I had a few "OMG" moments; but I think the real kicker was when my five year old daughter asked me to play with her and my son (who was 2 at the time) and I started to play. We were running through the house and I got winded after about 5 minutes and my daughter kept asking me what hurt. It was ridiculously embarassing and I knew it was time to change.
Another time, my daughter was trying to understand the concept of growing up and she would say: Nate Nate is going to be big like Daddy when he grows up and I'm gonna be REALLY big just like you Mommy!
I started to cry...Now, when she wants to play, I have her do Walk Away the Pounds with me...she loves to exercise...lol

I'm sure I've had several but having an ECG at age 33 and sky high BP was sobering. After I started shedding the pounds people treated me differently, which was shocking as I'd only lost about 15-20 lbs at that point. Most importantly, after starting an exercise program and losing just a few lbs I felt so much better.

I think, when I feel good, that's when the light bulbs go off, "I feel so alive right now. Remember this."

Something about being in the 170's REALLY was like "OKAY SOMETHINGS GOTTA CHANGE"

None of my clothes were fitting, I was squeezing myself into stuff I had bought only months before that fit, and I guessed my weight around 160. So going home for Christmas when I was in university I weighed myself on our bathroom scale and was horrified to see a decade of numbers I hadn't seen before and also so shocked that I was nearly 15 pounds heavier than I thought I was.

I ate too much one night at my company's annual offsite meeting. I woke up in the middle of the night in a hotel room in Las Vegas with night sweats, chills and a nauseated feeling. I'd been diagnosed as very near diabetes a few weeks before & suddenly I imagined I would be going into diabetic coma. That also caused me to have what I now think was a panic attack. My heart felt like it would pound right out of my chest. I imagined getting very sick, in a place where I knew no one, and having to be hospitalized. And this would all be because of my weight & my eating habits. I finally fell asleep near dawn. By then, I had been scared into making some resolutions.

For some reason, I also remember one particular morning. I was driving through Old Greenwich on the way to work. I stopped in front of a school while the crossing guard let the kids go by. Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" came on the radio. I had liked the song well enough in a hum-along kind of way, but found myself really listening to the lyrics, which are quite inspirational. I found myself crying over the steering wheel. (Had my sunglasses on, which helped.) In retrospect, I also think of that as a moment when I dedicated myself to making a change.

Mine was when I saw pictures of myself at my friends wedding. I couldn't believe how huge I looked. I cried for a while and then decided that day to change....25 lbs gone since then.

I had sugar in my urine at my physical last summer. I had also lost a bit of weight while walking on vacation in Scotland, and wanted to keep it up.
Then near Hallowe'en, I wanted to get thru the season without more binges. I gave up the candy, and joined 3FC.
I have known for a while I was overweight, it took a lot for me to accept I had gotten to obese, and no end in sight. I could imagine getting bigger and bigger, and wanted to be able to imagine myself slimmer instead.
I still wasn't truly ready when I joined 3FC, but being here regularly gave me the strength to get moving and get losing.
So no real lightbulb moment, but more of a dawning for me.

my reasons
 

a few...

1. i have an 18 month old daughter and i don't want her to develop my bad habits and go through what i have gone through with my weight

2. had no insurance so i coudn't get my anti-depressants, and i knew exercize had the same effect so......

3. i was getting so tired and lethargic that i didn't want to get up and be a mother to my dd. it was because of all the fast food, sweets, and lack of exercize

4. tired of guys not noticing me

in that order :)

It was a series of things -
a) the size 12 jeans that I swore I'd never have to buy were wearing out because they were the ONLY pair of jeans I could zip - and I'd worn them for three years.
b) I weighed in 2 pounds heavier than I was 2 days before my son was born (that was a major holy-crap momemt)
c) not wanting to sit down to put on socks any more
d) realizing that I was making constant bad decisions about 2nd helpings (and 3rds)
e) I looked like a huge fat slug in what was actually a very pretty dress at my brother-in-law's wedding, because it was too tight
f) I didn't want to be one of those weak, unsteady elderly women - especially since I have a grandma who's 85 who could kick my butt if she wanted to, and just might be the perfect role model. :)

On the morning of Feb 9, 2009, I woke up and decided that the ONLY person in the whole world who could fix this is ... ME.

Weight loss had been looming in the back of my mind for the last couple of months.. I had convinced myself that the weight was because I was nursing, and my boobs were so big because of that.. and that I was gaining weight because I didn't have time for myself and that I was drinking all this juice for the nursing. And so I thought, once I stop nursing, the weight will automatically go down. But, it didn't..

In addition to the weight, my skin condition (psoriasis) had gotten out of control.. my skin was a disaster.. and so I was a perfect candidate for using a drug which would help, and in the past had made me lose a lot of weight. And, I was so excited to take this medication, with all of its side effects just because it would make me skinnier.. and I started thinking how stupid that was to think like that. I started using my topical medications, and I got better enough that I decided that I wouldn't take the meds. By accident I fell onto this site, was totally inspired by the goal threads and decided that day that I was on a diet. I went out that afternoon for a walk to the grocery store, got the healthy food - brown rice, fat free yogurt, vegetables, chickpeas, etc.. and I've been on this diet for the last 2 and a half weeks. I'm just scared that I'm losing a little bit of my momentum.

I have had many lightbulb moments. The last light bulb moment was when I realized that the only time I left the house, it was to go find some fast food. After I realized that, it also dawned on me that I only wore my sweat pants because nothing in my closet fit me anymore and I didn't want to go through the emotional pain of buying clothes in a much larger size. THAT was what really made me get on the wagon again.

One day, I woke up and decided I was going to allow myself to be selfish and worry about me for a while. I needed some time to care for myself. Not my husband and not my kids. (Well, I don't *neglect* them, of course...)

So, my husband and kids are simply sucking it up for a while. I work all day and get home 3 nights a week at 8pm from the gym. Then I go on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It is difficult, but they are supporting me. It's really great that they realize how important it is for me to feel better about myself and my body.

I deserve it!

My aha moments
 

I've also been asked indirectly about being pregnant more than once "Do you have any special news for us?" Argh! I was barely squeezing into an Old Navy stretch size 18 and then my friends and family were posting photos with me in them on Facebook! Yikes! Besides just wanting to be healthy, I have to admit I was embarassed for all my old hs friends to see my photos on there how I look now.

I was finally sick of my weight stopping me from enjoying special occassions or activities b/c I couldn't find clothes or because I was too out of shape.

I wanted self-confidence, health, and to help myself deal with the stresses from work and the economy. If I want to have a family one day soon, I should be a good example, and that is my main motivation - to be healthy (emotionally and physically) so that I can pass those healthy attitudes on to my future children so they don't have the same struggles.

I'll be healthy one day this year - I'm getting one step closer each day I make a smart decision regarding food and exercise. :carrot:

I used to be a cheerleader in high school and had a very high endurance level, I wasn't thin but I was in shape. At the start of this school semester I realized that I was out of breath after walking across campus to class (and its a fairly small campus taking only about 5 minutes to walk to class). This is when I started to notice all the other little things that come with being out of shape and overweight and I decided it was time I actually carried out what I had been saying I wanted to do.