Bathing suit picture. Horrifying. Maybe one day I'll post it as a before. Maybe.

When I was at a family wedding in late May, and was seated with my mother and aunts, none of whom had a clue as to where they were, who was being feted, or what anyone else's name was, because they all have advanced dementia. It was after the 90th repetition of "Why are people dancing??", "Who's that sitting next to me?" , and "Do I know you from somewhere??" that I decided that I was NOT going to go down THAT particular route. We all suffer from genetically high blood lipids--but with low carbing and medication, MINE are going to come under control. :exclm:

About 6 close co-workers were near me and talking about diets. One said, "I need to get some motivation to start a new diet" My "friend" said, "If you need motivation just look at her."
Also a amusement park ride episode for me as well. The swing ride and being given an extra section of belt in front of a loaded ride.
Being put on meds to control blood pressure.
Feeling lousy.

More than anything, because I want it more than I want anything else now.

Getting back my wedding pictures and really seeing myself and how big I had gotten. If you always hide from cameras, that do not lie, it is easier to lie to yourself.

A light goes on at the doctors office...
 

I think being prescribed zoloft and blood pressure meds was the last straw for me, that and the indignity of not being able to tie my own shoe laces when seated!!! ...the hypoglycemic symptoms 2 hours after a "normal" breakfast told me something about my crazy insulin levels as well!

...I mean, high blood pressure at 38? I was pushing 290 at the time, now I'm 247 and already feel much better. No more acid indigestion, no more alcoholic binges (because the cravings are simply not there anymore!) and steadily normalizing blood pressure.

Next step...235, and I can wear the store of pants I have saved for all these years!! :doah:

for me it was a night I had planned to go out w/some friends and I could find nothing to wear even though my closet is STUFFED with cute outfits that I, a shopperholic, have spent my hard-earned paychecks on. It was so depressing and I ended up making an excuse to not go out.

I've started atkins after endless yo-yo dieting, and although my weight loss is going slow, i'm not getting discouraged because for the first time I feel like i'm in control!

:) My kick-start was being diagnosed with diabetes type II. I have a brother who is in a nursing home because of not taking care of his type II. He is blind, lame, and has had 4 strokes, all things he was warned about by his doctors. I do not want to join him. Atkins has been a lifesaver. Within 2 months I had normal sugar readings and did not need meds so this is a life commitment.

aebh

The decision to start eating LC began with a birthday revelation that it had been 18 long years since a very lonely and depressing summer in the country when my 13 year old self took to eating as a coping mechanism.
The 18 year sugar binge is OVER!

-that and a life time of humiliating nicknames (baby beluga)

-the family reunion last year when I figured out my weight is not genetic, but the likelihood of my developing diabetes is... (diabetes on both sides of the family and a parent who nearly died from a rare and weird allergy to injected insulin, which I may have inherited)

-INCREDIBLY UGLY plus sized clothing!

My friend Tina came to town three weeks after she had started the Atkin's diet, 18lbs slimmer and looking so SUPER. I could tell immediatly and after she told me about how she lost the weight, I started the WOE the next day! I had toyed with the idea before, even thumbing through the pages of the book, but nothing spurred me into action like looking at my friend and hearing her story. You see all these pictures of success stories, but they don't really hit home until it is someone you personally know who has had success.

*lol* I used to be called Meatloaf too...
A number of factors have all added up to motivating me to do this:
I saw a pic of myself at 18 in an old sailing magazine... Almost unrecognisable
My ex-wife told me she found me physically repellant - boy OH boy I can't want till I'm at my goal and she sees me again *evil grin*
I realized I had grown a goatee to disguise how round my face was
I wanted to get back into sailing but I am too heavy to be competitive
Don't like seeing myself in the mirror
I am also a great believer in the universe giving you hints as to which direction you should take. In the space of a week I got unsolicited information about Atkins from 4 totally disparate sources (friends in different countries) so I figured I should take the hint and buy the book. Went on induction two days after I got it, and here I am :)

Steven

I've said this before, but reminding myself of it keeps me motivated....

I needed a passport picture and when it was handed back to me I nearly returned it to the photographer, assuming he'd gotten mine mixed up with someone else. I literally did not recognize myself and it was only when I recognized MY CLOTHES on the huge woman in the picture that I realized how fat I had gotten. I was horrified and disgusted.

Then I had to swallow my pride and my vanity, and submit that humiliating picture for a visa application, because there was no time to lose weight and have it retaken. Under normal circumstances I would never have allowed that to go out ANYWHERE as a picture of me. But there was nothing I could do about it. After I mailed the application I went on Atkins, literally on the way back from the post office.

Emily

So many things I read just made me sad.
Most people don't realise how much it hurt when they call you names. It still hurts when I think back at things people said to me when I was young, boys who made fun of me in front of my friends, etc.
Sometimes I wish that those people who make fun of us bigger people were fat just for one day. I don't think they'd survive.
Fat people aren't weak, you need a lot of strength to go to life being fat.
Just wanted to tell you one thing : my niece who was 6 years at that time told me that auntie Dana wasn't fat, just a bit chubby and that she just loved sitting close to me, because I was so soft. She also can't stand it when someone makes fun of people who look different, because it's not there fault they are different. Isn't that just sweet !

I can't believe some of the comments many of you have had to endure from ignorant people. :(

Mine was a bathing suit picture from our vacation in July. I thought that I had taken off more of the baby weight than that.

Mine was going to the obgyn and finding out that my previous doctor's (who I had gone to hoping to find out about WLS) scale was off by about 15 lbs!!! I was a whopping 231.5 lbs...about 20 lbs. heavier than I was the last time I was there and when I gave birth to my last child!!! Add that to the fact that in a little over a year's time I was going to a graduation where my hubby's cute little ex will be and having the good fortune to see Dr. A on Donahue and that's all she wrote :) It was a combination of things. I had wanted to do something since I stopped nursing, but didn't know how to even go about it. I knew I could never follow most diets, but when I found out about Atkins, I knew it was perfect for me.

Even though I still have a ways to go, my son's friend's mother told me yesterday that I couldn't have that much more to lose or I would be too skinny. Its from the working out so religiously...I just know it. I look better at 176 than I did before at 155. At 5'7, 135 may be too thin for me, but I'll know it when I get to where I want to be.

Thanks again, Dr. A!!!!!


L

My neurologist (of 20 yrs) started our last appt with, "My wife says I should never discuss a woman's weight, BUT......." He didn't have to tell me that I'd gained 70 pounds in last 2 years (from meds I was put on by Johns Hopkins, no less).

I felt like total crap, Got *itchy, cried. The whole reason I started Atkins was to show him that if I COULDN'T lose weight, he could kiss my big ole butt!