How I re-find my drive and motivation

I've been tired this week. We're talking I'm yawning by 6pm and going to bed by 9:30 pm, 9 pm, 8:30 pm. I've been keeping up with my training. Waking up early and putting on my layers and running shoes and/or bike helmet. But the whole point of me becoming incredibly tired by dinner is getting me a little annoyed, emotional and down right cranky.

I started wondering why I was doing this in the first place. Not the actual triathlon, but why was I going out of my way to wake up in the morning, work out, write in a blog and stop myself from eating a second helping of.. everything? So I decided to scrounge around for my copy of The Spark.

I first heard about sparkpeople.com from a friend when I first started this blog. Soon after I heard about the book and decided to get it. It was January 2010 and it was on the front shelves of Barnes n Nobles because of New Year resolutions. I remember reading the introduction and Chris Downe's personal story and getting incredibly inspired. What I love about this book is the fact that the program deals with learning how to set goals and taking small steps in order to change your lifestyle, not just lose weight. I've been dying to recommend this book to friends of mine who are stuck in a rut somewhere in their lives, and the only reason why I haven't is because the book is centered on weight loss and body transformation and some of my friends don't need to change their bodies although it also talks about your job, your self confidence and your family. I would still recommend it.

I started re-reading it this week and again I felt inspired and driven. It was a strong reminder of the reason I run my life through goals and it is re-explaining to me the best way to reach my goals, which is something I seem to have forgotten. So although I'm tired and sad that my car still isn't working so I can't go to the pool, I am reminding myself why it's important to keep fighting for a better me. Not just a thinner me, but a BETTER me in all aspects of my life.

The other thing I like to do is check my blog stats. I like to see who has visited my blog but more importantly I like to see which entries people are reading. I sometimes see that someone looked at an entry I made a year and a half ago. Or one of my very first entries when I was still afraid of the gym. Reading back at my own entries and thoughts inspire me too. I look back at what I was struggling with then, how hard I worked or what exactly caused me to lose motivation that time. In other words the old me inspires me as much as reading other people's success stories.

Finally the last thing I do that really inspires me are all the websites and online forums I sign up for that give me pointers, success stories, and ideas on how to better my life, my work outs and my diet. I get daily emails from sparkpeople.com. I get Couch-2-5k pointers and success stories in my facebook newsfeed multiple times a day. I get emails from active.com after I signed up for a couple of 5k races last year. I, of course, go to blogger and read the updates of all of my fellow weight loss bloggers for inspiration. All of these have helped me and guided me and have reminded me to keep going and not give up even when I'm stuck in my own rut.

In reality I have an arsenal of things to help me. One thing I need to work on is being better at connecting with that social network and spending more time interacting with the people that inspire me. My blogger follow-ees and followers. My old friends that have asked me for advise or a cheerleader. Motivating others gives me as much drive as receiving it. That's the next step. That and re-learning how to say no to baked goods. LOL

Weigh In and training update in a couple of days. Have a good weekend everyone!