Besides the normal aches and pains (especially in the back and knees), when my son bet me I could not do it. He bet me back in October that I could not lose 65 pounds by May when I am getting married. Then he went a step further and said I could not keep it off, because I never do. So, I took him up on it. I am 5 pounds away from winning, and I have a little over 8 weeks to do it in........ but around week 3 he hurt my feelings and said he knew I would never make it. I told him that I would--- and we argued that night.
He was in the car for me to take him to school the next day and he said if it takes me losing every month of my allowance to get you healthy so you don't die of a heart attack (like his father did a year previously at 39-- we were had not been married for years) then I will do it. My oldest son has stuck by his guns saying the youngest was foolish for betting me...... as I am a bit bull headed (they can't see this site so it is not really an admission, right?)

I knew at that point I had to do it-- not for the money--- not even for bragging rights. For my health AND for him to not worry about losing his only parent.

I owe that cocky teenager a lot. I am doing it...... and I am NOT going to gain it back this time! I am getting too old and it is too hard to do this yoyo thing...... and if he feels that strongly about me..... then who am I to take his mother away for a Big Mac, fries, and Coke?

Tammy :cry:

Tammy, you are right - sounds like he gave you some tough love but for all the right reasons - I don't think there can be any stronger motivation than doing it for the sake of your health and to stick around for those who love you.

There are so many incidents cited here that kicked off weight loss journeys - it's so interesting to hear everyone's stories. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure like me, you are all glad your "lightbulb" moment came along as the catalyst for changing our lives for the better.

Good luck everyone and let's take ourselves back to those moments to renew our commitments to ourselves when the going gets tough.

xxx

My moment was when my knees hurt me so much that I realized the weight was killing me. I like to do lots of outside activities and I struggled with them. My doctor also referred to me as obuse and I just wanted to cry.

My wake up call came when my co worker asked me to try out this new balance trainer machine we got at work (I work in a physical therapy office). I stepped on the balance board and in the lower right corner saw my weight, 160, It was never that high and I couldn't believe I let myself get to that point. My co worker didn't say anything about it but I was completely mortified. I started doing something to reverse the damage I caused. So far, I lost 4 pounds, I don't think I've ever been as committed in my life as I am now.

SW:160 - CW:156 - GW:130

A series of events. One, the elevator at work got stuck and I had a hard time walking DOWN three flights of stairs because it made my knee hurt. Two, a picture of my butt from Christmas...I'll really have to post that one one day, and most importantly, the look on my son's face asking me to go play with him and not having the energy.

Oh so many. I realized that I was eating in my dorm room because I was too lazy/ it was too hard to walk to the cafeteria (there are two flights of stairs on the walk back). I was wearing a size 18, when I swore I'd never be a 16. The fact that I could eat an entire box of macaroni and cheese without feeling full. Finally I got sick of looking in the mirror and joined WW!!!

When I went over 300lbs,couldn't walk without getting out of breath, and my fat jeans wouldn't fit.

I received a note from my first love on one of those classmate sites. I was horrified by what he would have thought if he had run into me on the street vs. online.

I realized I was not the same person I was back then, my weight not only affected my looks, it affected how I felt about everything. I was living by my fat, not by my passions. Going to parties because of the food, missing trips to the beach or hiking because I couldn't wear the clothes for the occasion. Not going to High School reunions because of the shame of my size. Facing these things was the final straw and took me from wishing to be thin and taking action to be thin.

Thanks for the post. I hit a slump this week and went up four pounds. Remembering why I started this journey was the kick in the but I needed to get back to the business of living the life I want vs. eating the food I want.

I started thinking about why I put on the weight to begin with. How it started off as an attempt to be invisible, an attempt to get men to stop noticing me. I started thinking about all the things in my past and how I hold on to them and how I stuff down my feelings with food and then it hit me!
If I hold on to the weight- I'm holding on to every bad thing in my past. Every thing that made me want to gain weight- every person who hurt me, every feeling I stuffed down with food, every time i ate instead of cried.... If I remind myself when I'm working out that I am literally working off the bad things, sweating out my past, the things I've been holding to are literally pouring out of my pores – maybe I can keep going. Maybe I can be rid of what has been holding me, weighing me down.
This has been keeping me going. I hope it will continue. I feel like if I can purge this weight from my body I can purge the negative feelings I have from my mind as well.

I had several things that turned on my lightbulb within weeks. First I found out my cholesterol was 260. Then I found out that I need a total knee replacement. Third, my 57 year old brother and I had some words over e-mail, and he ended up calling me a "spoiled useless *****." He ended the e-mail with "Have a nice life you f***ing sow." I refuse to say that I lost weight because of him, and I didn't. I started right after the cholesterol scare.
I have gone from 305 to 264 and still going at it.

Sorry about the language. Just wanted everyone to know why I so extremely hurt. Dang near had a nervous breakdown over that.....it cut real deep.

lizziep - this almost made me cry because I so identify. Once I realised I had to lose weight, I sat down and considered why i had gotten so heavy in the first place and the answer was emotional eating in response to behaviours that had hurt me, heartbreak and grief. I seemed to be gaining weight as a protective barrier - no one would close to me if I was heavy and therefore no one could hurt me that way again. I now know I was only hurting myself with that thinking.

I wrote down my commitment to myself to lose the excess pounds and get fit and healthy. Part of that commitment was promising myself I was no longer prepared to carry past hurts around on my body (and therefore allowing them to continue to hurt me.) It's pretty strong motivation.

When my father in law was decribing a lady to my husband and I. He said" She's a real big girl, like Beth here, I mean a REAL BIG girl." I nearly fell out of the chair. Then I went home and ate everything in the house, finally when I was to the point of being sick from eating too much it hit me.... So I threw down the oreos and decided to commit right then. I don't want to be the "REAL BIG GIRL!" anymore!!!

Ugh, squeak, I've had something similar and it hurts.

All those years ago, at 296, I decided that if I hit 300, what would stop that from becoming 310, 320, 330? My size 28s were getting tight and I didn't know what I would do after that. So I committed the day I found this site (I had checked the 3fc book out from the library and looked the site up online) I had gotten myself down to somewhere between 215-220 feeling great, working out, eating right. Then about two years ago, I broke an ankle and never exactly got back into the groove. I recently had a health scare and now that I'm feeling better from that, I'm ready to get back in it. (see my siggy!)

Now I'm back up to 265 and looking to have another "aha!" moment. And it took the thread like this to help me get there. Thanks you guys!