what was different, or what happened that you finally had enough and decided to really lose the weight this time?
I got really tired of feeling like i was cheating myself out of my youth by not being everything i wanted to be. i was missing out on so much because i cant be happy and be unhealthy. i dont want to miss out on anything else. i was equal tired of dressing up - feeling that i looked good, and going out. then seeing pictures the next day and being mortified at how i looked. its never a good thing to be embarrassed about yourself, esp when it was my own bad habits and weak will power that was causing it. a friend of mine told me the other day "im done doing things that i can change that are impacting my life negatively." .... well said.
there were a lot of other things - but that was one of the biggies.
Sunshine- I agree I don't like to go shopping for clothes. It seems that the clothes that are Plus Sizes are gaudy looking. No tasteful patterns or colors. They all look blaa. If you look at the Regular sizes or petite sizes they are cheery and very attractively designed. My husband commented once when we were shopping "why can't they make plus size clothes just like they do the other sizes JUST BIGGER" Good question!
I haven't enjoyed shopping for clothes in soooo long. Now I think its actually fun to be able to go into a store and not grab the biggest size hoping I can squeeze into it! I knew I had a problem when I could no longer buy a pair of jeans in the misses department. My wardrobe went from stylish to pull on elastic waist stuff. None of this stuff is attractive when your built like a weeble. Short and round. Most of the plus sizes are also sized for taller women. The armholes are huge, the collars are cut to fall closer to my belly button than my breastbone. It was really depressing to say the least. Somewhere during this time, I lost my confidence in me. I think that would be the last staw. Now here I am 51 pounds lighter and my confidence is returning, I no longer am embarrassed to go shopping. I can go into the juniors department and buy those cute little low rise jeans and know before I go into the fitting room that I will be able to fit into them.
My house was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina (Aug 2005) EXCEPT for an upstairs bedroom closet that received no damage at all. That just happened to be where all of my fall clothes, "Good clothes", Evening Clothes, Good Coats, EVERYTHING of any value clotheswize was stored. Lucky me, right?
well, it would have been lucky me, except I allowed myself to gain 20 - 25 lbs. over the course of the year, and when I tried to find something to wear to a real important wedding in July, nothing fit. I mean, that was soooo disgusting, to have been lucky enough to have these things and not be able to even get in them. That was my "AHA" moment. I had to go buy something that was way expensive, in a bigger size, and I was not happy.
The summer of 2005 was the last straw for me. I had trouble finding a summer job and eventually gave up, probably way sooner than I should have because I just felt like a failure. When I was out with my friends I was fine, but I had way too much time on my hands to just sit around my house and stagnate, and I became really sad and depressed. When I got back to school that fall, I came to the realization that I needed some kind of outside help... I couldn't start the lifestyle changes by myself because I just had no belief that I could do it. I would give up after less than a day, over and over. So I found a dietician that I could go to for advice and accountability, and through her belief that I could do it I was able to sustain the changes I needed to make.
My moment was when my husband and I were outside with our kids (a 2 year old and a 3 year old). And my son took off for a busy street, I was scared to death and started running to get him. I did catch him before he got to the street but I was so out of breath and I only ran maybe 20 feet. I knew at that point I needed to be healthy not only for myself but for my kids. I can't protect them the way a mom should at this weight, plain and simple!
My "a-ha" moment was at lunch with a friend of mine in mid January '06. She was saying how she wanted to loose 80 lbs. and calculated that if she lost 1.5 a week, she'd be done by the end of the year. I said, "what???" - man - I can loose 1.5 lbs a week (sometimes ).
I'm currently at minus 37 lbs. and am looking forward to that 40 mark - my doggy's food and bird seed come in 40 lb. bags and when I lift them they seem so heavy. Hard to imagine I've been carrying all that around with me. Man - it feels sooooo great to be shedding that - once and for all.
Aha moment....had to be a doctors appointment where my physician let me know I was way too young to be in this shape, and if something didn't change I would have to go on meds...SOON. I went home and contemplated that for a couple hours, and then the snowball started rolling....all those moments came in one afternoon. I hate my double chin, and shopping in the 'womens' department, shopping period, feeling like people are looking at me if I stop for lunch, and being tired ALL THE TIME!! These were just a few of the things that hit me that afternoon, but things changed that day, and I'm not looking back!
Mine came from realizing that I would die if I didn't take the weight off. My physician was very up-front about this. I used to try to get dressed up and it would take me changing clothes a dozen times , getting depressed and feeling like crap in everything. Then, when we'd go somewhere, I felt totally uncomfortable around the much thinner people and feel like I was too embarassed to even get out of my chair. I have seen a lot of over-weight people who are very beautiful, but with my face so extremely fat and swollen, I looked plain hideous, IMO.
My moment.....I was sitting around with my Mom, Aunt and Grandma. They were talking about all of the different medications they were taking, comparing Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, and Diabetes drugs.
I realized at that moment that I was headed down the same path, just a few years behind them. I asked them "How many years do I have left before I'm taking all of these drugs". The answer, they decided was about 10 years.
Not gonna happen. I will not just give up and follow the family tradition of being overweight, sick and tired of life.
I had allready passed my, "I will never get that big" weight of 200 pounds. I was 209.
That was a little over a year ago. I now weigh 169. It's taking awhile but I WILL REACH MY GOAL!!
My moment came when I was trying on interview clothes. I was looking in a full length mirror it was a bright sunny day. I went to switch outfits and I looked at myself almost naked and was shocked. Was that really what my stomach and legs look like? At that moment I decided I needed to do something.
I knew I'd been gaining weight since I graduated high school (three and a half years ago). When I graduated, my weight stayed between 145-150 lbs. Then, over this past summer, I weighed myself at one point, just out of curiosity, and realized I'd nearly broken 200 lbs! That was my "This just ISN'T going to work" moment.
I always knew that I had a weight problem, but I never really address it. I actually thought that I didn't look that bad until I saw a then recent picture of myself. I could not believe I looked like that. So that was my rude awakening.
Last Straw
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