I've been trying to lose weight off and on for years but what really kinda pushed me over the edge was seeing just how much I weighed back in September. I'm required to take two PE classes and I decided to do personal training first to get myself into better shape before trying anything group oriented. The first time we met, he took down information about me including my weight and it was 181 at the time. I was so shocked and embarrassed that I was like, "Holy crap, time to put down the junk food..."

I gotta say it... one of my big straws this time around was "If Snooki can do it, I can do it!"

I also was a ballet dancer through all of high school. I know i'll never get down to my dancing weight again, but I would like to be toned enough to feel comfortable in my skin. I would LOVE to take ballet classes again simply because I miss it. I havent taken a class in almost 4 years now, and I just really want to get back into it!

Great thread.

The first time it was calculating my BMI and realizing I wasn't "a little heavy" I was "clinically obese". Oops. I was 21.

Now I'm 31 and back actively tracking because I had to buy bigger jeans, again. I know I'm sexy but have a much harder time seeing it when I'm heavy. I deserve to have it in my face all the time no matter what I'm wearing, if I'm being photographed, etc.

Lots of things, breathing hard, goin to busch gardens and having someone help buckle me in, and basically I just want to feel better about who I am, and have my stomach not touch my legs blaaah

I really don't know. I have a lot of straws that eventually led to another effort to lose weight. The first was that I noticed I was nearing 300lbs and I told myself I wouldn't go above it. The second was that my grandpa had a stroke, and while his wasn't weight-related, I felt a need to improve my health. Lastly, because I feel like I'm letting my boyfriend down. I've been with him for more than two years, and while he still loves me and finds me sexy (idk why), I feel a need to be thin for him. I know you're not supposed to lose weight for external reasons, but he suffers because of my weight. He tells me they don't, but I know his friends pick on him for having the fat girlfriend. He supports my weight loss efforts, but he told me he doesn't want me to be a stick. So I'm going to aim for 170 pounds. It's a healthy weight, but I'll still be curvy.

No final straw, just the dawning realisation that it was now or never.
I'm 40, at the stage where what I do to myself is really starting to impact my health, possibly past the point of recovery. I do not want to be on meds the rest of my life and I want my kids to see and use me as a good example, not a bad one.
I hate the way I feel and look.
So I quit smoking and started working out...we have the equipment, so there was never an excuse for me not to. I was just lazy.
I think the final realisation that I was my own worst enemy and the only way I was ever going to change myself, was to change my attitude and way of thinking completely.
I don't want to be a supermodel...that was the previous mindset and totally unrealistic. I want to be slim, well toned and healthy/vibrant looking.
I am not sure of what my final weight will be...if I lose too much and start looking gaunt and feeling lethargic, I'll start gaining until I find my happy place again! I also realise that losing is the easy part...maintaining is the real challenge.
Every little change I make and every improvement I see is now an incentive to keep going. I know that ultimately, it's the little things that makes the big picture.

when I noticed I basiclly stopped having sex or feeling good around my husband.
He is awsome and is all over me but I saw one day recently that I am pulling away (literaly)

i hated hating myself so start my plan 6/1/12 after my surgery YAY

I had a few last straws and with each came a new realization about weight loss. For example one year during finals in college there was literally a chocolate massacre. It didn't even taste good at a certain point but I was so upset about finals I just kept going at it. After that night I felt so gross I vowed to lose weight. I didn't end up losing weight but I cut out almost all sugar (I HATE artificial sweetener in my morning coffee) and oil (I might have tuna in olive oil or a little bit of vinaigrette) and white carbs and started eating really good food. I still lacked portion control though and maintained my weight. Then I moved from an urban to a suburban area which allowed me to go biking and hiking which is amazing because a treadmill makes me feel like a hamster on a wheel. What got me to this point where I decided I wanted to lose all the weight once and for all was actually my husband. He was 235 lbs 5"11 and totally grossed out by himself. I saw how upset he was and how much my positive influence could help him because he couldn't do it alone. Of course I wanted to lose weight too, but it was the realization that dieting was something that could so positively influence my husband that got me to diet.

well I had let myself get so huge over time but I didn't care. I have been overweight almost my entire life. I wasn't really an unhealthy child. I played out side all the time. We didn't have a computer, or cable tv, I didn't get my first video game system till the age of 10. My Mom didn't let us eat sugary cereals like fruit loops. despite this I was still very overweight my entire childhood. Well I had a period of time where I slimmed down slightly from the age of 11 to 13 but from then on I was always overweight. It was a way of life for me I didn't care. But after gaining an additional 20 lbs in college from horrendous eating habits I finally got on the scale. It said 242 lbs !!!!! I couldn't believe it. HOW COULD I HAVE LET MYSELF GET THAT WAY!!! no more I would never be that fat again.

