3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community - What was your deciding factor to finally do it?

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What was your deciding factor to finally do it?

We all looked in the mirror every day and ignored what was happening to our bodies. But there's always that one big push that finally makes you decide to get real and do it. What was yours?

For me it was a sunny afternoon, sitting on the front porch with a friend and I looked up and saw my reflection in the window on the front door. Sitting is a much different view than standing! I saw Jaba the Hut looking back at me. Yikes!

~Dolly

I think it was a mixture of being winded every time I walked up one flight of stairs and noticing I didn't have an awful lot of pics of me with my brand-new baby. Never being noticed anymore by the opposite sex also really sucked.

Well, it was a combination of things for me. I turned 33 this year and I just had this feeling that this was a year of change. I have been floundering since January, and I was listening to the radio and the host said something that got me thinking. He said he use to be heavy and he would see someone in good shape and say, "I'd kill for a body like that." Then he though, well if I would kill why wouldn't I work a little harder?

So I decided that getting healthy was the most important thing in my life, and I'm fighting and I'm not giving any ground.

I've been trying to lose weight for a long time. I was a healthy weight as a kid. In HS I was a healthy weight. In college, I ranged from being within a healthy weight for my height and being a few lbs over the maximum that is considered okay in the BMI. But after the birth of my first child in '96, the weight just crept up, up & up. By the time my son was 4, I was more than 60 lbs heavier than I had been pre-pregnancy. My weight didn't pile on with pregnancy. I gained somewhere in the 30 lb range. After my son was born, I had 12 lbs to get to my median weight (not exactly my pre-pregnancy weight b/c I had lost some, but my median weight from during all of college). I never lost it and only gained.

I guess I didn't really start trying any definite weightloss/get healthy plans until 2006. We had had a second child in '04. I had started out obese...196 lbs on a 5' body. But I only gained 8 lbs, then lost that just fine. It wasn't until my weight started coming up again in '06 that I decided to try a program. Then it was Eating for Life, which was starting to work for me. But I ended up with a hospitalization & emergency surgery for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, which of course slowed things down. I had a 6 week ban on lifting anything over 10-15 lbs. I had to take it easy due to the nature of my incision (big, vertical, with staples). And whenever I looked back to estimate time of conception, I found it coincided with when we started working on losing the weight, and that really impacted me.

It took a year to overcome my aversion to any dieting, but I have still been unable to overcome a ridiculous aversion to EFL. As healthy a plan as it is, I still get emotional over our loss and I still associate my using that plan with the time of our loss. So a bit over a year ago, I started on the next quest. I tried South Beach about 3 times. Had a quarter-hearted attempt at You On a Diet once or twice (but started to gain each time). Tried Slim Fast for a month or two. I did lose a few pounds that I managed to keep off before starting WW.

My deciding factor to try Weight Watchers was my sister. My mother-in-law had been talking about WW for a few years, but I didn't feel it was for me for some reason. Perhaps I was just too headstrong about trying the other plans. Perhaps I was unaware at the time that I could do it at-home.

But my sister...I have two sisters. One has always been really skinny. You know, the type who was able to get back into skinny pre-pregnancy clothes within just a few months of her pregnancies. She has never been over a size 7/8 ever...other than during pregnancy of course.

The other sister has struggled with her weight since hitting puberty. In '97-98, when she was single, childless, in her last year of college, and could afford it, she did Jenny Craig and did great on it. But once she got married in late '99 & started having kids mid-May '01 (2 of her children are 17 mos. apart, there are 3 years between 2 & 3, and just barely 2 years between 3 & 4) and couldn't afford all that food anymore, she was back to struggling.

Her husband's sister, who had had tremendous success on WW, gave her a WW kit as a gift. My sister shed over 20 lbs in 3 months and even when she was off-program, she maintained that. I'm not sure how she's doing now. My husband recently asked her how the diet was going and she said she had been off it for a couple months due to a lot of stress (sick kids all the time, money stress).

She is also our most shy family member but really lit up when she was explaining how it worked. She really loved the flexibility of Flex, and didn't feel she was denying herself. And she had such good success with it. Those things really sparked the interest for me. After she sat down with me and showed me her materials, I decided was going to give it a try.

