What was your breaking point?

**CroweKitty** · October 6, 2006, 06:46 PM

Re: What was your breaking point?

Great Question!

I think for me it was the fact that I had to take a REALLY LONG trans-pacific flight in about a month, and at almost 200 pounds and completely out of shape, I had convinced myself that I was going to get deep vein thrombosis and die. So I started low carbing again and exercising, a lot!

Well, I didn't die, and at almost 4 months and 33 pounds down, I like how I feel and how I'm starting to look. I think I'll keep it up.

**Brook** · October 6, 2006, 07:21 PM

Re: What was your breaking point?

I wrote mine out here:

No Excuses!

**KittyMomma** · October 6, 2006, 07:22 PM

Re: What was your breaking point?

The breaking point for me was when my Gut became it's own "person'.

I would have to tuck blankies and such under my belly at night so I could sleep on my side without it straining my belly...

I would have to tuck the material of my pants under the 'crease' of my gut when I sat at my computer or the friction/sweat would irritate me so much...

I would have to stand sideways to keep my gut out of the way when I reached up in a high cupboard for something..

I would have to squat down to try and see around my gut to tie/put on my shoes...

I could go on and on.. but honestly.. one morning I woke up and said to my Gut.. I hate you, Gut. And I want you dead (gone).

So here I am. and My gut is nearly half the person it used to be..

**dreamof145** · October 6, 2006, 08:10 PM

Re: What was your breaking point?

I've told it before, but it is a day I'll never forget. I went to a writer's convention and hid at the back of the room. I looked around at all the people and as a lot of fat people do, I compared my fatness to everyone in the room. I was the fattest one there. I went back to my hotel room and cried. Then I got mad. I decided right then and there to do something about it. Thank goodness I decided to do low-carb when I heard about one of my daughter's girlfriends who had lost a huge amount of weight counting carbs. I started checking out how to do it on the internet when I found the ADBB.

**jimmie 48** · October 6, 2006, 08:55 PM

Re: What was your breaking point?

my pictures made me ill
i was tired all the time
but the clincher was i couldn't breath to bend over and tie my shoes.

**Curveegrrl** · October 6, 2006, 08:59 PM

Re: What was your breaking point?

I've been fat all my life. I'm alctually thinner now than I was when I was 13. I weigh more, but I'm a smaller size.

I've done dozens of things to lose weight. But I never really committed to anything for very long.

Then I met a remarkable woman who had lost a lot of weight. She looked fabulous. I'd met her once when she was at (or near) her highest weight. When I met her again 2 years later, I could not believe the transformation. Of course, she had been doing Atkins.

She lent me the book.
She lent me work out videos.
She gave me a VCR so I could watch and do them.
She gave me curtains for my living room so my neighbors did not have to watch me do them.
She showed me amazing recipes.
She has cheered for me all the way.
She sorted me out.

I could not do this without her and I am thankful everday that I had the opportunity to meet her.

**sallyseachange** · October 7, 2006, 12:13 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

Started out doing it for an online pal. Didn't want to be the 'fat friend' when we eventually met. But...very soon I began doing it for me. I felt better, looked better and had more energy than I'd had for years. I was also amazed that this was a diet I could stick to..meaning a WOE I could do forever! Hooray for Atkins!

**Bren** · October 7, 2006, 04:21 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

I can honestly say there was no magical moment for me. A friend decided "we" needed to lose weight. Having done every diet out there I was reluctant. She wanted to go to Weight Watchers (and of course I had been there done that) So, I suggested Atkins, thinking she would not go along with it. She said "ok". Great....so I pulled out my book. Which had gathered dust sitting on a shelf and never been opened! Decided I would check out the internet to see if there was a place to do the "Cliff notes" version as I really did not want to read the book. I had basically given up on ever losing weight permantely. Lost so much over the years only to gain it all back plus more. I had no idea what it was like to feel great, be energetic and mainly I lived to eat.
ADBB was where I ended up! Once I started reading the posts here I thought maybe I could do this. So I geared up and started. Lost 8 pounds my first week and thought Hey........this is not too bad. Still not completely sold on the idea.
At some point of going through the motions it all clicked and here I am!
So, I guess you could say I am one of those that "went through the motions and felt the emotions".

**Rubysugar** · October 7, 2006, 05:25 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

OOh! Good thread!

