What was your lightbulb moment?

[kpoll19]

I just want to share. I am 36 years old. I am married and have an 8 year old daughter. When I was in high school I was always "chubby" - around 170 but I had a lot of muscle as I rode horses all my life and played sports - softball, field hockey, and tennis. I managed to let myself get up to an all time high of 316.5. Every year I just added 5-10 pounds like clockwork. But, it never really affected me until the last couple of years. I had no health problems, cholesteral and blood pressure were always good. I still did what I wanted to. In the last 18 months though, my knee which I injured has never quite healed right, I now have sleep apnea and have to sleep with that stupid machine. But the worst moment for me was when we took our daughter last year to Wildwood. I could no longer go on our favorite ride as my arse was too big to fit in the seat. I knew then and there that I had to do something. But, like always I continued to plan on "starting tomorrow". I tried WW numerous times with limited success. When you save all your points for ice cream, well I don't think that's how it was intended to be used.

Anyway, a friend talked me into Atkins, again. I had tried it before but cheated and gained the 25 I lost back. I then bad mouthed Atkins, blah blah blah. I had planned on coming back just for the two week induction and then move back into a WW Core program. Well, I finally figured it out. I needed to change my way of eating forever, not just until I lose the weight. I never, NEVER, not even the other time I tried Atkins felt as strong as I do on Atkins now. I am on my 8th week and I don't think I have ever even stayed with a program without bingeing or cheating this long before. For those of you who read my posts this week you will know that I was stalled for 3 weeks at an 18 pound loss which is still awesome. But I never thought of quitting! To me that is amazing because the "old me" would have used that as an excuse to stop. It is just finally so different for me that I find it hard to explain. I am done with my addictions to food. There is no food I can put into my mouth that is worth the way I felt at 316.5 pounds. NOTHING. This is such a turning point for me. I feel like I finally "got it". And I am currently at a 21.5 pound loss - 295! I am setting a good example now for my daughter as well. I have promised her that when we go to Disney in June 2006, I will be able to go on Space Mountain with her! That is my goal - go on any roller coaster/ride with my child that I want to. And, not to use a seat belt extended on the plane

I want to thank all of you who support me and each other and give great advice. It helps so much.

I am hoping others will share there "lightbulb" moments when they finally made a committment to encourage others.

Kelly

[Effie]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?



Great post, kpoll. I remember one of your first posts when you were deciding whether or not you wanted to Atkins again. I'm so glad you decided to stick with it, and WOW! What tremendous results already!

My lightbulb moment --
I went to Vegas the last week in April this year with my sister and our two cousins. We pretty much all grew up as sisters. We've all gone up & down 50 pounds at some point in our lives, but my sister has always been the heaviest by far. The other 3 of us would trade off who was the "skinny one", (and by "skinny" I mean 150 pounds) but then that person would gain some weight while another one was losing. It's not really a competition, just something we all notice. Anyway, while in Vegas, I noticed that my two cousins have been skinny for a while now. I was a little bit jealous, but that wasn't motivating enough. My lightbulb moment was when my sister and I were walking side-by-side into a casino and I noticed in the reflection that we looked almost identical. I'm still probably 50 pounds lighter than she is, but we had that same shape, and the same walk, and our shirts were tucked into our rolls in the same place. I saw a glimpse into my future and realized I couldn't get any bigger. I know this sounds like I'm being really mean to my sister, but I'm not. I love her to death, but I know how much she's battled with her weight, and I don't think she'd want me to follow in her path either.

Here's a picture from the first day in Vegas. I'm on the far right. This is right before I ate everything there was to eat at the buffet. After we all gorged ourselves, my cousin was wondering if she should get dessert, and I said (not trying to be funny), "Are you going to regret it later if you didn't get dessert when you had the chance?" And my cousins and our mothers laughed because they thought I was mocking the advice of, "Are you going to regret it later when you're stuffed and realized you shouldn't have eaten so much?" I guess that was a lightbulb moment too. I was just trying to get my money's worth at the buffet by eating everything, and I knew that for myself, if I didn't have the cheesecake or the ice cream, etc., I would have been thinking about it all day. Gah! I never want to be like that again!!!!

[Sarah1341]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

Thanks for sharing your stories, kpoll and effie!

Well, my lightbulb moment came when I saw a picture of myself at Christmas time with my baby boy (now 21 months old). I was holding him and had a great smile, but lots of rolls. It was a side view and was just awful. And, for the first time in my life, I felt "fat." It really wasn't how I saw myself. I hate that feeling and want to get rid of it. I also hate the idea of hiding from the camera. I want to be a part of the special memories formed with my son, I want to be in photos that he will later look back on.

