By that I mean the thing that happened to make you say "hang on, this needs to change now"
Mine was a combination of a few things one day I was coming home from work with a bag of 10 jam doughnuts intending to eat them all before my husband got home so I wouldn't have to share (I was comfort eating as someone at work had said something in passing that I took to mean I was hideous even tho that wasn't the intent) when I got home I looked down at myself with jam on my hands and sugar on my face realised I'd already eaten 5 doughnuts without realising it and looked a bit closer to see that I was wearing my husbands shorts much too large for me a scruffy tee shirt with jam on and though "what have I become?"
Don't get me wrong I didn't dive off the sofa and throw the food away I cried and finessed eating them to try and make me feel better, of course that didn't work, a couple of days later I was sitting with my cat on my shoulder and thought he looked cute so I snapped a pic, I looked so awful I checked some other pics of myself on Facebook and realised I am without fail the shortest fattest person in every photo. The next day I went to my gp and begged for help, she fobbed me off with a 'diet sheet' which was stupid stuff on it like "don't eat too much fat' I'm obese not stupid. Also got a referral to a dietician who I can't see for another three months!
I went home and sat for a while thinking if no ones going to help me why bother? Then just decided if no one was going to help me I'd do it alone, I figured out by myself how to calorie count and everything. Now I'm starting out with a new attitude and hoping I'm strong enough.
Having my size 24 jeans get too tight on me and realizing it was the end of the line for shopping at some stores I liked.
Not being able to walk a couple of blocks as fast as my co-workers and being out of breath when we got to our destination.
Fear that it would damage my career.
Seeing pictures of my face. I'm pretty vain and my face looked very fat.
Fear of running into old friends and having them wonder what had happened to me.
I had been working out for eight months with no weight loss, so for me it was realizing that weight training wasn't going to do at 40 what it did for me at 20 and that I needed to add cardio, stop binging and radically change my diet.
Last edited by JessLess; 09-10-2010 at 07:13 AM.
Reason: typo
A few things. I have a sister who's 11 months older than me, and we basically grew up as twins. I always thought we looked exactly alike, and in reality we do, in the face. Then family and friends started referring to her as "Little [last name]" and me as "Big [last name]" and with a few carefully selected questions my blinders were taken off and I realised that we are nowhere near the same size, I'm about 40 pounds heavier.
Also just seeing pictures and noticing my pants getting tighter and that lovely roll of flab that comes over the top of my pants when I sit. I was simply getting uncomfortable. I don't want to feel like that anymore.
First trigger was having to shop at Lane Bryant and Fashion Bug because regular sizes didn't fit. Buying clothes I didn't even really like, just what fit. Going to a size 18 to a 20 and feeling that get tight... I was like wth..what will I do when Lane Bryant sizes don't fit anymore?
Now it's my second round, my pants are getting tight and no way am I going back to the plus size stores.
Weight loss has been something I've wanted pretty much my entire life, but I was never serious enough about it. I'd lost a lot of weight as an early adolescent but never got much under 200.
Then about a year or so after getting married I looked in the bathroom mirror and realized I could no longer see my collar bones. Until then I'd been in denial about how much weight I'd gained and always thought I could just jump right back on the weight loss wagon whenever "I was ready." But in reality I'd gained 30 pounds and was at my highest weight again. It was devastating to me and I knew I had to change something. I always had excuses about why I couldn't do this, or needed to do that. If I just had this then it would all be easy, blah blah blah. Finally I understood it wasn't going to be easy, but I had to do it anyway.
I've got a crushed disc in my spine... I broke my tailbone as a kid, big busted all my life, then just big. Dr's dont know for sure what happened exactly, but my back is really messed up!
I've had 4-5 epidurals for the pain in the last two years, now I'm trying NOT to have back surgery. My weight was at my absolute highest.
Fear of surgery.
Feeling very OLD at 40. I was severely delusional, I had always been 'cute, and a little big'. Now I was old, decrepit, and just BIG.
Vanity was a big part of it. I wasn't feeling cute, anymore.
1) This photo, taken Dec. 2009. I remember thinking how cute I must look in my plus-size Christmas t-shirt....
