What finally prompted you to start looking after your health properly?

[Spaceandsun]

What was the thing that finally gave you the kick up the backside to start getting healthy or looking after yourself properly?

Could’ve been one big moment or a build-up of smaller things — health scare, seeing yourself in photos, getting out of breath easily, wanting more energy, kids/family, mental health, ageing, breakup, confidence, anything really.

I’m curious what genuinely made it “click” for people and what changes actually stuck long term.

Would be interesting to hear real stories and what made the biggest difference for you.

I got diagnosed with arthritis at the age of 30, and the consultant has said to me, if I don’t build more muscle and improve my flexibility then I’m going to regret it later in life.
so here I am, started at the gym, and concentrating on protein and fibre
I hope I start to like it!

I know a few people on WLI and they said the differences in energy and mobility have been amazing.

I've been a slow and steady loser too. It was for far more reasons than to get skinny quick. I'm far from skinny but I'm getting blooming strong now! I did a fitness test i last did over 6 months ago and wow, I'm really pleased with myself. I also work on balance and flexibility.

Same. I've been on the lowest dose of mounjaro since January. Slow, steady loss. I've also restarted going to the gym. Which was terrifying after a severe shoulder fracture and multiple surgeries.

emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction which turned out to be a (not cancerous) growth. I’ve always been anxious about how much alcohol I drank and in the hospital all I could think was “my lucks run out” although objectively I wasn’t drinking enough to cause heath problems, and the issue wasn’t related to it anyway.

i slowly improved my diet - went veggie, lots of water etc. about a year later I stopped drinking alcohol. Not worrying about it is so freeing 😁

Can you share the research please? Similar situation to you, have been taking creatine to prevent dementia. Already do cardio & Pilates but probably need to start weight training.

I’ve actually become the opposite- I’ve had 3 people close to me - all incredibly healthy, doing all the right things - die of cancer. I have serious chronic autoimmune issues, long term disabled etc. I just eat what I want now, do the things I want to do. I still go on walks etc because I don’t want to end up immobile if possible but I don’t really buy into the whole taking charge of your health thing. Sometimes whatever you do it takes charge of you.

Currently unwell and in severe pain every day. It’s been nearly a year and still doctors can’t decide what department I should even be under. I’ve seen several completely different specialists who just discharge me saying it’s not their problem. I feel like it will kill me and it’s terrifying not having a clue what’s wrong.

On the positive side it has made me be healthier. I needed to know it wasn’t my fault making it worse. I’ve never been overweight or smoked but I also never cared about eating the right things. I don’t feel any better for it at all mind. I live in hope of recovery and continuing a healthy lifestyle.

People can go the opposite way too. An old friend was diagnosed with cancer and when he recovered took up smoking. He never smoked before his diagnosis. He said it was his way of taking control back of his life. Absolute insanity to me but then I’ve never gone through cancer.

I started having trouble with my knees which started Swelling; that and lack of mobility led to weight gain and clothes just weren’t fitting properly. Weight loss jabs have helped and I’ve lost three stone now. I can walk and run and swim and wear shorts comfortably. So much better to feel healthy.

In Guides (possible Brownies?) I did my Healthy Eating badge and had to keep a food diary and discuss it with the tester. Such a good thing to do.

This may seem leftfield, but are you on HRT? A lot of autoimmune conditions start in women at peri/menopause due to the loss of Oestrogen & it's anti inflammatory effects.

On December 1st last year I had a drs appointment and my BP was sky high. I had a load of blood tests and all sorts of check ups and was diagnosed with T2 diabetes, fatty liver, high cholesterol, the works. My BMI was 40, BP was 210/120.
i ordered WLI that day and started them the following day. I have since lost 22kg, and have reversed all my initial diagnoses. My diabetes is in remission, my cholesterol is in the normal range and my BP is now around 125/80. My BMI is now 31, so am still ‘obese’ but feel so much better. My perimenopausal hot flushes have stopped, this heatwave is merely annoying rather than destroying me and I am wearing size 16 jeans for the first time in 15 years. I don’t know how much more weight I will continue to lose as I have plateaued a bit in the last month/6 weeks, but I’ve started going to the gym again. Am planning to switch from wegovy to mounjaro if the plateau lasts much longer, to kick start it again. I have also massively changed my eating habits, and have reset my brain a bit I think. WLI have changed my life.

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

Ive now lost 5.5 stone and am in remission for both.

Hitting the threshold to be classed as pre diabetic. Asking for help from the NHS. Being told it was an 18 month wait and being so very annoyed that I took action for myself. Two years later, with the help of GLP1 medication, I am six stones lighter, swim for an hour three times a week and have done walking weekends. Changing all of this also helped me get to a point where I insisted on a hysterectomy to resolve years of fibroids, pain and missing out on life.

Well done on taking steps @Spaceandsun - how are you finding the gym?

Top tip. When I started with protein I used Ella’s kitchen sachets of puréed prunes to get things moving!

@NetZeroZealotnot sure I can actually share the research. Sorry. If you google it it is kind of ‘out there’. I listen to lots of podcasts including dr Louise Nicolla dr Stacey sims (both research dr not medical dr) and plenty of others and enough people from different places speak about it that I’m convinced the research exists. I do think it is quite recent. It’s good enough for me anyway as it’s all good for me. I am taking creatine too. How much are you taking? Also taking vitamin d and omega 3. And testing my blood to check where my levels of those are to ensure I actually need those supplements.

