by Marina Shemesh

Created on: June 01, 2008

It is summer and about time that you buy a new bathing suit. You take just one look at yourself in that little changing room with the harsh lightning and you realize this is it. This is the motivation that I need to lose weight.

So you go to gym and you watch what you eat. Then it is your best friends wedding and you decide to have just a small piece of cake. That piece turns into another slice and the next thing is that you catch yourself eating the leftovers from the party.

Never mind you think, I will do an extra half an hour tomorrow in the gym. The only thing is that the next morning it is raining and you decide to skip just this once. The one time turns into a few times and before you know it, you weigh even more than before.

You cannot shop everyday for a new bathing suit to keep you on track, but you can work on your motivation. Motivation is the key to successful weight loss. The only way that you are going to get out of a cozy bed to go for a jog, is if you are motivated enough to do it.

All right. You to be motivated. But how? The truth is that you are going to have to work on your motivation as much as your weight loss program. Think of it as motivation being an engine that drives you into doing what is not always easy to do.

The first thing is to get yourself a motivation book. One the front page you write down your goal weight. It has been proved that people who write down their goals, have a bigger chance of achieving them.

Then look for a photo of yourself weighing your goal weight. If you do not have such a photo look in magazines for a picture of a body that you would like to have. Cut it out, replace the head with your own and stick it in your motivation book.

Look at this picture everyday. Stare at it and make it yours. When you know in your soul that you are going to look like that photo, then you will do what you need to lose the weight.

Use you motivation book also as a food diary. Write down everything you eat, when you eat and why you are eating it. At the end of the day, or once a week you can count your calories and look at your eating patterns.

You will quickly see that when you are hungry and tired, you are prone to eat to much. Be ready for these periods in your day and prepare for them. If you get hungry at four in the afternoon, have your low calorie snack ready so you will not run to the dispenser for a chocolate bar.

In her book "The artist way" Julia Cameron writes about having a ta-da list instead of a to-do list. When you write down

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