This week I happened across some old posts that I had thought were long lost. I had written these posts from 2006 until about 2009 which covered the time period in which I lost the bulk of my weight and sort of transformed into more of an active and healthy lifestyle in addition to moving to the West coast.

As I was reading through these posts and copying them to my current site besides being somewhat entertained by some of the things I thought or had to say almost 10 years ago, I was struck with the number of details that had been lost over the years. For instance in my Year In Review 2007 post I made mention of running everyday for a while, which is interesting because I have found myself several times wondering what my routine was exactly back then. How it was that I dropped weight so quickly. Yet here it was archived the whole time.

New Motivation from Old Memories

Discovering these old posts made me realize that they are not just interesting to reread for nostalgia, but that they are also a new source of motivation. Finding these coupled with hitting a weight threshold I had set for myself has sprung me back into action pretty quickly.

Remember where and how you started

Reading through all these old posts was pretty inspiring. Knowing I was nearly 40 pounds heavier and was out running everyday is a pretty crazy thing to think about now. It’s pretty inspiring. So I am using these posts to keep me motivated by rereading a few of them each week.

I think it’s important that you keep track of your progress through writing. Weather it’s a blog, a paper journal it doesn’t matter. Something that you can look back at and reflect where you were and where you have been is important.

Use Thresholds

This was the other piece of the puzzle for me was that I had hit 208 pounds. Normally I try to stay under 205 as a guideline and would of course like to be nearer to 200 or below. So this was one of those moments where I thought to myself this is ridiculous. Reel it in, let’s get this thing back on the rails. It’s worked! Since seeing 208 on the scale two days ago, I have already dropped 2.8 pounds doing 20.4 miles in just 3 days using a combination of cycling and running.

These are just a few motivational factors I use to keep myself in check. There are obviously tons more that you could utilize including: inspirational quotes, before and after photos, other peoples stories or journeys and many others.  Leverage what you have and take a step toward your goal and your just that much closer.