Today I thought I should share one of the simplest & most important tools I have used during my journey. It is simple visual motivation. Nothing super fancy, but something that I can look at & say yes, I need to do this. I have several tools in my aresenal for this.
First I used my "prize" as my motivation. If you've read my story, you know that for losing 100lbs I was going to win my dream vacation. For me, that's visiting Macchu Picchu. So I went on the internet & printed several pictures of this beautiful location. I attached the first one to the lamp shade on my nightstand. Every morning when my alarm went of, I would roll over to hit that snooze button & see Macchu Picchu waiting for me. Time to get up & start working my butt off! The next I attached to my fridge. I have a calendar on there, so I used a magnet to put this picture on top of the calendar picture. Every time I go for a snack, it's there staring at me. I also put one by my garage door to remind me to walk more & by my closet to help motivate me to get smaller clothes. A silly thing, but those pictures made me smile & made me strive to win my prize.
After a few pounds, I found the pictures of Macchu Picchu weren't enough. So I decided I needed to do daily weigh ins. This is not for everyone, so try this at your own risk. Some people stress over the number read out too much. That isn't a problem I have. So every morning, I get on the scale & see where I'm starting. Sometimes it goes down, sometimes up, sometimes it stays the same for way too long. But seeing that number every morning gave me my starting point & motivation to make it move. A downswing is just as motivational as an upswing for me. I just want to make the numbers move down more & more. It ends up being a jumpstart for the rest of my day.
Finally, I wanted something that I could interact with. I confess, I found this idea on Pinterest, but it is a great visual tool! I made Lost/Lose cups. I counted out colored glass marbles to match the amount of weight I needed to lose. I made a "Weight to Lose" & "Weight Lost" sign which I glued to clothes pins, then got a quart & pint size mason jar. I tied a ribbon around the top to make it a little pretty, then attached my signs. In the beginning, the "Weight to Lose" was a full quart jar. That was kinda discouraging, but it also really made me want to empty it. Every time I got on the scale I would move the marbles. Sometimes I had to move them back into "Weight to Lose", but that made me want to work harder. It was a very joyful day when the pint jar of "Weight Lost" marbles was completely full & I got to switch the jars!! After I hit my 100 lbs lost mark, I took a piece of paper, wrote 100 POUNDS on it & tucked it on top of 100 marbles in the jar. Now when I move them, I can see that milestone & the new pounds I'm taking off on top of it! This is by far my favorite visual tool!
I have to hope that this may give you an idea for something that might help you as well. It doesn't need to be fancy, it doesn't need to cost a lot of money, it just needs to mean something to YOU. What is making you take this journey? What is your motivation? What is your inspiration? Find it, embrace it & use it for all its worth. Anything that can help you is completely worth it to achieve your goals.