I haven't been overweight for all of my life. I was around 120# when I finished high school, and a size 8. I gained a little in college, but then took weight training for a PE class and got into that. A little yo-yoing at times, but I think always under 140#. Eventually I was about 130# while weight training and still a size 8. But over the last 10 years or so, I wasn't exercising consistently, I wasn't home-cooking, and I gained. I was around 180# for a very long time. Then I really started eating crap and not moving and eventually went up to 197.
I knew all along that I needed to lose weight and get healthier. I was eating crap and spending a lot of money on it.I was weak and tight and out of breath so easily. I was drinking obscene amounts of Diet Coke a day, affecting my teeth and my tennis elbow. How embarrassing is that? Sleeping poorly, heartburn. I had no social life. Not so much because of my weight, but because of other things in my life that I was too dang tired to do anything about.
My mom has diabetes, and two sisters had gestational diabetes. Then my dad too. That really scared me. I am soooooo not ever going to have diabetes if there is anything I can do about it.
I had recently browsed the book Superfoods at the bookstore, and then I found 3FC.
I weighed myself at 197, and did not want to ever see 200.
I'm turning 40 next year.
So it all kinda came together. This was in April.
I'm still adjusting the way I eat and exercise, but there is no going back. It's funny, but beyond the first week or two (and kinda even from the very beginning), I just knew this was it. There was no thinking, "I HOPE it works this time, I HOPE I stick to it this time." It was just over. I changed my life. I love losing the weight and looking better, but it is SO much about health.
I have been overweight my entire life and have tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get control of my eating and exercise. This may sound kind of silly, but it was definitely an "aha!" moment. Earlier this year, back in March, a teacher that I work with decided to see if others wanted to start a "Biggest Loser" competition at work. I joined it mainly because I worked so closely with her and wanted to make sure that there was interest.
Right after we started the challenge, I went to a skating show where I was able to have the opportunity to "meet and greet" with one of the skaters. The skater we got to have our picture with and talk with is someone that I have met several times over the years, so she was a lot of fun to talk to and we spent a good majority of time with her that afternoon. When my friend and I got back to the hotel room that night and were looking at pictures, I couldn't believe my picture. Granted, she's an elite figure skater so she's tiny...but I looked absolutely HUGE next to her!!! That was my "this has to change" moment definitely. I really buckled down in the challenge at school and managed to come in third overall out of about 24 people....losing out to second place by only .4 lbs.
I am hoping this year that I will be able to get a picture with that skater again in order to compare the two pictures. Also, I would like to thank her for having an indirect influence on my weight loss.
Mine was almost exactly a year ago, when I went to the doc for some allergy probs, and she put me on meds. I then proceeded to gain 16 lbs in just a couple of months when I went to see the doc again. I thought to myself that was the last straw. A year later I am 60 lbs lighter. I still have a long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of how far I've come so far too....
I felt so horrible. I could hardly breath, and I had chest pains and heart palpitations from out of control GERD. I seriously felt as though I could die at any time and the thought of a mortician trying to squeeze my huge body into a casket only to then have to tell my husband he needed to special order me a larger coffin scared the heck out of me. The thought of my poor husband having to order me a "double wide" to bury me in, and having to have a couple extra pall bearer to carry the casket was more than I could stand.
I don't think I had one of those eureka moments. Truth be told, I think I was pretty depressed ever since my son was born (he is now 3). Anyway, this summer was the worst - it was just so hot here (40 consecutive days of triple digits) and I was just depressed and miserable. I even started drinking alone which is something I have never done my entire life. Anyway, I started antidepressants, the weather started getting better, and something just shifted in my life. I weighed myself and was shocked - I was 2.2 pounds away from 200 and that day I decided that that was it. I wanted to start living my life again. So I am.
For me it was two things. One (like mentioned by several other posters) was seeing pictures of myself and thinking "is that me???"
The second was the realization that I've been overweight all of my adult life. At age 19 I started Depo Provera and went from 110 lbs to 225 lbs, I'm now in my mid 30s. And I've always had the habit of avoiding having my picture taken as much as possible, "just until I lose some weight" I would think. Then it hit me that I'll never have those years back, and I don't have many pictures of many events in my life.
Mine was seeing a picture of myself also. It was a pic of me at my sisters gradutaion. I was like OMG!!! do i really look like that. How come i do not think i look like that inn the mirror. I was huge!!!!!!! that could not be what i look like.
I am actually asking my mother for that picture to put in my kitchen and in my bedroom. I refuse to look like that anymore. I refuse to die before my time because of my unhealthy habbits. I refuse to let food ruin me and run my life.
I spent most of this year in beautiful Jamaica. I returned to Canada in May... when I got home I was uploading pictures to my computer and everyone wanted to see them. So I put them on facebook.... Everyone started asking me why there was hardly any pictures of me in there. Sadly it was because I looked like a whale and would NEVER let anyone see those pictures. It's a shame to, what beautiful pictures they are. A couple weeks after I got home, I was sitting in my best friends car in front of my house, smoking, talking, and drinking a coffee with her... out of the blue I just started bawling my eyes out, and said that I don't want to be fat anymore....I'm done.
That's when I started getting serious about weight loss.
Mine was the picture on my profile!!! I lost a couple pounds from that picture and felt much better....then two weekends ago I went on a girls trip to Indi and the pictures from that brought me to tears. YUCK YUCK YUCK...So I've been looking for motivation and found this page yesterday!
Hey "Born to Fly" what part of Wisconsin? I am near LaCrosse.
Honestly I don' think I had a "moment" ... I think I just sort of slid into it.
Part of it was going to the gym with a friend and working with a personal trainer. Over the course of the time I worked with him, he made some suggestions about my diet and I sort of half-heartedly followed them and they worked.
But it wasn't until I actually saw the weight loss that I became committed to it. I started doing actual research and learning about lifting and dieting and so forth - bought NROLW and begain independently researching that information - at that point.
So for me the act of losing weight is what made me realize that I could do it and that I wanted to do it.
Being so fat put me into a bad depression and I wanted to feel pretty again. My self esteem was at an ultimate low before I got back on track. So I'm forcing myself to get on a diet I can follow forever. Not gonna gain the weight back anymore. I CAN'T GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN!!
My knees started hurting. I have been up and down the scale over the years, and I used to say that if this keeps up, I'm going to be in a wheel chair. When the knee pain started, it scared me. I can now see that as a reality, not just words.
Well, I wish it was the first time a woman asked "So when are you due?" ... I went home and cried my eyes out. That was two years ago. Since then I have been asked that not once, nor twice, but FIVE TIMES. FIVE TIMES someone thought my stomach looked big enough to be pregnant. (Which by the way, NEVER ASK SOMEONE THAT QUESTION! I've never been pregnant, so I don't know if you will be upset if people don't mention your pregnancy, but I have been fat and it is so traumatic to suggest someone is pregnant when they are not.) I got in the habit of sucking my stomach in almost always.
Anyways, I'd like to think that whipped me into action, but not really. But even though I think my butt is the most obnoxiously oversized part of my body, now I want nothing more than a flat stomach.
that could not be what i look like. 
