I didn't have a single a-ha moment this time around. It was a culmination of events. I actually blogged about that last month and it's kinda long, so here's a link to that post:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/diet-blogs...to-live-again/

My "lightbulb moment" was seeing a photo of myself that my sister had taken at a halloween party. She had it posted on her facebook page and I was humiliated just looking at it. I did not realize that I had gotten that big and that's how I looked to others. I guess I never saw myself as that big when I looked in the mirror. I was disgusted and embarrassed knowing that people I hadn't seen since high school (when I was skinny) were probably looking at this picture in horror. I realized then I had to make a change and here I am!

Hello Red Team!!
Went grocery shopping and got everything on my plan for this week. I am a little bit hungry right now but lunch is right around the corner. I have not had any diet soda today so that is probably making me feel sluggish today. I ate horribly this weekend so I am dreading when it will catch up to me. I have gotten 24 oz of water down already so that makes me feel great.

I did not have an ah-ha moment it was more of a perfect storm. I wanted to loose weight, my mom offered to help me financially and none of my spring clothes were going to fit. So it all came together. I followed my plan and educated my self as much as i could about food. Portion control serving size all those things I never ever thought about. I deprived myself, I felt like giving up but I stuck with it and am continuing to stick with it. I faltered a bit over the holdidays but I am back. I do best in the spring when the flowers start blooming and the weather warms up. It gives me a since of hope and of a fresh start.

To answer the question about what got me started...it wasn't a single moment for me, but a series of things that led to me making the changes that have actually worked. It was seeing photos, not liking the fact that my clothing size was the largest I'd ever worn, reconnecting with old friends and not wanting them to see me so big, seeing how bad my mom feels in her own skin because of her weight...lots of things like that. I didn't want to always wish I was strong and healthy again. I knew I could make the changes and make my life what I wanted it to be. Now, here I am looking and feeling TONS better, knowing it's worth it!
Well, on a low note, I'm up about 3 pounds from my posted "start" weight which I posted before holiday indulgence. So, I have to get rid of that weight so I don't show a gain for the first weigh-in...wouldn't that stink!?
On a high note, I've gotten into a good workout routine so far. I'm trying new strength training which was good and challenging today. I'm sticking with 30DS and WATP for cardio until I can get running again. Also, my food has been super good today...that's been a struggle the last couple days that I've tried to be OP since I'm in Feed the Cold mode. LOL Once this dumb cold is gone, I think I'll have less temtation to eat when I'm not hungry. I don't usually have trouble with that except pre-TOM. Anyway, here's to a strong Week 1!!

I've been overweight my whole life. Ever since middle school I've hated my outward appearance. The hardest part, though, was my loved ones. Friends, family members, boyfriends...all telling me I didn't need to change myself. I was beautiful, I wasn't fat, I'm fine just the way I am.

I understand why they would say these things, but it has now become detrimental to my health that I actually believed them.

Also, my schedule is a very out of whack one. So when I post in the nutritional journal, 'Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner' will be more representative of 'The First Meal I Ate, The Second Meal I Ate, and The Third Meal I Ate'.
As I'm sure many of you can understand, "early to bed and early to rise" isn't always necessarily possible for all of us. Some days I will be up in time for breakfast, but most days I won't. Some days I'll be in bed by midnight, but most days I won't. I have three jobs, one of them involving babysitting a 4 year old who is used to being awake for as long as she wants, and just being fed whenever she's hungry. This whole thing is going to take a lot of readjusting, and I can't guarantee every day will be perfectly "normal", but I'm going to try.

For me, starting began in earnest once I saw my doctor. I went in for an earache, but they weighed me and I was over 300lbs. I internally freaked out. I've always been overweight, I cannot remember a time I weighed under 200lbs, and I always based my weigh not on the actual number on the scale, but how far away from 300 I was, and then to have the shock that I was over that marker just told me I needed to do something immediately, but I'd tried so many times before to lose weight and I would only gain. My previous doctor told me I had PCOS and there was nothing to be done about it, I would always be fat, and I believed it until my current doctor (who has worked with my people with PCOS) explained harder, yes, impossible, no and put me on metformin to assist me in my efforts. I am not back down to where I was November of 08 and I can see me getting to 250.. beyond that though, I just can't imagine, but I know I can.

