What Was Your Final "straw That Broke The Camels Back"

[sroan05 27]

1. I tried to put on a work shirt and I couldn't even put my arms through because they had gotten so big

2. I couldn't bend down to put lotion on my own feet

3. Wiping after going to the bathroom became an exercise

4. I went to a concert with my friends and boyfriend and I couldn't stand longer than 10 minutes

5. My legs and ankles swelling up from standing too long

...couldn't take feeling uncomfortable in my own body anymore. Looking in the mirror I saw someone who wasn't me.

[VWbuslover 5]

I started thinking about WLS when my airplane seat belt wouldn't buckle. I fly every 3 weeks !!! I have to fly for work . I had to ask my sister in law thats works for an airline if she could get me an extender because I was mortified every time I flew to work and then back home.

but the worse thing , the one that broke the camels back was when we went dipnet fishing for silvers ( which we do every year) we bough me some new waders and Water proof boots because I love fishing and my husbands old ones didn't fit me anymore . Well, I got out there and it's muddy and on an incline. You can probably see where this is going, yep ,I got stuck . My 25 year old son was with us so he helped me out and back up to the firm ground and I couldn't even fish.

So devastating , there were people everywhere . No one laughed though so that was good.

Like all of you I have so many reasons and I get winded so easily .

[Banklady 2]

Feeling like a blimp all the time.

I am only 35 bmi, small compared to some, but I am always feeling uncomfortable.

Also sick and tired of trying to diet, will lose only 20 or so pounds, then put it right back on plus some more.

Tired of my hip and knee hurting. Tired of falling because my ankles and feet are too thin and small-boned for the weight I expect them to hold.

Really tired of feeling ugly when my hubbie wants to be intimate. That's one of the worse. I want to feel attractive to myself, hence to him. I know he loves me no matter what I look like, but I really want to satisfy him.

[boom2longhorns 8]

I wasn't happy with myself and hadn't been for a long long time. My husband gave me an ultimatum...he told me I could do one of two things and he would fully support me either way... 1. I could accept myself as I was... no more diets, no more eating plans...love myself as is. or 2. Pick something and do it...no holds barred, whatever it cost. I knew I wouldn't be happy the way I was and I knew that it was affecting our marriage and the rest of my life as well. It was time to get healthy.

[aussie 11]

Feeling like a blimp all the time.

I am only 35 bmi' date=' small compared to some, but I am always feeling uncomfortable.

Also sick and tired of trying to diet, will lose only 20 or so pounds, then put it right back on plus some more.

Tired of my hip and knee hurting. Tired of falling because my ankles and feet are too thin and small-boned for the weight I expect them to hold.

Really tired of feeling ugly when my hubbie wants to be intimate. That's one of the worse. I want to feel attractive to myself, hence to him. I know he loves me no matter what I look like, but I really want to satisfy him.[/quote']

Hi Banklady

My reasons are similar to you. I have a wonderful supportive husband but I want to feel good so I can make him feel good. Also me complaining all the time about the way I look was also a factor. I've had a hard difficult life being a survivor of childhood abuse and now having 2 sons in Heaven. I know my boys want this for me also as my second son told me before dying of lung disease to live for him and he will be there every step. I've gotten to the point that I find those steps very difficult. Hence I've chosen a journey for me that is a tool to aide my weight loss.

Good luck with your journey. Aussie

[leeann71 539]

Aussie reading your story just broke my heart. I feel the same as most on here. What broke the camels back for me was realizing that I just didnt love myself anymore. I had given up on losing weight and on life really. One day I woke up and remembered that my family loves and needs me nomatter what I weigh. I knew it was time to really do something about it. So that someday I will be here for when I have grand children and when 2 of my children get married. Also for my husband, I promised him we would grow old together.

[avanti 92]

Hi.. I have been packing up about 15-20lbs every year since my teens.. been on a lot of diets and exercise plans for as long as I remember.. but over the past couple of years.. i just gave up.. and decided never to step on to a scale.. i used to work 18 hours a day just to keep me off food and people.. stopped going out on vacations unless I can drive there.. i would not fit in a airplane seat.. a movie theater seat.. my friends had to make special considerations to fit me into their plans..

I was rude to keep away from people.. i was known to be the always polite and soft spoken person.. and hated what I had become.

I weighed 268 lbs when I gave up.. well.. one day.. could not resist and I stepped onto a scale.. I went from 268 to 299.5 in less than 2 years.. I was killing myself.. That was the day I googled for a WLS doctor and made an appointment..

I was sleeved on 01/10/2013 and weighed 286 on the day of the surgery.. 2 months out.. and a stall of 6 weeks later.. I'm 263lbs.. I have a long way to go.. but now I have hope!

[PaperBullets 53]

For me, it was when I saw my sister effortlessly get pregnant with her second child when I can't even manage one and was told by my infertility specialist it was due to primarily to my weight.

But that wasn't really enough for me to change since I knew I could always go for adoption and it never really mattered to me how I became a mummy so long as I would be one day. What really twisted the knife deeper for me was when I was told by my adoption coordinator that the chances of my adopting was slim to none as I was too large to give an appearence of a desirable mother for a woman's child since it could be assumed I wouldn't be around for the bulk of the child's life.

Oh how that hurt! I didn't blame her, she was only telling me the truth after all, but it took a stranger telling me I would die before the children I would not be allowed to have grew up before I actually looked at myself in the mirror and was horrified by what I saw. So March 18th can't get here soon enough!!

