Finding small ways to reward yourself on your journey can be important to maintain motivation. It’s tempting to use food and sometimes that might be appropriate, but that’s also pushing yourself backwards. I suggest you find something unique to you that speaks to you and helps you stay on track.
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Numbers are Great!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great when people ask how much weight I’ve lost. I love saying that I have lost 77 pounds total on my journey or 49 pounds during my latest push. However, I will be the first to admit that sometimes it’s hard to remember where exactly I’m at and I have to do the math in my head. At the same time, I have to remember I still have 131 pounds to go towards my big goal. Counting each of the 208 pounds on the journey is rewarding, but sometimes I miss just how far I’ve come and that’s where I think it’s nice to have another way to keep score.
Fundraising Thermometer
While I consider myself pretty logical and feel that I have a good understanding of numbers, sometimes it’s not easy to visualize where you are or where you are going. This is why a lot of fundraisers use a giant thermometer to illustrate their progress. That’s where I got the idea for my visual weight tracker.
How I Keep Score
I wanted to give myself a small reward for each milestone while having something to visualize my progress. After a lot of looking, I ended up with building block (not Lego) party kits for different animals. I purchased 2 kits (this and this) so I have a total of 24 animals and a shelf that holds 20 almost perfectly. For every 10 pounds I lose (I skipped the first 8 for simplicity) I get to build a small kit and add it to my shelf. When my shelf is full, I will have reached my goal weight of 200 pounds.
How You Can Keep Score
Think about things that interest you that come in some sort of a collection. I looked around for different collectibles but decided to go with something fairly inexpensive. However, if there’s something you really want to collect, this might be a way to get started. Being a fan of everything that moves, I also looked at small trains, tractors, airplanes, etc. I looked at things like FunkoPop, surprise balls, NASCAR toys. Find something that interests you and a nice way to display it that helps represent your total goal. If you’re closer to your goal weight than I am, there’s nothing wrong with adjusting the increments to be smaller. If you’d prefer something more expensive, you could make the increments larger. This is about you and what helps give you some extra motivation when you need it.
But weight is just a number…
Yes, weight is just a number and you shouldn’t beat yourself up over small gains if you’re continuing to trend in the right direction. While there are a lot of different healthy weights depending on body structure and too much fixation can be a bad thing, I know I do not want to weigh 408 pounds, or even 331 pounds any more. This is why I have an initial goal weight of 200 pounds and I am not sure what my final target weight will be. I want to see how I feel, move and yes, look, at 200 pounds, and then I will go from there. However, weight is a key objective indicator that shows your progress and I imagine it’s a big part of why you’re here reading this.
Summary
You will have to find different ways that work for you to keep track of your progress. I’ve provided some ideas of what I do and considered here, if it seems like something that would help you, feel free to steal or modify anything you like. If you don’t think it’ll help, that’s fine too.