So, here I am. Trying and refusing to give up.

[america57]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

It's funny because my lightbulb moment happened in Las Vegas too. First of all, I had to ask for a seat belt extension on the plane (so embarrassing) then, you have to walk in Vegas a lot! You walk the strip or you go into these big hotels and walk, I was exhausted and had to keep sitting down to rest. I was on a business trip with my husband and his co-worker brought his wife and we all went around together. I'm 47, the co-workers wife was 54, she had slipped on some eggs at a grocery store back home and was scheduled to have surgery on her knee the Monday we came back, even with her bad knee I couldn't keep up with her, she had so much energy, then they told me they were on Atkins. My 24 year old daughter was also on Atkins and had lost 40 pounds. I thought Atkins was this terrible diet where you ate only red meat, I decided to try induction, planning to go off of it as soon as I had lost a little weight, here it is 5 months later! I now realize that I was totally addicted to sugar, once I got away from the sugar, my cravings ended. And the energy! I can't believe the energy I have and how well I sleep at night!

[Yoly1001]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

I've shared this before but am happy to share again.

My lightbulb moment was when I couldn't recognize myself anymore. Not physically that was fine, I was in such a state of denial that I didn't even think that my wieght was a problem. What I mean when I say that I couldn't recognize myself anymore is that I couldn't recognize my personality. I was always a bubbly person, very happy, and animated, I was a person that found the joy and good in any situation. The eternal optimist, I guess. Well one day I realized that I wasn't like that anymore, I was shy, introverted even. I felt uncomfortable in front of new people, and I hid from cameras. I hated the way I dressed, but dressed that way because I couldn't find cute clothes in my size. I was fat and miserable. I decided then and there that I needed to do something. I knew that the fat could affect my body and that never would have made a difference but my personality was actually something that I prided myself on. And when fat started affecting my identity I knew it was time for a change. I looked at myself and thought, it's either kill myself or lose weight, I can't live like this anymore. I had a little girl and didn't want to leave her yet, so I decided to start atkins. I never thought it would work but I stuck to it, and no one was as shocked as I was when I started to lose weight.

Here I am 8 months later, I am a slow loser, only 45 pounds so far, but I stick with it day in and day out because I can't imagine feeling that way again. EVER.

Thank you for posting this, I needed this today, I have been feeling a bit discouraged and I needed to remind myself of why I started this adventure in the first place.

[america57]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

Yoly,

What a good, inspirational post. I never thought about it before, but yeah, my out-going personality changed too. I have alway been a very positive, look on the brightside of life person, but I was really down on myself, the self talk "God, I'm fat, what must people think when they see me, how did I let myself get like this?" was going on in my head all the time! I felt so defeated. I had been on so many low fat diets, weight watchers, Jenny Craig, nothing worked and I was starving and mad at myself. But I'm back baby! I'm starting to feel good and conceited about my looks again! Even though I still have a long way to go, and this big belly, yuck!! I try not to put myself down, I have sisters who think their job is to do that for me! LOL!!!

[Sarah1341]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

Yoly, great pics! You look lovely! Congrats on your progress so far!

[Brook]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

What sent me to the library to pick up every book I could get my hands on and start choosing a plan? I was sitting on a bench at the park with my kids one afternoon checking my watch often to see how long we'd have to stay before I could get away with making them go home. This woman pulled up in a car with her son, I'm guessing he was probably 6 years old or so. She popped her trunk and dug out a bunch of stuff, and I watched them as they walked over to the softball field. He stepped up to home plate and she took her position on the pitchers mound. I bet I watched her & her son for about 10 minutes as they played hard, laughed, giggled and chased each other and that's when it hit me like a brick. My kids had *never* done that with me. I was too fat and too interested in sitting on my butt on the bench rather than LIVING LIFE with them.

We left the park that day and to the library I went. That brings us to this :

I wrote out my "light bulb" moment on my website. It's kinda long, so please forgive me, but it's my truth. Instead of posting it here, I'll just link to it. That way this thread won't take about 300 years to scroll through. LOL

No Excuses

~Brook

[cruiser gal]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

My lightbulb moment was looking at some pictures that we had taken on a cruise, and saying to myself this can't be me! And asking my dh how he could let me wear what I was wearing, without telling me how bad it looked on me. Well he didn't answer, and so I figured I must look bad in all my clothing. Then to make matters worse, my mother-in-law, asked to borrow one of my pieces of clothing, and I had always thought that she was a big, chunky woman, totally out of shape, and lots of rolls. And reality hit me, I was wearing the same size clothing as she was, and I sorta freaked out at the thought!