The first time I started losing weight, I was creeping up on 300 lbs. At 5'2", it was a harsh sight for me to look in the mirror. I couldn't put my arms down "flat". They would lay against my sides, but they stuck out at an angle from my "actual" side. My husband (at the time) told me his mother said "Melinda would be as pretty as that girl over there if she could lose weight". I had started shopping for size 24s. It sucked. Life sucked. I felt hopeless. I had a coworker who started losing weight and said she was having fun doing it. This was in 1999. She was doing "Atkins". She ate hotdogs everyday and cheese and steak and said she had so much more energy. Now, I know, hotdogs and cheddar is not Atkins. LOL She ate green beans sometimes and salads occasionally. It didn't sound like the healthiest of diets but being as wide as I was tall wasn't healthy either. So for the first time in my life I tried dieting. I ate steak and green beans all the time. I didn't read the book, I didn't really do "Atkins" as we know it. But it started working. I lost 25 lb the first month. Then my marriage started its quick spiral down the toilet drain. I didn't think about dieting anymore. I was preoccupied with dissolution of what I thought was my future. But I didn't feel like eating as much anymore anyway. Upheaval will do that, ya know?? LOL I had a major change in lifestyle. No longer sitting behind a desk chuggin' southern sweet tea all day. I was back on the road, working at Renaissance Faires. That meant alot of walking during the week and eating less 'cause I was only making a little money and living in my van. But on the weekends, I had been hired to pop kettlecorn. By hand. That means stirring that huge kettle of the sticky sweet popped corn allllll day long and then also during the week to make extra for the weekend. When it's just oil, corn kernals and sugar, the stirring with the 3 foot paddle ain't too hard. When the stuff pops and gets stick, it takes effort. I lost another 30 lbs during that 6 week period. I continued to have jobs that kept me physical. Physical enough, that I ate like crap and continued to lose weight. I got down to about 165 over the next couple of years just being active. I did "Atkins" for 2 weeks and then got pregnant during my second marriage. Had the baby, lost 5 lbs during the pregnancy. Got post partum. Watched the scale climb while I wallowed in misery, clueless as to what was up with me. DH gentley urged me to go see the doctor. I did. Went on Zoloft and started feeling better that afternoon. Granted I walked around clenching my teeth for no reason, but I wasn't depressed anymore! Stepped on the scale. 196!!! I was almost 200 lbs AGAIN! That was the major straw that broke the fat camel's back. I WOULD NOT be over 200 again. I could not go back to being that sad fat girl. I did not love her. I loved the "real" me. This was the end of November 2005. I immediately thought of Atkins. So I did some research, found ADBB. Learned about the "Real Atkins". I ordered the book, read all the stickies. I spent hours everyday for weeks reading and studying and waiting for my book to come in the mail. I had been on induction a month and lost over 15 lbs by the time my book showed up. I met my Atkins partner, Austlyn. We did The January Bootcamp. And I have been having fun and loving it ever since. I fell in love with this way of eating and this community! Yeah, I have had my share of bumps in the road but that sad, fat girl is 120 lbs behind me and I will be leaving her there forever. I have been armed with the knowledge to control my body, not be controlled by it. Atkins works... if you let it.
Hope I wasn't too long winded.

**2big4mysize** · October 7, 2006, 05:27 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

getting stuck in a kiddie play tube was my moment.

**ttdriver** · October 7, 2006, 05:32 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

1. When climbing a set of stairs had me wincing with knee/hip pain.
2. When all my tops were a size large and my pants were either elastic, spandex, or sweats.
3. When I saw how I looked in photographs at the beach.

Betty

**G-Mom** · October 7, 2006, 06:07 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

The ultimate breaking point for me was VERY bittersweet. I was 9 months into breastfeeding my baby and I so desperately wanted to nurse him for a year and he DID NOT want to quit, but I was massively overweight and around 322 lbs (I used a regular scale that went over 300 and back down to 22 lbs, so I figured I was 322 lbs), and worse, I felt horrible, had zero energy and suffered from hypoglycemic attacks weekly. Basically, I was scared and miserable.

Plus, the girl I remembered when I was 25, was a fading memory, and I did not want her to die a suffocating death under all that fat.

**not2late** · October 7, 2006, 06:17 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

I knew I had to lose weight, after college, when I was looking at a dress I had worn in high school and noticed it was too small. That lead me to my low fat vegetarian lifestyle and an additional 40-50 pounds.

**changing** · October 7, 2006, 07:56 AM

Re: What was your breaking point?

I had become very comfortable with myself and accepted my appearance, but when walking across campus to get to class had become something that required extreme determination, due to my incredible back and knee pain, I said, "Enough of this crap" and decided to lose the weight once and for all. I didn't know if what I wanted was possible, but I was sure that I owed it to myself to try as hard as I possibly could to get there.

Now that I've lost nearly 60 pounds and am a regular exerciser (aerobics at home and ballroom dances and dance classes), I get to campus early and stroll around for extra exercise to clear my head before exams. Quite a change.

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What was your breaking point?

What was your breaking point?

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