Project of the day: Motivation Marbles

I followed some Pin-spiration to go along with my recent scale project, with a few modifications, of course. 

First, the inspiration:

Motivation Marbles by Hot Mess Princess

I've seen some motivational ideas where you pay yourself a dollar everything you exercise at least 30 minutes, or reach certain milestone. When I lost my weight before, I did set mini-goals, but found that I skipped most the rewards I set up (facial, mani/pedi, new clothes), because even though I like those things, I like money in the bank more. So I knew I wanted to try something different this time. I realize that I am a visual person, so I taped up a bunch of pictures of me at my low weight (pre-last TBI) in front of my treadmill, but these project goes in our closet, where I can start each day thinking about how I need to be mindful of my eating. (I'm also thinking of putting a full length mirror on my pantry freezer.)

This was a pretty cheap projects as I had everything I needed on hand:

• 2 containers
• bag of marbles (one for each pound you want to lose)
• letter stickers

The first thing I had to do was remove the labels and underlying sticky residue on the bottles.

I remembered that I had some rather old de-solv-it in a box I had started to unpack. I'm thinking it's at least six years old.

It worked like a charm. (Good to know, since I save most glass containers, and wasn't sure how to get rid of the residue).

Next, count out the number of marbles needed. Some people use a different color for every milestone. I didn't read about that idea until after I decided to use all green ones.

Put all the marbles in one container. This was the demoralizing part of the project.

Then, I realized that my containers were way too big, which made me feel better again. So I found a couple pasta jars and cleared off the residue.

Maybe other people have really good memories and can remember how many marbles are in each jar. I can't, so I made this little chart to put in the "lost" jar.

I also included a pen so I wouldn't have to look for one each week.

I switched letters after I saw these, which are slightly larger than the other ones.

I love sticky letters. Apply to the jars and place in a prominent place. Mine are in the closet next to my clothes.

Until my health stabilizes again, my fitness goals are rather modest, but these jars will help me remember the big picture and hopefully motivate me toward that day when I can really exercise hard again.

Linked to:
Pondered Primed Perfected