I've also pretty much always been either on the heavy side of normal, or overweight, but it wasn't until mid-2008 that I started to cross the line into...just fat. Although I'd always overeaten whenever I could, it wasn't until I got my license and a car and a relatively high paying job that I really spiraled out of control. I ended wasting nearly all my money on really expensive food, and completely stopped caring about my weight because I was always at work and having way too much fun in general. Between June 2008 and January 2009 I went from approx. 160 pounds to 193, which put me from just a bit overweight to obese. My parents gave me a lot of crap about it, and I stopped gaining, but never had the willpower to start losing. Over the summer, I went on a cruise and started classes at college which led to another gain, putting me at 207 at the end of the summer. Finally, I really started college last fall, and although I went in trying to diet, stress got the best of me and I binged my way to my highest weight, 218 which is pretty much where I am today. I never want to see the 220's and I'm really hoping to ace this challenge and get things right this time. Like many of you I'm above my starting weight (by 3 pounds), which sucks, so I'm really going to be working to get my butt into gear so I can start losing!

Originally it was seeing myself in a department store mirror and literally not recognizing myself! I lost some weight and then had a huge change in lifestyle where i started working from home and packed it on again.

This time around, the wake up call was pulling out my 7 year old daughter's toy box in November to move her room around and finding a TON of empty food wrappers...from all kinds of snack stuff I typically keep in a cabinet in the kitchen for them. I had caught her sneaking snacks a few times in the past and have noticed that in the past year or so she's wanting to eat, eat, eat nonstop but I always said she was just growing. Well, seeing the wrappers and knowing she had snuck all that in to eat privately in her room just made me cry. i am a binge eater and I know she has seen me binging after she is supposed to be in bed, etc. and I feel like it took pulling out that toy box to realize how much I am influencing her.

I asked her why she was eating all that in her room and she said "because you always eat it all before I wake up." This just killed me and I immediately changed things. I am no longer buying snack cakes, etc. I am buying TONS of fruit which my kids love and healthy snacks that are in larger packages, etc. and have talked with my daughter about eating healthier, etc. and I am hoping it's not too late to turn this around for her. She's still eating sometimes when I know she isn't hungry, but it's fruit instead of sweets so at least it's healthier for her...she is not sneaking in her room anymore either, I am thankful we are close and she talks to me openly, she told me last night she hasn't snuck anything since the day we pulled her toy box out.

As for me, I have not had a late night binge since that day! anytime I think about doing that I hear her voice saying "you always eat it all" and see her wrappers behind her toy box and it just kills the binge mood for me. The food is not worth it!

I am the same way! I tend to do well in winter, awesome in Spring, and totally slack in summer.

I am dealing with this same exact thing, except the little girl I babysit is learning things are not the same at my house. She also just wants to eat whenever she wants, sleep only when she's ready, etc. but I just explain to her that's not how it is at my house and she is adjusting to my schedule quickly. She is actually better behaved for me now than she was originally, i think it is the structure that she has never had at home.

Well done to everyone people whose posted a new fridge full of veggies

What got you started on your weight loss journey? Was there a "lightbulb moment" when you knew you needed to make changes to your lifestyle?
Good question! My answer's probably a little weird ¬_¬

It was a mixture of ALOT of things, my weight was slowly climbing uphill, and I wasn't very happy with my own life, not very secure about my future etc etc.
So I just snapped, I realized that although there were alot of things I couldnt change, I didn't have to look the way I did forever~ So I decided to change more than like, just my eating habbits. I buckled down with work, cut out chocolate and unhealthy things that I just don't need- afterall, they don't make me happy. And to be honest, I just sobered up over it.
And I don't regret a thing, every day, I wake up, not feeling bloated from binging, not feeling depressed, not feeling like a loser ( in the sense that I can't stick to something), I feel like a better person, and I'm eager to see myself in a few more weeks
But also ¬_¬ (and this is the strange part) I totally found role models in a music band, and they kind of inspired me. I kept thinking to myself, in comparison to most people, I'd be seen as the fat one, like as a first impression, and it made me cringe.
So yes ¬_¬ Fighting first impressions!

