What made you want to change your body?

[jane-m]

only being able to wear a couple of items in my wardrobe that i felt comfortable in. feeling terrible about the way i look. hating how i looked in photos. and wanting to be strong! i feel so much better about myself now, and i've only really just begun.

to everyone in this thread who has talked about their journey, congrats! there have been some incredible transformations here... this is such an inspirational place to be!

[Exodus14]

I went from having a body people commented on to having one people are telling me "oh you gained a lot of weight"... But that wasn't enough. I remember clearly what happened.

I was at my grandparents and my grandmother walked up and said to me "you've put on a lot of weight" and hit my stomach. I had just come off a broken foot and a recently fixed problem with a herniated disc in my upper back and said so. She said ok, so if you can't work out just don't eat. Later the same day three other family members tactlessly told me I gained weight. I realize they love me and didn't realize how much it hurt. But then seeing pictures of that day go up on their mantle beside pictures from a few years before it really hit home how much I had gained.

I've lost about 15 lbs so far and have about 60 to go... so I have a long way but when I don't see people for a week or so now they're all saying I look different, have I lost weight. And that type of reaction is way better than the confidence killing you've gained weight comment.

I'm feeling better in my life and I think this time when I get to the weight I want again, for the first time in my life I will have lost the weight for myself and not so a guy will like me more or so I'll fit in. It will be because this time I wanted it for me. And that has been the thing that completely changed it for me.

OP - good luck, I hope you can continue down this path and lose the weight. Every step counts. Maybe you could start a journal on here? It's helping me stay on track, even if no one really replies most of the time I can see that the views go up. So people are reading and that keeps me motivated!