I'm only down maybe a little over 10 lbs since I started on April 8, but that is still 10 lbs less of me since then! 10 boxes of butter. 10 cans of soup. 2 bags of sugar or flour. I enjoy the flexibility and I'm learning things about myself. I know my loss could be greater if I stayed on-program all the time and incorporated more exercise than I do, but I get off track quite often due to traveling to see family and TOM. I'm trying to do a better job of staying OP when we're away, and I'm learning what foods trigger me getting off track for more than a day.

The unique thing about my experience with WW (and I do it at-home) is that when I fall off the wagon, so to speak, I keep trying. I might be off for a week, but I get determined to start again and I do. This is the longest I've been on any plan, even if it's on again, off again. I find no faults in WW. I know it's me. I have no excuses. With SBD (and I still love their recipes), I was able to say: "I can't do those first two weeks without grains/breads/cereals or fruit!" and I meant it. With Slim Fast, I was able to say: "You know, the weight is coming down, but #1: I'm feeling conflicted about using foods that all contain corn syrup, and #2: I don't know how long I can go having to drink the drinks and eat the bars, even though I'm also eating real food."

With WW, I only have myself to blame for not losing 15 or 20 lbs by now. And I'm okay with that. I'm learning a lot. I don't feel like a failure; I don't feel like I can't try again. I know I can, and I really enjoy how much I can do with Flex.

I know this turned into a "what led me to WW and why I still love it post." Sorry!! Bottom line, my sister's success and enthusiasm inspired me to give it a try. I figured there was "nothing to lose" (except the weight, of course) and have been very happy with the choice to give it a try. Looking forward to losing my next 10 lbs!

I looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw then I realized for myself that I need to look and feel healthy. I wanted to have better self-esteem. For me its a lifestyle change not just a diet. I started today and I'm gonna stick with it for the rest of my life.

Mine was going to the doctors and knowing that I've gained weight but having to actually see that AWFUL number, the biggest number I've EVER seen on a scale for myself before..... That and having my younger brother ask my parents if i was ok? because I look like ive gained a lot of weight. =\ But i know it was never meant in a mean way.... its the ones who love you who notice things. So someday I'll thank him.

Buying a $75 bra and having to sew my own underwear, guilt about throwing family pictures away, and watching a show called "You are What You Eat" on BBC.

Trying on a bikini, and having to go to the doctor once every three months for a while.

I LOVE that my obgyn is excited for my weight loss :)
(i've lost 4 lbs with the past 3 visits hehe!!)

I've always wanted to lose weight, even more so when I was in Europe. I felt like I missed out because it was hard for me to climb the Alps, I was so winded! What made me really start losing weight was when I ran out of excuses not to. My employers gave me a gym membership, they bought healthy food, and I realized I had to motivate me. I said I couldn't go to WW because I'd be the youngest and they wouldn't have a time for me to go. I am the youngest, and so what! it hasn't killed me, and there is a meeting that I can make! Also I know I'm going back to Europe this summer and I want to be able to fit on the train seats, and have energy to spend two weeks with non stop adventure. I want to be able to enjoy myself and to shock my Italian and German host families!

being at my highest weight ever and hating the way i looked in pictures made me start. i want to see the person i know i am reflected in my picture/mirror.

When I stepped on my scale and saw a number I have never seen before in my life. I don't know why but it really hit me then. Also I think it's because I'm turning 30 in October and I want to start this thirty thing off right :)

When my mood due to hating my weight was effecting the way I was with my kids. Always crabby and never wanting to do anything.:(

With my 40th birthday approaching far more rapidly than I would like, I reached 98kg. That's when I realised I was 8kg heavier than when I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant, and was going to hit the 100 mark if I didn't do something about it.

I've done weight watchers before with success, but my then-husband wouldn't let me keep going (that's a whole other story!) So I signed up for online because my work schedule means I can't go to the same meeting each week. Plus between here and the WW forums (which aren't as good as 3FC, by the way!) I can hopefully get the kick in the pants I need to change my life.

to make my gf happIER.

when my "heavy" clothes began to get tight...when i took photos out with friends, i couldnt find myself in the picture, kept scanning past the biggest girl there and i couldnt believe that was me...when i got home for summer vacation and my mom didnt over react and say how beautiful i looked...and when i stopped feeling sexy around my DH to be...nothing worse then the way you feel about yourself...