2) Seeing my fiance's mother (who I have known for at least 25 years and has always been massively overweight) laying in bed in the hospital barely able to breathe or able to walk due to issues brought on by her weight.
I joined here 1/11/2010, joined a Biggest Loser contest at work and haven't gone back to the old ways since.
Quit smoking and gained six pounds in the first few days. Could not believe that I was really thinking of going back to smoking as a weight management tool. Knew something had to give.
There are other reasons too, I mean, I want to like the way I look, and I want to feel healthy and live a long time.
But what actually got me trying to change things were my knees. They started to ache all the time, and I kind of equated my weight to carrying a child around with me everywhere. I always just thought well I can lose the weight later. But then I was thinking how am I going to lose weight if I can't walk!? I've only lost 15 pounds but they've already gotten way better (I have a secret dream of becoming a jogger, I'll get there yet)
For me what started it this year has been my inability to get pregnant. We have tried for 6 years with no luck. Started infertility treatments, those get expensive fast and I realized I HAD to do something about my weight. Then we had a miscarriage and that has only added fuel to my fire. I don't want to be infertile anymore. I am not saying losing weight will fix it, but as long as I do everything in MY control I think I will feel a lot better.
Really an accumulation fo things for me, and the pounds just kept adding on because my focus was on other health issues. I think the main three though are
(1) although photos of me are a rare thing, with cameras on the phones, etc people are taking them more and more; I'm always the biggest person on the photo (and by far!)
(2) went to Costa Rica with my family, and couldn't do most of what I wanted to do because of back pain, which I attribute to extra weight and lack of exercise and
(3) My 'girls' were big by the time I was 10, and I haven't seen my stomach for nearly 40 years, until I had a bilateral mastectomy in July. Hello! I'm not planning on reconstruction, I don't want to wear prosthetics, so my best bet at looking better and feeling better is to lose the tummy and tone up allover!
I went through an awful breakup with my ex of 3 years. My high school sweet heart who I was with from the age of 16 until I was 19. After he left I did some soul searching and realized that I had no idea who I was anymore. At a time in my life when I was supposed to be figuring out who I was and enjoying time with my friends, I wasted being depressed and with someone who didn't deserve more than a second glance from me.
When he and I met I was probably around 160, then gained to 234 in less than a year. I remember the first time I actually looked at myself and I was shocked by how my body looked. I was dealing with a lot of self esteem issues from emotional abuse in the relationship, but regardless I knew that I HAD to be healthy. So... I started. And that was that.
Realizing I have an extremely limited life because I let my self image bog me down so much. Unable to remember what it's like to be skinny, while only being 20 years old. Heh!
I hope I am not out of line to say this, but I'm impressed with you younger folks who are getting a handle on this issue now.
I know this might sound patronizing, but please bear with me. As difficult as it is to lose weight at any age, time is not on our side - the older we get, especially women, the more recalcitrant our bodies get about giving up that extra weight. Metabolisms slow down. Years of carrying around extra weight makes our joints ache, making exercise that much tougher.
Not to mention how many of us look back at our young adulthood, and even some folks who are happy with their lives wonder if they could have been even better had they not spent those years being fat.
I myself am fast approaching 40, and while I have no qualms about growing older (I keep hoping that wisdom will turn up sooner or later ) I know that I do not want to enter my 40s with this same weight (and then some!) that I have been trying to lose ever since I was 16 or so.
And as busy as life feels when you are in school or working your first full-time job, believe me it doesn't get any easier as you get older. More demanding jobs with more responsibility, kids to take care of, aging parents to take care of - whatever it is, life never makes fewer demands on you as you get older, only more.
So I'm delighted for you folks who have the sense to handle the problem NOW, when your bodies are more resilient and most of your life stretches ahead of you! Best of luck to you.
What was your "trigger"?
As difficult as it is to lose weight at any age, time is not on our side - the older we get, especially women, the more recalcitrant our bodies get about giving up that extra weight. Metabolisms slow down. Years of carrying around extra weight makes our joints ache, making exercise that much tougher. 
) I know that I do not want to enter my 40s with this same weight (and then some!) that I have been trying to lose ever since I was 16 or so. 
