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.