I went to the doctor because I was having chronic headaches and insomnia (not that it was related to my weight or anything...), when I stepped on the scale it said 281! I always struggled with my weight but I never ever ever thought I would be nearly 300 pounds!

Total slap in the face that I absolutely needed

because my dad said he was worried about me being overweight. I didn't even realise i was overweight!

I always knew I was at pretty high risk for diabetes because of a strong family history on both sides (both grandfathers, my dad and my dad's last surviving sister all have or had it), so I knew I better lose the weight, but I was just never motivated. For close to 20 years I avoided seeing the doctor until I had an emergency (not diabetic-related). In the wake of that crisis, I had a nice doctor who helped me a lot in getting over my doctor-phobia. Whenever she checked my blood pressure she seemed satisfied with the numbers. But a couple of years ago, she retired because of her own health problems and I went on board with my parents' doctor, who was less happy with my blood pressure: he put me on meds and I started walking some. The following spring, my blood pressure was still a bit high and he had me schedule a physical for the following month and said "try to lose 3 pounds by then and ideally 10 pounds over the next year". I started walking more and watching calories more and lost 10 # by the physical. As of now I've lost 44 #

I decided it was enough when my mother got diabetes, my father had it already and I was 100kg 220 pds and I really didnt want to be a statistic am now 159pds looking at getting to 132pds thankfully have decreased my chances of diabetes by half

even getting winded easily and backaches weren't enough to convince me that it was time to do something about it, I guess I was just in denial.
In fact I never did decide to diet! I had just had some blood work done and the doctor told me that my cholosterol & triglycerides were to high & if I didn't lower them I would develop diabetes! That scared the sh*t out of me because I've seen the problems that friends and family have to endure because of their diabetes and I'm determined to do everything in my power to prevent it from happening to me. She (the doctor) told me to cut the fats & carbs I did & was really surprised to see that I started losing weight because I wasn't even on a diet. Well I got my cholsoterol & triglycerides down to normal but continued with the low cal & low carb and I'm still losing.
This is a new healthy lifestyle for me, it is not a diet.

When people started asking, "When's the baby due?" Come ladies! I know you have heard that one before! Grrrr!

Everyone can do it. I am still struggling its taken me two years on and off to get this far but im nearly there. Anyone got any handy tips

Actually...no.

When all your muscle is hidden by a disgusting layer of fat, no one thinks you're pregnant; just chubby. Sure, my stomach stuck out a little, but my sides were jinormous, so were my thighs, and my face was really fat as well. I had 2 chins and was working on three.

No one gave me the preggo sympathy...

...but if they did, I probably would have cried.

For me, there wasn't any specific moment that made me realize what I'd become. I always saw myself through rose colored glasses and thought "it really isn't that bad." I tried a lot of half-hearted attempts at losing weight, usually via the starvation diet, which lasted a few days and were relatively easy to quit, since "it really wasn't that bad!"

Of course it was really that bad, 250 lbs doesn't sit well on a 5'2" frame, no matter how much I tried to ignore it. I was well on my way to being a diabetic; it's in my family and I was insulin resistant, but even that wasn't enough to make me give up fast food.

What set me on the path to better health was meeting someone who, for the first time in my life, gave me confidence in myself and my ability to make the changes. I felt so much better about myself, that I actually began to think I was worth the effort it was going to take. The difference between this and my previous attempts is this one is fueled by positive feelings about myself, rather than negative. And that's made all the difference in the world for me.

I accepted it was time to lost weight when the scale was dangerously close to reading 200 lbs and when I could barely squeeze into my size 14 pants. I was also sick of binge eating and yo-yo dieting and decided to make a lifestyle change instead of going on a temporary diet.

My partner and I started talking about having children. I already knew that I had polycystic ovarian syndrome and that was going to make getting pregnant harder. My weight was only making it worse. I also had high blood pressure and started taking meds for it at 26! I still have a LONG ways to go but I've lost enough that I no longer need to take meds for my blood pressure. Also, my cycles have regulated and I am ovulating on my own. We don't plan on trying to concieve until my weight is under 170, but we are hopeful that we will have an easier time because I've lost weight.

Shannon

about 10 years ago. I just never did anything about it till now.

For me it was much more about "when did I realize I COULD lose the weight?". I knew I should because:
-- I hated pictures of myself
-- my medical records said I was "morbidly obese", which made me "morbidly embarassed"
-- I couldn't stay in the same size clothes because I kept gaining
-- I hated the stand-up-and-pull-shirt-out-from-fat-layers routine
-- medical problems: likely sleep apnea, worse cramps because of increased estrogen, etc.
-- had no staminia (couldn't go more then 3 minutes on elliptical at first or do a flight of stairs)
-- had no energy

I was convinced I had a thyroid or metabolic problem and got tested for one every year or so. Finally I joined WW in a last ditch effort and so I could say "told ya so" when I failed. Oddly, I didn't fail and I'm still amazed that I've lost weight. I've started a new medication that will probably make it harder to continue to lose weight but I'm hoping for continued loss.

I buy most of my work pants at Target. The highest size is 16 before you have to go to the plus section. The 16's were uncomfortable tight on me.

After I regained the weight I previously lost on WW because I stopped tracking my food, and eating whatever whenever... I had been putzing around with different diets du jour, not sticking to any of them, just getting bigger and bigger in the yo-yo.

Then I blogged about it this month, and I reread my first post... God, I sounded like such a WHINER! It was all I can't do this diet because of blah blah, or that one because of blah blah blah...

It was an eye-opener to realize I needed to get real, and have to start tracking my food to lose the weight. Trusting myself to wing it and cut it down was not working, so here I am.

Plus I also had the nasty health & life effects of:
* Hip and knee pain (at 36, ugh!)
* High fasting blood sugar at last physical
* Wonky extra-heavy periods and adult acne on my jawline/neck until I hid it by going on the Pill
* Wheezing after a flight of stairs
* Back pain
* Depression
* Acid reflex up the wazoo, keeping TUMS at home and work
* Becoming a hermit because I didn't want to go out and be seen
* Jeans wearing out in the inner thighs early on
* Too tired to regularly clean my apartment
* Too much money spent on crap food & alcohol

I just got to the point of being fed up and decided to tackle it!