After our son was born, my husband and I got health insurance. We made appointments to establish care with a primary care doctor, and high-fived each other for being such responsible adults.
Well, our new doctor didn't mince words. She said we were obese, and that my cholesterol levels were impressively bad for a 23 year old (my husband's weren't great, but not as bad as mine). She said that we needed to get it under control and come back in a year for a repeat of our fasting blood work.
My husband got all butt hurt about being called obese and didn't want to see that doctor again, but it really hit home with me. We both agreed that we would be at a healthy weight when we see her again in august.

This thread is great; I love reading everyone's stories because they're honest and real...even if it's painful.

Here's my own Top 10 list of hard but painful truths about my weight loss:

1. My grandma passed away and I realized that life is short; why spend it being uncomfortable in your own body?

2. I stopped feeling sexy.

3. I made my husband take a picture of me in a bikini at my highest weight of 205.

4. I started having joint pain after work.

5. I realized that my extra weight makes me look older.

6. I found this forum and saw the inspiring results that others have attained; I realized I could have that too.

7. I stopped dressing up and began wearing lots of workout clothes...even though I didn't work out!

8. I kept looking at my dusty TRX (workout equipment) and feeling more and more guilty and ashamed.

9. I'd eat bad foods and feel like crap afterwards.

10. My BMI was borderline obese!

Thank you everyone for supporting and motivating. I wish you all the best!

Well I've lost and regained some weight a few times, so I had a few straws.

Straw 1 - I was size 20UK/16US and realised my clothes were getting too tight and I was on the brink of going up yet again.

Straw 2, a good decade later - I had got back up to the same size again and just 5lbs lower, but that wasn't the straw. I had swollen ankles with pitting oedema and combined with breathlessness, worried about heart failure. My doctor sent me off for cardiac tests and told me to lose weight. The scare made me take it seriously. I told my elderly dad (who has heart failure) about it and he said 'Don't end up like me' which made an impact too. The hospital tests turned out okay and by then I was motivated once more.

Straw 3, last week - back to clothes sizing. After being a healthy BMI since May 2010 I'd let everything slip for the last 6 months or so and returned to some very bad eating habits. As I slipped over into the overweight category I kept thinking I had to take action, but didn't get past the thinking stage while the weight kept on creeping. Then finally I realised my size 16UK/12US clothes were getting too tight. I'd already gone up one size from my lowest and no way was I allowing yet another size change. I'd had two years of enjoying clothes more than I had for many years before that. It was one pleasure I didn't want to give up.

I totally get what you are saying. It's like there has to be some really big "aha moment" that makes us realize that we must lose the weight, even though we most likely knew that all along.

Thanks for being so transparent, VeggieGurl.

I think the final straw of those that had been building was looking at a picture someone had tagged me in on facebook and seeing shades of my parents (both obese) in that girl in the photo. I don't want to be where they are.

Others straws that helped get me there:
My waist is bigger than the hips of another dancer in my company.
None of the new costuming for my dance company, even in the largest size, fit, and I was having to make my own or not dance.
I can't keep up as well with my dogs.
I don't feel sexy.
I don't want to buy biggers bras.
I'm tired of the doctor and my grandfather telling me how fat I am.
The extra weight puts extra pressure on damaged joints.

I will get to my goal weight, slowly but surely. I will. :-)

1. Had to ask the sales clerk for the largest size pants size they carry (14) and discovered they were too tight.
2. Running into a work colleague when I'm buying more fat pants to replace the other two sets of fat pants
3. Pretending that I'm really buying four candy bars to pay off a high school kid for mowing the yard
4. Seeing a picture of myself two years ago and nearly breaking into tears.
5. Hitting 175.