Now I have given her some of my old clothes, she can have them! I never want them back again, nor look like that ever! No more shopping in the plus stores for this gal! No more Mu Mu's! No more lack of exercising and bad eating habits! Infact I embrace this wonderful WOE, and recommend it to all, even my MIL!

[woe]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

Just a paragraph from my lowcarb page:

I changed the way I eat on 5/4/1999 and now follow a low carb plan. It all started after a visit to the doctor for a prescription for allergies. She commented that I needed to lose 50 pounds and should exercise. Then she told me that my cholesterol test from last year was good, at which point I said, yes, but I was once tested high for triglycerides... Boy did her eyes ever get big. She ordered a test for me and sure enough, mine were at 300. While I ended up on a presciption to lower triglycerides, she also put me on a low carb diet... Protein Power.

[texwife&mom]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

I had a month when my family and I got several last min. invites out with family or friends. I had panic attacks for each event, because I didn't have time to "prepare"--ie starve for weeks leading up to the event. I was litteraly crying/sweating hard to breath. I had to wear my hubbies button down shirts to cover myself. Then it hit me that my oldest son will be starting school in Sept. of 06 and I cannot break down every morning before I take him to school. I had to do something about how I felt--which stemed from how I looked-- to be a better mom. Now I can't wait to see friends and family to show them how successful this WOL can be!! And I will def. be a "hot mommie" when school starts next year!!

[Yoly1001]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

Thanks Sarah1347! It has been slow going but I will eventually make it to goal.

America57, I have 2 sisters, one of which unfortunatly feels like it is her job to compete with me. Oh well, what can you do.

[Holly-Nicole]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

My lightbulb moment came in February this year. I had always been ok with my weight and insisted to everyone, including myself that I was happy with the way I looked and was not embarrassed about what I had become - all 18st of me! (252lbs)

February 2005, my whole family went on a skiing trip to France. I love skiing and was very excited about the whole holiday. After arriving we all went to the ski shop to hire our ski's/boots etc and once fitted had to give our weight to the cute ski guy behind the counter to have our individual ski settings adjusted. I hovered at the back of the group becoming more and more nervous. My Dad at 6ft 4" gave his weight at 17st7lbs and it suddenly hit me that I weighed more than my father! The outcome: Having turned very red, I lied and gave a false weight of 16st in a whisper. Even this got the response of a shocked raised eyebrow from the guy. I wished the ground would open and swallow me up and I knew at that moment that I had to do something about my out of control weight.

I immediately started watching my carbs as my Aunt & Uncle who were skiing with us too had both been very successful with Atkins and they gave me great advice and encouragement. When I returned from holiday, I bought the book, read all the info and searched the net. I statred Atkins and a little while later found ADBB and the rest is history. Now 5 months down the line, I have lost 35lbs and am feeling great. I know there is still a way to go but I feel better than I have in years and can't wait to see what I have achieved by this time next year. Thank you to all who have supported me especially you special people at ADBB x

[diamond girl]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

On 12-31-04, I was looking at video of a family get together taken on Christmas Eve 2004 and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The pink lycra shirt that I thought I looked good in, showed off EVERY roll. (Why didn't anyone tell me). Especially the back fat.
The next day I went on the Web searching for diet plans. I had done the low-fat thing in the past (with little success) so I was looking for anything but that. Luckily, I came upon another low-carb Website and was intrigued by the Atkins WOE. I went out and bought the book and started to build a foundation of knowledge a month before I started this WOL because I did not want to fail. I planned all my meals ahead of time so I wouldn't cheat on induction and I started excercising again.
Even though I joined this board when I was in the pre-maintenance stage, everyone here has been an inspiration and I continue to be motivated by everyone's wonderful and heartfelt stories.
BTW, as you can see from my stats, this WOE works!!!

[dodgegal]

Re: What was your lightbulb moment?

Mine was finding an undeveloped roll of film and then looking at the photos. I guess we all go around with a mental image of ourselves and the reality of me was worlds away from what my mental image was. I floundered around for 3 or 4 years trying low fat and low calorie diet and didnt make any progress at all. I had finally resigned myself to always being large and made peace with my size 20-22w pants. After my husband and I started dating, we discussed starting Atkins as he had some sucess with it before. 2 months down the road and we're on our way!