Big hugs Jilly!!!

I think my last straw was when my husband told me how he really felt about my weight. We've been together for almost 7 years, married for a little over 3. I think I got so comfortable around him I didn't "care." I'd gain 10 pounds here and 10 there and he never expressed any concern so I guess I didn't care myself. Over the last couple years I've basically stayed around 170-175 and I would beat myself when going shopping and complain about being too fat. I would be damn near in tears if I went to a store and tried something on and it didn't fit. I was diagnosed with joint problems at the age of 19 and from then on I started gaining weight. I guess I figured I had this problem and it hurt to move so this is the way I am going to be. Finally a few weeks ago somehow my weight got brought up and my husband told me how concerned he was for me. He knew I was unhappy and depressed about it and he was concerned about my physical health. He was telling me how he'd like to see me at a healthy weight when we get serious about having kids and it bothered him that I didn't like looking in the mirror. I was kind of blown away, I didn't know any of this! I mean I knew I was overweight, but I didn't think I was that overweight. Hearing him tell me all this was a huge eye opener and I realized I HAD to do this. I just kind of realized, this is unacceptable. I'm sitting here complaining about something I can CONTROL. It's been tough with my joint pain, but I do low impact stuff and I've been feeling great lately - my joints too! ;)

My last straw wasn't some big event in my life or even some words of wisdom from loved ones. I was just sitting there reading a book when I suddenly thought :bubbles:, 'I am no longer going to be fat and over-eat. I am going to go to the gym and eat healthy everyday from this moment on.'


It's wierd because prior to this I had always just figured I would be fat forever and nothing would change that. :yikes: I made excuses to myself saying, 'I made too many poor-life decissions and it was too late for me to be anything but fat' or 'it is genetic, most of the people in my family are fat I should just accept it.' :yikes:


Then one day out of the blue while reading a book :book2: it was like my brain had a revolution. 'Olga the Obese' had been the dictator of how I thought for years but then 'Thea the Thin' :queen: dethrowned her and issued some new reform amendments. I started thinking 'I can totally do this I'm going to be the exception in my family. Good golly I'm only 21 of course I can change.' :stars:


And that was it I just went from being really negative towards myself to being really postive. :woohoo:
The change in my thinking and attitude contributed to my elevated motivation to go to the gym and for once actually follow through with a diet. :cheer:

Thanks for reviving this thread, Angie. Big hugs for everyone for sharing their awesome stories.

I have always had struggles with being overweight, but this last straw was a six weeks ago when I went to see my new doctor for a physical that I hadn't had in two years. I got on the scale and he told me I was 237.7 pounds. A few weeks later after bloodwork, he told me that my blood pressure was medium high, and my cholesterol was high. He said based on his experience there was no question about it that if I kept on the path that I was on, that I would die from either a heart attack, stroke, diabetes or cancer. He said, I can put you on pills to lower your cholesterol or I'll give you three months to lose weight and get it down on your own. I said, I'll lose some weight. Doc said he's see me in three months.

I knew I had no choice because I was sick of being uncomfortable and fat, and that I knew I had let myself go and gained weight over the years. I was sick of being fat, and knew I had to make a major change.

Loved all the stories in here. Inspirational and heartbreaking. Anyone who has struggled with weight can relate to them.

I've had kind of a summer of last straws. For years I've been starting diets and doing ok for a week or so then sliding back into binging again. I've always done that but it's become more binging days less dieting days over the last 4 years or so and I've been putting on 10 to 15 pounds a year.

In july this year I went to a family reunion and saw a lot of relatives I hadn't seen in almost 10 years. When I got the pictures back I was stunned at how big I was next to them. Also when I was there we stayed with a cousin who has always been tall and thin. At every meal she served I would be shocked at how much she made. That couldn't possibly be enough to feed us all. Yet it seemed to be. I was the only one still hungry at the end of the meal. And that included some big guys.

Also over the summer I realized that my weight had steadily been going up the last few years. I started doing the math of how much I would weigh at my kids graduation, at thier wedding, at the birth of my first grandchild. Living that long seemed no longer a sure thing.

Then I lost my mother in august. She was always slim and health conscious so her death wasn't obesity related, (in fact she has a 300 lb + older sister) but her death really hammered home that I could be dead in 25 years. I've been dieting longer than that already. Is that really how I want to spend the rest of my life?

The final, final staw was getting on the scale and realizing I now weigh 229 pounds. I did my usual kind of diet- pig out a little on the weekend. And weighed the same amount a week later. I knew I had to be honest with myself and do whatever it took. And find a way to stay with it. I really dont want to have my grandchildren lose their grandmother at the young age my children did. And I have to do what I can to make that happen.

My "last straw" was going on vacation and having to buy new clothes because nothing fit anymore. That meant buying size 22's, and after eating my way through vacation, even those were (really) tight. Plus, I posted pictures after vacation, and though there were very few of me in there since I'm usually behind the camera, the ones that did have me in there were so embarrassing that I couldn't post them. One was even of me in a bathing suit and it made me cry. Here I thought I looked cute, and then I saw the picture and realized that it was just awful. It was time to make a change.

All these straws sound like my own several straws. All the excuses I have read here I have made, all the justifications I have made, I guess mine was just a gradual epiphany - I was tired of being tired, I would be bone tired and so fatigued that my eyes felt heavy all the time. I have sleep apnea and have a machine but need a face mask but I can't get a face mask unless I have a prescription and the insurance i have does not cover sleep apnea - it is a low income insurance program. My cholesterol is high for the first time in my life. I have factor IV leiden and am on cumadin for life and have horrid horrid severe pms - but i can't take bcp for hormone control because they will kill me. all this (except the factor IV) can be alleviated by weight loss. Bottom line is I am tired of feeling like crap, i want to live a long long time.