2 things. Diagnosis of a disease in my 30s. Realising that diets are a con as you lose muscle mass - I did Fast800 but still looked rubbish naked, so took up lifting weights and prioritising nutrition instead.

After the menopause I found that my natural fitness and tame aerobic workouts simply weren’t cutting it anymore. I found myself slowing down and physical tasks and activities just did not come as easily as in the past. But the real wake-up call was the way my mother died: fell, broke her hip, and even though the hip was fixed, she never walked again and the last 16 months of her life were truly miserable. She simply did not have the strength to be able to learn to walk again.

Since then I have been working out seriously with quite heavy dumbbells, and I eat virtually no processed foods and drink very little alcohol. I work out at home most days, 50 to 80 minutes, mostly weight training but also cardio and yoga-based flexibility exercises. I only wish I’d started this much sooner.

If anyone is interested, these are the YouTube trainers that I found most helpful:

• Lucy Wyndham Read for novices
• Heather Robertson for general fitness
• Growingannanas for HIIT, both with weights and without
• Carol Girvan for serious weight training with dumbbells

Today, in my 70s, I am fitter than many women half my age - thanks largely to Caroline Girvan, whose workouts I found lifechanging.

I’m finding it ok. My partner has alway gone to the gym so he’s showed me how to do things properly, we have a gym in the garage which has helped massively, but I was thinking about joining an actual gym for the swimming and classes. I haven’t got to the point where I feel like I enjoy it, maybe when I start seeing more progress with strength and appearance that will happen,
however, what I’m struggling with is, the days I have something I shouldn’t for example, yesterday it was my nieces birthday and I had party food, and now I feel guilty about it. Which never happened before. 😬

I was a bit of a binge drinking party lass. I worked in a very sociable workplace, that had many socials and often free wine, When I hit later thirties my much older siblings all developed type 2 diabetes, they fell like dominoes in age order, all at about 50 years. My brother was 18.5 years older than me at the oldest. I practically stopped drinking and it became high days and holidays only. I also turned down the communal biscuit tin at work, saying no to free biscuits was hard. I have really good blood readings, they test me once a year. All of my 4 older siblings have type 2 now. My brother died of diabetes related complications at 69. My Mother managed to remain pre diabetic for 30 years and maintained by diet, her Father had diabetes. He was a PT instructor in the army.

Three of us have developed heart issues, this is hereditary. My Mother had two heart attacks by my age, I’m 59 and recently diagnosed with an issue. So now I don’t even touch alcohol on high days and holidays and almost never eat cheese and red meat and lots more pulses and nuts. My food intake was always quite healthy, many comments about my bento box lunches at work.

So that change in my later thirties probably did me a big favour heart wise as well though it was more about the diabetes. I was born with a scoliosis so I have always had to contend with that and am careful. Being involved in an accident and an incident involving 12 hours of vomiting after a reaction of a prescribed heart medication this year in the last 2 years had me barely unable to walk due to it messing up my back.

DH said my scoliosis causes me more issues on the daily, it does but it’s just mechanical and won’t kill me.

I'm asking this to all women on this thread over 45 - are you on HRT? One of THE best evidence based 'treatments' for heart disease & diabetes prevention (as well as so many other health benefits).

I basically could not cope with being mentally ill anymore and recognised it was linked to my low self esteem/confidence as a result of my weight, plus lack of exercise and poor diet obviously worsens everyone’s MH. I was 7 stone overweight at my heaviest about a decade ago following 3 successive pregnancies in 3 years.

I worked really hard and lost the 7 stone in a year with no help, just did 5:2 diet for about 4 months then stopped fasting but kept calorie counting and would run/do YouTube HIIT workouts or strength workouts at home. I started running by just doing laps around my back garden because I was embarrassed and didn’t want anyone to see me. After about 3/4 months and maybe 3 stone lighter, I ran in the streets.

I then got pregnant again twice and didn’t gain quite as much but was 4 stone overweight about 5 years ago. I started again with the calorie counting and running. I realised I needed to do something when I went to junior park run with DC and I could only run for about 30 seconds before literally feeling like my heart was going to collapse. I was so mortified and started the couch to 5k the following day. Lost the 4 stone in about 6 months and have never looked back. Now the slimmest I’ve ever been, feel great, run long distance, don’t have to deal with annoying MH niggles.

So yeah a combination of wanting to look good and feel good in my body and not wanting to be mentally ill I guess. My mum has always taken pills to deal with depression and I didn’t want to end up that way so I fight it with running!

That’s so interesting

In my case it was struggling to get over a hangover in my 30s. DH 52. We signed a new 15 year lease on our business, if one of us took seriously ill it would have been a real problem in trying to keep the business going, and we could have list everything including our house. So he decided he had to lose some weight. Also at this time, and friend jokingly called him s 'fat bas@#£d' as men do. Up to then he considered himself a little overweight, but that kicked him up the bum. He cut out cheese, beer and carbs. Started walking 10,000 steps a day., and got a bit obsessive about losing weight. Took him 2 years but he got down from 16 stone to 12 and a half. 20 years later, he has put a but back on, but eats more healthily, doesn't drink too much, watches what he eats, and does not regret a thing. We now aim to keep as fit as we can as long as possible so we can continue to enjoy holidays as long as we can.