Hey everyone!!

I guess my lightbulb moment was realizing that my son was going to turn one, and I still weighed as much as i did 41 weeks pregnant. My husband and I want to have another baby, but I swore to myself I wouldn't embark on another pregnancy until i was no longer overweight.

You reminded me how much fun that DVD is....when I am whining about not having someone to go to the gym with me....I'll sweat with Richard!

Thanks!

I have been overweight my entire life. Lightbulbs have been flashing all around me at every turn like paparrazzi Some I ignored, some I let devestate me into paralizing despair. I have lost and gained back the same 60 pounds 3 times now in this lifetime. I decided when I turned 40 that I needed to shake this monkey off my back for good. I did great....got as low as I had been in 20 years and accomplished a physical goal I never thought I could. I felt great, looked great but never quite got to goal. Then the very thing I had dreamed of happened. I met and fell in love with the man of my dreams. I got happy, I got distracted and I began to eat like a man and low and behold 35 pounds came back while I wasn't looking. So here I am...facing an unfamiliar scenario and frankly struggling with it. Before I was always losing weight to find a mate and now I have one but need to continue to see this through to completion. I am really struggling with finding new motivation. When I let thoughts like "if you gain more weight you will lose him" sneak in they not only fail to motivate me, they paralyze me with fear and depression and have the opposite effect. So can't use that thought process.

Thought I would scare myself straight by going to the doctor after the weight gain and getting all my stats updated. I figured something had gone astray with the extra 35 lbs. But alas...no! The only bad stat in the 20-30 different tests he ran was my BMI and I could have told him that. BP, Diabetes, Cholesterol, Thyroid function...everything, perfect. I suffer from chronic iron deficiency anemia and even that was registering normal for the first time in 10 years. So I have never been healthier....so that failed to be motivating as well.

I know I want to marry this man and I know I do not want to be an overweight bride the second time around. I want to stand proudly next to him on a beach somewhere with no regrets and lighter baggage. So for now I am going to use the motivation that I am doing this for the future bride who will want to be active, healthy and living life to the fullest with the man of her dreams...

My lightbulb moment was always happening. No matter what I did, I only lost and gained 20lbs just bout everytime I tried to lose weight. Somehow this year, the weight just came off of me and that's when just a couple days ago I actually had an a-ha moment, I wasn't drinking as much diet soda like I used to. It was how I lost 50lbs..might as well keep going and just totally cut out the diet sodas. I knew it was bad for me but I just couldn't stop. It was like I was addicted to it! Just need to drink more water, that's all. *smiles* Also start moving. On average, I noticed I make about 1000 steps a day..sometimes to 2000. After getting the go wear fit, I made sure I got up to 5000 steps a day. Now I really want to get up to 10,000 steps a day! I know I can do it. Just not right now cuz I haven't been feeling too good. I can't even walk across the room with gasping for air. I think it's one of my new meds doing this to me. Have to see doctor bout that. So my aim for now is to make 5000 steps til I get better. *smiles* Looking forward to finally get under 300 lbs! Only 27 more lbs to go!

Question bout the building blocks for the last chance workout! How do I know what I'm doing is for cardio, strength, etc? Here's all what I have: WATP DVD, 30 day Shred and the BL for the wii plus either walking or doing the C25K. With me not feeling too good, I can't seem to move too good. At moment cuz of me not feeling good, I'm aiming for 5000 steps. Once I feel much better, I'll be able to do everything. But please let me know. Can use all the help I can get. Thanks!