for me it was time to get healthy and rejoin my husband doing some of the things we like to do, hike, ski, and cycle...... wasn't goign to be doing those things with the way I feel right now..... plus we go to the UK every year and while the seatbelts on the plane fit fine, it is not comfortable and always a worry..... I feel like a lug when I am running the dogs around the ring.... and I would really like to do agility with them but right now I dont feel like its an option.... I want people to be watching the dog.... not the fat chick running them.....

Just the other day we were talking about going on a glider ride and to iceland and you have to be under a certain weight for both..... and I was under for neither.... so there is the motivation for me

I guess I could quote the old adage "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired."

I just didn't like the way I looked, but mostly I didn't like the way I felt all the time. I knew it was time to take charge and make a change.

My little sister was in a Miss Preteen Texas pageant I had pictures of us taken. However when I got them back...I was so shocked. I thought that outfit was flattering !Profile picture! btw. Realizing I had let myself go....was heart wrenching.....and my fat pants I laughed about were a little tight.... so maybe it was all of that and maybe its my superficialness of refusing to buy size 18 pants....either way, here I am

Two things finally pushed me over the edge...

Family trip to Costa Rica (husband's family) and we wanted to go scuba diving. They didn't have a wet-suit big enough for me to train in. I was mortified and ended up not going on the dive b/c I was afraid I'd get out there and wet-suit the trainer was going to get for me wouldn't fit, either. I've ALWAYS wanted to scuba dive and I couldn't.

When I got home, my bad knee (old track injury, I've torn cartilage 4x and had surgery once) was stiff and painful. Went to the ortho surgeon who said the 3 magic words: TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT. I was 36 years old at the time, and he gave me 5 years.

So a mixture of humiliation and anger that I couldn't do something I've always wanted to do, and then the threat of a super serious operation a good 20 years before the majority of people go through it. I started WW two days after my doctor's appointment.

I stepped on the scale on a random day (July 6th) only to find that I weighed in at 324 lbs. I stood there shocked for a moment before I actually cried. That was the highest weight I have ever been, including during my twin pregnancy, and I vowed then and there that enough was enough.

I started WW that day.

I was squatting down in the bathroom to get something and glanced in the body mirror, I had the hips of a fat person. Also I was able to see my profile in a friends bathroom mirrors,, and noticed I had a double chin.

A few things did it for me -- I looked pregnant at my wedding last year because I was so big, but big financial problems caused stress and the inablity to buy healthy options. Kept putting it off longer and longer until I was so tired of sleeping 10-12 hours a day, not fitting my clothes anymore, and being tired from simple activity. My mom joined WW back in January, and seeing her do it really inspired me to think I could too. I've definetly got the swing of things now but I still call her at least 2x a week with questions, haha.