One of my lightbulb moments and I have had a few in the last little while was a picture of me and my son at one of his football games, and he had on all his gear and I looked just as big as him in the picture,...I was mortified...another was my DH getting diagnosed with the big C...I want to be as healthy as I can be for him and my boys...another was my doc..I went for my yearly and my cholesterol is through the roof and she is actually quite worried, and frankly so am I, would that be a kicker or what. My DH beats the Big C, only to have his wife have a heart attack and die....LOL...Through all this we must still make time to laugh...cause if we did not laugh once in a while we would just cry all the time....

Silly little things for me:

• not being able to clip my toenails without acrobatics involved
• dropping something on the floor in front of my boss and letting him pick it up for me - knowing that I wouldn't be able to do it without crawling and using the wall to help me back up
• Washing dishes in the sink and finding myself leaning on my arms to support my body weight
• Walking up a short flight of stairs at work and finding myself winded and with aching knees
• Visiting my son in SF and not being able to walk the hills with the family - my first wake-up call that I was missing out on life because of my weight
• A size 20 being tight - I refused to go to a size 22 (somehow size 20 was ok though - go figure)

-Realizing I am over 200 lbs
-My mom saying she thinks I need to go to the doctor to see if I am pre-diabetic(this runs in my family)

My most recent lightbulb moments were that I was back at my highest adult weight ever and setting new records by the week, that I had gained close to 20 lbs in just about 8 months without realizing it; that my budget was hurting from all the extra food costs (eating out especially); and the biggest one was probably because my clothes weren't fitting anymore, and any non-pre-stretched out 14's wouldn't close around my stomach!

I don't know that I had any lightbulb moments that made me HAVE to do this. I just know I have been miserable with my rolls hanging over my jeans. I hate pictures of myself. I always take pictures, hope they'll turn out, only to be disappointed. I have been saying that I KNOW I need to do this for years, but I've been too scared of failure to try. I just woke up last Wednesday, knew I had to drive into work and told myself, "Hey, there's a WW mtg in town today, maybe I should really go." And I did!

Lightbulb moments...
~Looking through my weigh-in records and seeing the ups and downs, ups and downs, starting in '93
~Seeing a picture of myself on a fishing trip w/DH and thinking OMG is that what I look like!
also lightbulb moments,
~the pants I weigh-in in every week are getting so loose my pedometer won't stay upright, I used to have to put them away at times because they were too tight
~yesterday, I realised that a year or so ago I could hardly make it up the hill that DH and I both jog halfway up now
finally
~when I got to goal the first time, I got rid of all my fat clothes except one pair of jeans, today it occurred to me that I ended up having to wear them again until I wore them out---never again!!

My light bulb was definitely when I got down to my last pair of jeans and last few pairs of work clothes that fit. I just lost weight for my wedding and these clothes were way too big! Now they are getting tight... light bulb!

I've had so many -- every time I walk by a mirror, I gasp. I haven't come to terms with the 60 pounds I've gained in the past 10 years -- I feel as though I'm living under riot lights I didn't have a click -- no cruel comment, or laugh, or anything else. As a matter of fact, about three years ago, I was in an elevator and a little boy, about 4, pointed to me and said, "Youlre fat!!!" I replied, nonplussed, "And you're rude." Didn't even sting.

I just haven't been able to get the motivation star lined up with the life-is-controllable star, if that makes sense, until two weeks ago.

Had another lightbulb moment while walking with DH we were talking about this forum and I realized that both times I have truly successfully lost weight were when I gave up and said to myself you just have to accept that you're going to be overweight, then something inside of me would fire up and say NO! I'm not! I don't understand it, but I'm glad I'm in that losing mode again.

I can understand all of them moments like seeing a picture of yourself and wondering how did you let this happen. Or going to a store where they have full size mirrors and being so sick at what you see you can’t even look yourself in the eyes. Being 23 and have your knees hurt. Or not be able to go up stairs with out stopping at the top just to slow down your breathing. I have had way too many light bulb moments this is why I have to start listening to them. Or more like open my eyes and stop lying to myself.

I had more than one, but the biggie was:

My 4 y/o granddaughter Madison came in while I was ironing one of my shirts. It was one of my more colorful ones, and she said "Grandma! Did you get a new tablecloth?"

Out of the mouths of babes......

Get out of my head!

Actually, being 39 and having your knees hurt isn't the greatest either. Looking at our family picture from this past Christmas was depressing. Blech. That will be my new BEFORE picture. It's a good family picture (with the in-laws) but it made me realize that I need to get serious. (That and the fact that my knee really hurts.)

I AM able to walk on the treadmill still, but at only 2.3 MPH. My chiropractor didn't say that I shouldn't do this so I'm going to keep at it. (I just saw him this morning and found out my knee hurts because my hip was out of whack and a muscle or tendon was pulling on the knee.)

I dont know if i really had a lightbulb moment until i got on the scale. I knew in the back of my head that i was way overweight. i joined WW last week with my sister (she is getting married in august). When i saw that number at my original weigh in i just couldnt believe that i was that heavy. Hopefully i will be able to stick to the plan and get the weight off!!!

i guess some of my lightbulb moments were
-when i couldn't even find a comfortable pair of jeans at Lane Bryant (I'm a size 20-22). I decided to go to walmart and buy a pair of maternity jeans just to find out that when I put them on, the lining of the pockets show because of stretching. (I put them on today and they aren't stretching).
-when my stomach gets in the way when trying to be intimate with DH
-like said in the above, trying to cut my toenails without doing acrobatics (lol that is a funny post, i love it, it's so true)
-when my husband started showing that he's losing weight and I'm not
-thinking that I should be smaller than my husband but I'm not
-realizing that I can't sit in certain chairs that I used to be able to sit in
-thinking back and remembering my uncle telling me I look like an elephant

A woman at the meeting I used to go to said at family events her sister always pulled out a "special" chair for her.

These posts are bringing back more "lightbulbs"

I remember "stealing" a pair of DH's jeans and him not being able to believe we could wear the same size...

Now realizing when I look in the mirror that I'm actually looking at myself, I would check for a hair out of place or food on my face, but not actually look at me! I didn't want to see the jiggly parts...if I just ignored them...

Janeouch... out of the mouths of babes, indeed