[Jermiria LaideeJae Darden 17]

The straw that REALLY broke the camel's back for me came back in November 2012. My uncle had a life threatening heart attack. Triple Bypass. If he had not made it to the hospital when he did, he would have died. THAT'S what did it for me. I was 29 at the time and approaching 30 (just turned 30 on February 17th), and I made a vow to myself that I did not want to go through the same health problems in my 30s that I've been through nearly my whole life. Been obesed for at least 23 years of my life. Have a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart problems. Was diagnosed with osteoarthritis at the age of 27. I had held off making this change in my life and have tried so many diets that didn't work because I was doing it for all of the wrong reasons! That's when I realized that I owed it to MYSELF to be the healthiest woman that I can be! My surgery is on March 18th, and I am EXCITED! My new life has begun, and the best is yet to come!

[beba238 123]

Not wanting to go out.

Embarrassed to eat in front of people.

Uncomfortable while taking public transportation

My bf's friends skinny girlfriends

Feeling judged for being fat

No space in desk when i used to go to school

Scared to get pregoo and look like a whale and put me and the baby at risk

Not want to show Public affection towards by bf

Feeling uncomfortable while getting a pedicure.

Hate shopping... can never find anything nice to wear or if i go to a specific place they don't have my size

My bf checkin out girls about 50-100lbs light than me

Embarrassed to put current pics on FB/Instagram

Dr. telling me i'm pre-diabetic

More pics of my bf, mom, sis dogs, friends then myself on my phone

I can go for days... and now that i finally have a surgery date, this is the first time I actually can admit to all this.

This felt good. I can't wait to look back and read it months after surgery!

[blindjustice 7]

I think my last straw was after I saw a nutritionist and I weighed in at 357 lbs at age 41. From that day forward, I have been on plan and I have never looked back. I am almost 16 months out and I feel like a million bucks! I got on a plane without needing an extension or buying an extra seat (EMBARASSING) and the tray table went all the way down AND I was in the middle of a 3 person section. I felt like I didn't make them feel uncomfortable. I felt NORMAL!! I avoided going to concerts because I and those people sitting next to me were miserable. I can't wait to see another concert!! I can fit in restaraunt booths comfortably and I have lots of room between me and the steering wheel in my car!!! I have so many more NSVs. Thank you sleeve!

[Newnay 16]

I had some of the same experiences as a lot of you so I wont repeat them here. I add, going snow skiing, an expensive trip for a florida girl, and finding out my calfs wouldnt fit in ski boots. So embarassing to have the people trying to stuff me into a pair. Left my calfs bruised and me left behind.

I am going to re-read all these posts every time I get scared or frustrated. My journey has just begun.

[JonB 114]

I needed to get a new (used) car. I ended up spending more that I wanted to on a car that was bigger than I like, because I could not fit into the smaller cars - even with the seat all pushed back as far as it would go and the steering wheel as high as it would go.

If my old car had just held out for another six months, i would have been thin(ner) enough to get one of those smaller, cheaper cars!

[Ballermom 803]

This is emotional for me. I have never walked my 5 year old to the parked. Instead my skinny neighbor takes him to the park with her twins. I was hurting inside over that. I was short of breath just walking to the mailbox. So off he went with my neighbors. I have 5 boys who are or have been in basketball i would like to try to keep up with even if i ride my bike again and more sports. Become very active live longer and see my 5 year old grow up. The last time family went to Disney world i was left at the Hotel for several of my own reasons. Not again one day I'm going to Disney World. And I will keep up and look good too!

[BigDogVSG 34]

I am a 47-year old business executive who has struggled with obesity for 28 years. I have never in my adult life been not obese or morbidly obese. I reached 400 lbs in August of 2000, and began to somewhat serious about exercise and diet. I lost about 30 pounds on my own, but then suddenly lost 40 pounds with almost no effort, although I was very tired and thirsty all the time (you guessed it, Type II Diabetes).Since the time of my diagnosis I have been through many, many diet routines, and have lost between 40 and 60 pounds each time, but nothing ever really changed on the inside. This especially drove me crazy because, as a business executive, I focus often on breaking out the spreadsheet, figuring out the problems, and rationally coming to solutions.

I attended a seminar from Dr. Pennings in Post Falls, Idaho and heard two things I had never heard before, which were the real clinchers for me. The first was a discussion of the hormone grehlin and the stomach's role in producing it, what it is supposed to do, and what happens when that gets out of whack. This really spoke to me because I had always felt that there was some kind of overpowering urge to eat in ways that could not possibly be good for me. A true addiction. The 2nd thing I heard that night was that a person with my current co-morbitities had the same mortality rate as an otherwise normally healthy 47-year old man with no other co-morbidities who had just been diagnosed with Stage II colon cancer. When I asked the doctor what the requirements were for a person with Stage II colon cancer, he said, "Surgery."

This was all on the heals of my parents both having very severe health problems in their early seventies, Suddenly I could see that the path I was on was surely a pathway to pain, worse health, a loss of time with my wife and children and early death.

All of this together made me face the fact that I had to have surgery, and use it as a tool to achieve my goals, instead of viewing it as the final option for those who had failed in every other way.

I am only two days out from VSG surgery, but am very hopeful and confident in the future.