Knowing that life will always present challenges and knowing that if I don't take the opportunity to do it while I have the chance that life's next challenge could push my goal further from me.

Sha25,

Thank you. I am sorry for your loss as well. My daughter had HLHS and I chose to continue with my pregnancy (from what my Ped Cardiologist in NYC told me most families choose not to continue). I felt with a 70% success rate I could never choose to give her up without a fight. She fought so hard for 3 weeks and finally let go after her lungs gave out.

Where in NY are you? I am in Suffolk County. Thanks for listening.

I'm just sooo tired of being uncomfortable... things I have found fun, like clothes shopping, are just something I dread now. Nothing I think is cute ever fits me anymore. I swear most of my weight gain has landed in my gut.. and the last thing I want is someone thinking I may be pregnant when Im not. I want my confidence back, I want to buy cute clothes again. (These were all last straws for me.. I just started the weight loss journey.) Im not even going into the vaccation pictures from this summer... UGH! Cameras defianatley dont lie!!! And I use to love swimming, Im mortified to get into a swimming suit, so I havent dont that in a long time either. This weight has to go!

I'm in Suffolk too, Born and raised..!!! What a small world..

What hospital in NYC? We were in SB and was not happy with our ped cardiologist..

My son was born with great transposition of the arteries and two holes in his heart that aloud the oxygen and the blood to flow properly. ALso a narrowing in a valve. We didn't find out until he was born. He was going in for surgery when he went into congestive heart failure at 24 days old..They delayed his surgery to let him grow a bit because most babies born with this are born blue.. He wasn't not we even went home and I felt something was wrong..



I would have done the same as you if I knew about his condition prior.. My son made me the mother I am today and now after lots of years I am more at peace..

Please email me if you would like a friend who has been where you are..

Just had mine tonight....I bent over to pick up my son and my back hurt. : ( My body can't tolerate this weight and I need to take care of myself to take care of my son.

feeling the stretch marks explode all over my back and shoulders. That was not a fun experience. I promptly lost 3 kilo's so I'd never have to feel that again, and since have lost 4 more, and feeling all the better for it :)

I think the biggest " last straw for me came after my husband and I got back from our honeymoon at the end of June 2010. I looked at our pictures and barely recognized myself. I've always been fat but never thought I looked like a beached whale until I saw those pics. God, even in one I had a TRIPLE CHIN! I just about died! I posted the triple chin pic on my weight loss pics page of my blog because even when I start to struggle and get discouraged, I can look at that and realize how bad off I was and then see how far I've come so far. I got so tired after walking everywhere at Disneyworld. And we didn't even try going to the Harry Potter theme park because I had read an article about how some of the rides there were not accommodating to fatter people and they were being asked to leave the ride because the harnesses weren't fitting them properly. After seeing those pics and remembering how tight my 2X shirts and shorts were I decided something had to be done.

I wanted to be the mom who runs and plays with her kids. And I could look back at myself before that honeymoon trip and see that I was the mom who sat on the couch with the laptop playing World of Warcraft while my 2 year old watched TV. I didn't want to get down and play because I didn't want to get tired and out of breath. Now, after nearly losing 30 pounds since my highest weight of 277 I can walk up the stairs at work without getting out of breath and can chase after my 2 year old without feeling like I am going to pass out! Progress is good! :)

My last straw happened in late September. A good friend of ours came into town from Alberta, Canada. We planned to go to a Saints game and of course spend a little time in the city on the Friday and Saturday before the big game.

When we were walking around on Saturday night, I came to the realization that in the reaction "us + French Quarter = fun," I was the limiting reagent. Walking around my own beloved city was wearing me out. I tried not to let on, but it's kind of hard to miss the fat chick huffing and sweating and turning pink as a piglet after a little walking.

On Sunday, things got even more dire. From our parking spot at the Superdome to our seats high in the third tier was a lot of walking, some of which involved long ramps and stairs. I watched people who could have been twice my age bounce up that final flight of stairs to our seats. I watched a heavily pregnant woman do it. But I couldn't, not without standing there and catching my breath for a few minutes.

I did eventually get to my seat and enjoyed the game (though the Saints lost, unfortunately :( ), but then it was time to get back to the car. After three hours and change of sitting in a seat after getting more of a workout than they'd seen in months, my legs did not want to go through all that again. Plus the escalators and elevators that helped me out on the way there were shut down on the way back. That meant a six-flight stair climb just to get to our level of the parking garage. Yikes.

I'm only 41. I don't have any motion-limiting health issues aside from being fat and sedentary. I should be able to walk in the Quarter and go see a football game with ease.

The next couple of weeks, I cried about it a bit and began to research how I would lose the weight. This was one of the first places I found; seeing that I was not alone neither in my frustration nor in my resolve to change helped tremendously. On October 19, a little less than a month after that trip to the 'Dome, I started walking regularly. I started counting calories. I started writing everything down. I stopped beating up on myself in favor of encouraging real change in myself.

Next year, I'll pay for the tickets and invite our friend back in town. He'll be the one to cry uncle. :)

I never really felt being obese... but I got aware that I was having difficulties to walk uphill (there are some steep ones here) and that I was somehow getting stiffer when bending down.
What was always very depressing during the last few years was when I shopped for new clothes, to try them on and see myself in the mirror...absolutely frustrating! But instead of doing already a few years ago something actively against further weight gain, I just always got into a bad mood and was frustrated, which lead into eating some chocolate to comfort myself... so, a real vitious circle, actually.
Now, I am on day 70 of my diet plan, feel happy and know that I will lose weight steadily.