For me it is being 22 and having issues with joints, lungs and my heart. I want to enjoy my youth and my body and I want to climb mountains, go surfing, play sports.

I had a very bad heart scare and I thought I was going to die, after that I quit drinking and smoking and now I'm here.

Thank you so much. I don't feel courageous at all. I just decided life is to short to be unhappy about how I look and my daughter can not be without me. Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Streudel:
I am so sorry for your loss. You are incredibly courageous to be taking such a positive step for yourself and your daughter.

Thank you so very much.

Originally Posted by Kendah72:
I am so sorry for your loss.

Kenda

I love this thread. Everyone's stories are so touching and relatable. Mine is not so dramatic, just saw a photo of myself from behind and thought, "eek!"

Awesome motivation! :)

Originally Posted by Rhiko:
I thought to myself, 'What kind of mother do I want to be?' and decided that the can't be bothered getting off the couch because exercise will kill me; can't tie my shoe type wasn't me. So, I've taken up running to increase my stamina. Sure, I'll lose most of it while I'm pregnant, but I know that I can do it. The second time around will be easier. :)

My motto is: do the hard work earlier on and everything will be easier after that :)

First, I'm sorry to hear so many painful stories. :hug: For me, it was something simple, but painful--my wedding ring was so tight it was cutting into my skin so I couldn't wear it any more. My ring had been replaced once with a bigger ring and there was no way I was going to do that again.

I never thought i needed to lose weight, i was happy and proud the way i was...

The final straw was how slow i was walking, and how i couldnt go up the stairs without being breathless...

I set out to be HEALTHY, that was and is my final goal, rather than a number on the scale...

So even when the numbers stop, as long as my life is still getting better, i'm ok with that...

Reading everyone's replies has been really interesting, even though all the stories are painful in one way or another! Scarlettmeshell, I'm so sorry to hear about your son :(

I could turn this into something very long and detailed, but will spare you all! Basically, I was at a healthy weight until I was 20. Then I started gaining weight, won't get into the specifics. I have PCOS/some metabolic issue and am honestly not sure if the weight gain caused the PCOS or if the PCOS developed on its own and helped me gain weight. In any case, in 8 years, I went from 110 (which was when I ate very healthy and worked out for a couple of hours each day) to 220. I doubled, holy moly! The weight gain was all gradual.

Basically ever since I started gaining weight, I've wanted to lose it. Tried halfheartedly a couple of times, but just didn't have the motivation. Losing weight has ALWAYS been something I've meant to do before I had kids since pregnancy is much safer when the woman is an appropriate weight. I've never been very pretty or into clothes or make up or anything, and I met my husband when I was about 140 at the age of almost 21. He's always been extremely loving and accepting of my body, no matter what weight it's been.

I have lots of little things motivating me now, but the thing that made me decide I have to do it NOW is health. I don't want to share too much squicky info, but basically I have some reproductive issues because of my PCOS and had to have surgery. After the pathology report returned, my doctor told me that if I was 10 years older, she'd want to give me a hysterectomy to avoid possibly getting cancer! What I have wasn't precancerous per se, just slightly odd. Precancerous or not, that is a wake up call! I do not want to lose my uterus. She didn't explicitly say that losing weight was the way to avoid getting a hysterectomy later, but I'm extremely hopeful that getting to a lower weight will lessen the PCOS symptoms and help both my uterus and the rest of my body be healthy and set me up for a long life. I also really don't want to get diabetes!

The other giant wake up call for me is related to having a baby. If things with my condition don't change, my doctor thinks my chances of having a baby are very slim if it does not happen within the next 6 months. My husband and I really, really want a child. I love children and work with special needs kids for a living. We thought we'd wait three or four more years to try to have a kid, so I thought I had all that time to lose weight, but suddenly that timeline has moved up to RIGHT NOW. Losing weight will both make it more likely for me to ovulate and also increase the chances of having a healthy pregnancy, so it's extremely important to me.

So, there we go! I basically have two "straws": one immediate (having a baby) and one long term (keeping a body part I'm rather attached to and my health in general).

I burned my hand and my stomach pretty badly. My stomach hurt so much that I couldn't get out of bed the first couple of months. During that time I gained back the weight I'd half-heartedly lost and then some. By the time I'd healed enough and I was ready to start going out, my clothes barely fit and they rubbed against the burns. I refused to buy bigger clothes so I'd either have to lose weight or not leave the house for 7 months, which is how it took for the burns to heal. I chose the first and that's my story.

I realized that I barely have any pictures of me with my kids because I hate seeing myself in pictures unless it's a totally flattering picture - which is rare.

Also, I've been inspired by a few friends that are in similar seasons of life that have had body transformations over the past year. Their success motivates & encourages me.

I think it was a culmination of things for me.

Health, I didn't have the greatest year last year. A back injury put me off my feet for a while. I couldn't help but think how much easier it'd have been if I had stuck to losing more weight.

Watched loved ones get worse by their poor health decisions too.

I'm a low energy person, I also need alone time to recharge. I think exercise will increase my energy reserve.

We just recently went to an amusement park and I barely fit in any of the rides. It would have been so disappointing to my husband if I didn't fit at all, he wouldn't ride them if I couldn't too. But I also love things like hiking and white water rafting and those are all easier done when fit.

Also we hope to start a family, and have been hoping it would happen since Jan 2012, still nothing. Losing weight can only help in my opinion. I'm not ready for a trip to the RE.

:dunno:

It really clicked for me a few weeks ago. I had put on quite a bit of weight from an ankle injury that required multiple surgeries and had me completely inactive for more than 3 years. At my annual physical last year I was hit with a diabetes diagnoses. I made some half hearted attempts at eating bettter and managed to lose 10 of the pounds I had put on. Then at this years annual checkup, at age 34, skin cancer was found. On top of the emotional aspectof hearing the dreaded word cancer, I had the flu. It was probably the lowest I have felt in many many years. That's when I knew I had to start taking better care of my body.