I was part of my office's 5 person paddling team for an outrigger canoe regatta. I loved paddling and had done it in college so I was super excited. At the practice meet, my hips were too wide to fit in the racing canoe. As we were hassling with trying to get me in the canoe, various other teams and officials were watching and someone called down to the steersman to see what the problem was. He called back across the beach "Her hips stay too big for the canoe!". Utter humiliation. I had to watch from the beach as my team paddled away without me.

At the actual race it was excruciating having my hips crammed into the hull but I did it. And then I decided I was going to get serious about getting the weight off.