What pushed you to make a change ?

[Waldo]

Kids. I always knew what kind of dad I wanted to be. When it was no longer a thought question to be pondered and became real it was time to make a change.

And it is paying off. The sight of daddy doing handstands and hopping around like a frog had baby shreiking with laughter yesterday.

Pretty soon he's going to be a little boy and have to keep up with dad. Good luck kid.

[ajdelaware]

I just got tired of the comments.

[Guest Snake McClain]

Kids. I

Pretty soon he's going to be a little boy and have to keep up with dad. Good luck kid.

Damn straight.

I just got tired of the comments.

What do you mean?

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

For me, last year I wanted to get in shape for my wedding and over the first 4 or 5 months I dropped 30ish pounds by eating better and running. I didn't enjoy running or the way I was eating and by the time the wedding rolled around, I gained a large portion of the weight back. In the honeymoon pictures I was fat again. This blew my mind, and I decided no more working out to "get in shape" or eating "to drop weight". I decided I wanted something sustainable.

Now I've found weight lifting to be something I really enjoy, with some cardio 1-2 times a week tolerable but necessary for endurance. I've found a "diet" that I can eat on the long term. Even though I'm now cutting calories to lose some fat, I'm eating the same things I plan on eating long term, just less of it for now.

[scotticus]

Kids. I always knew what kind of dad I wanted to be. When it was no longer a thought question to be pondered and became real it was time to make a change.

This. When my daughter was born, I took a hard look at myself and realized that I was skinny-fat, eating like crap, not exercising at all, and smoking altogether too much. Fortunately I had already given up drinking and other shenanigans for the most part. Basically, I just want to make sure that she has a dad for as long as possible and set as good an example as possible. My hope is that she'll just accept an active lifestlye as normal from day one, and that she'll internalize some of the lessons that I'm just learning now re: discipline, patience, persistence, etc.

[BoydLabBuck]

I have large genetics on both sides of my family, so I've always "known" I'm going to end up large. Once I graduated from college and no longer had free time to work out and play basketball, the weight gain started quickly. I graduated college a slightly heavy 230ish. I started college at a very strong 200.

Life happens, get married, have a kid, travel for work (Marriott Platinum here!) and before I know it I'm 270lbs and getting winded going up a flight of stairs. I kept saying "when things settle down" or "when (excuse here)" I will get back in respectable shape.

In November 2011 I was able to stop traveling for work, and started doing easy workouts but not anything too impressive for diet. Sometime in early December it hit me. I am just over one year away from turning 30. Nothing good happens to your body after 30 (or so I thought), so when someone on another forum I visit posted the 100 pushups plan I decided to try it. A link on that site lead me to a link on another site that at some point lead me to NF. After reading success stories both here and MDA, I realized I have no excuses. If these other people can lose weight (not just lose weight, but get FIT) I can too. I want to be able to lug 2 (or 3) kids around Disney World in 90 degree heat all day long. And with discovering paleo (and truly understanding the reasoning for low carb) it sounded great. Meat, every meal, every day? Sign me up.

So in summary, "holy crap I'm almost 30">web tour>NF>I can do this>paleo diet + boot camp>crossfit starting in Feb.

So far I've lost 11 lbs in 30 days, I can run again without leg pain, and by the end of the year I will again weigh 230lbs (or even less, 210 would be awesome).

[Guest Snake McClain]

This. When my daughter was born, I took a hard look at myself and realized that I was skinny-fat, eating like crap, not exercising at all, and smoking altogether too much. Fortunately I had already given up drinking and other shenanigans for the most part. Basically, I just want to make sure that she has a dad for as long as possible and set as good an example as possible. My hope is that she'll just accept an active lifestlye as normal from day one, and that she'll internalize some of the lessons that I'm just learning now re: discipline, patience, persistence, etc.

I said it before but this has to be the best reason ever. Beautiful.

So far I've lost 11 lbs in 30 days, I can run again without leg pain, and by the end of the year I will again weigh 230lbs (or even less, 210 would be awesome).

Running/working out without pain is a great feeling when it comes over us. Good for you man.

[SimplyViki]

My jeans stopped fitting right, and I'm too cheap to buy new ones.

['Roos]

I have an anklet like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1675[/ATTACH]

It's woven on. It doesn't get bigger or smaller. It's been on my ankle for the last 8 years. It was beginning to dig into my ankle, and something needed to change. (I know - super small thing leading to big change, right?)

[ajdelaware]

What do you mean?

Tag team nagging by the wife and mother was a big one. Wife saying stuff like "Don't have a heart attack" when I would go and do something strenuous. Things like that. The inability to enjoy things just because I didn't want to have to hear about it. Nonsense like that.

Also - when my XXL dress shirts started to pull at the buttons a little bit.

[CRM114]

The thing that got the ball rolling was when I moved about 2 years ago into a new house. One of my boxes was full of pictures from High School, and I could see how much weight I had gained. I wanted to get into better shape then I was and surprise everyone at our 10 year reunion... that was then, and our reunion is this year! I was exercising but didn't really change my diet much, so I hadn't quite reached my goal but was getting close to what I was back then. Around Sep/Oct I got another kick start when I started to date this girl who was really into Tattoos, she totally convinced me to get one, and even though we are no longer dating I still want to get one on my right abdominal region. I'd like to get that firmed up asap, so I can get it and be able to show it off! I stumbled on NF when looking up the 300 diet/workout plan and the site totally spoke to me! I've since been working out like a madman again, and cleaned up my diet (finally) so I have been seeing great improvement! Hopefully with hard work I'll be able to look great/feel great at my reunion, aaaand get a sweet tat by this summer!

If you are interested, the tattoo I want to get is of this statue:

http://www.cordair.com/carlyle/images/selfmademan1.jpg

Its called 'Self Made Man'

[Lachy]

I think I mentioned it in Gemeaux's welcome post, what made me initiate the change that has me where I am now is a break up with my then girlfriend back in June. I was on the fit path, then we got together and my efforts ebbed and wained untill I was weak and overweight again. I just wasn't motivated to exercise when I could stay in bed cuddling with her. When we broke up I started training again immeadiatly, at first it was an outlet for energies, a distraction from my thoughts, and I didn't want to stay in an empty bed longer than I needed.

That was my initial motivation, and since then I've been consistantly training 3 - 7 times a week, but it's not my current motivation. To be honest I don't know what my current motivation is. I think it might be competition with myself. I've never been seriously competitive with other people, but I am quite competitive with bettering myself.

Still single though.