I was stick-thin in high school, so even being close to 140, it's noticeable that I've put on the pounds, and who doesn't want to look better? Plus, I want my children to develop healthy habits, too.

I guess my most effective ah-ha moment was this past summer. I went with my family and now ex-boyfriend to New York City. I was miserable. All the walking killed me! It was so hard to enjoy anything because I was too tired, and too hot to care about doing anything. After the pictures came back and I looked at them and saw how miserable I looked in them, I knew I had to change. I hated that I missed out on so much, because I was too tired/lazy/fat to care about going and doing them.

This epiphany eventually led to my breaking up with my boyfriend, who wasn't supportive at all of the weight loss. I gained tons of weight in the 2 and a half years we were together, seriously like 80 lbs. I realize how crazy that is. I'm happy now. Looking at those pictures make me motivated to keep going.

When I finally get to post before and after pictures, the before will definitely be of me at the Statue of Liberty looking crazy fat and exhausted.