Motivation in 140 Characters or less, thanks @BL11Austin

Journeys of change are hard. Ask anyone who is on one or try one yourself and you'll see. If you know someone who has quit smoking, lost weight, kicked a bad habit, gone back to school, well, then you know someone who has challenged themselves and come out better for it. But take a second to appreciate just how hard a trip it was.

It's never an easy trip, and there are lots of pitfalls along the way. Lots of reasons to just go back to what is comfortable. Lot's of reasons to simply live in the now instead of being focused on your future.

And sometimes we need a little help, and sometimes it comes from surprising sources.

Earlier this week I posted a blog quoting Austin from The Biggest Loser. When I sent out a tweet tagging Austin I immediately got a response from him encouraging me. But that's not where the story ends.

The next day was hard, really hard. I didn't want to work out. I wanted to eat about half a tub of ice cream and just feel better for a minute. Then I took a quick look at my blog, I noticed that my last entry had 10X the amount of traffic I normally get. But I didn't know from where. I logged into twitter and discovered to my great joy that Austin had tweeted a link to my blog to his followers, and all these eyes had come over to read my story.

All these people, many in the same boat as me, reading about my struggles, my achievements, my journey.

And a funny thing happened. My motivation went through the roof. My next entry couldn't be about a failure. I couldn't let myself down and have to share that with everyone.

Austin, this young 20-something from California had, in under 140 characters, got me off a couch and out the door for a run.  The ice cream forgotten, a healthy snack in its place. My journey uninterrupted. The struggles of the last 6 weeks erased, I wake up this morning back to 258.6, those extra pounds shed and me ready to continue.

I know weight loss, and any self-help goal has to be motivated by your own desire to change, it has to be a little bit selfish. But sometimes we all need some help. Sometimes it's a friend with a kind word. Sometimes its a family member with nothing more than a look. Sometimes it's a quote, an image, a TV show that gets us moving.

And sometimes its a stranger, a young man, tweeting from California, who gets us going again.

Thanks Austin,  I needed that.

Fatfitman