
![Brad on an Austrian alp mountain wearing a backpack ](img/Brad_Austria.jpg)

I used to go running frequently as a high school student, but I stopped when things got busy in college and beyond. Why did I stop chasing the runners high that I loved?

## My first goal
On September 22, 2019, I started a 3-month goal on Motivation Fund to work out 4 times a week. As I started, I kept wondering when I would get the runners high back. It was honestly really hard to keep going. I was annoyed with my own product, because it kept me honest and going out, even in the cold rain of Seattle.

## The journey
It’s fun to look back at my app journals (you learn a lot about yourself journaling in our app). 2 weeks in, I complained,
> 20 min run. Cold! Did it to avoid procrastinating for later in the week.

But, by October 17, after consistently following my goal, my attitude changed. I wrote,
> I realized \[today\] running in the rain and cold isn’t so bad. Previously I always used it as an excuse not to run.

## Retrospective
2 things I learned along the way: having a flexible goal like mine, on the one hand, means you don’t stress about doing your goal say at 6am every morning, but if you lose track of time procrastinating, you’ll be running at 11:40pm at night or the last 4 days of the week.

## The destination
By October 21st, I got my runners high back for the first time. I started with a destination in my mind, to finish my goal and be healthier, but as Phil Knight (founder of Nike) said in his book *Shoe Dog*, “the act itself becomes the destination.” I love exercise again.


Sometimes we start a goal, thinking of the end destination, but what if we fall in love with the act of doing the goal itself? My goal helped me love exercise again.

How will you know when you’re done?


![Erin G. Testimonial - It's Working!!!](img/Erin_G_Testimonial.png)

I love hearing the excitement of those achieving their goals with Motivation Fund.

> “It’s working!!! Nothing else could ever make me exercise at night!!” Erin G. – Exercise and Weight Loss Goal

However, thus far, I don’t think we have done a good job explaining how and why it works. So, here is my attempt to remedy that. Based on what we are seeing and hearing from customers, below are the six areas that come together to make this work.

## A Financial Commitment
US News and world reports that [80% of New Years resolutions fail](https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2015-12-29/why-80-percent-of-new-years-resolutions-fail). In part, this is because it is easy to make and then break these resolutions with no consequence. The “fund” of Motivation Fund is first and foremost a commitment to yourself to not ignore or forget this goal. Just like when you get a gym membership, buy new running shoes, hire a life coach, or put down an entry fee for a marathon, the financial expenditure increases your commitment and follow through. Of course, you get to decide the size of the financial commitment you want to make. We have had everything between $25 to $1000.

People succeeding have said things like this:

> “I love this is now a goal I can’t ignore.”

> “I love the idea of earning back my money by doing my action plan.”

> “I would much rather put my money in a fund I can get back than spend money on a gym membership, life coach, or weight loss program.”

However, the financial commitment is just one small part and just the beginning.

## Daily Accountability
By far, the #1 thing people say is helpful about Motivation Fund is the daily accountability. Every day, you get a text message asking you to report on whether you followed your action plan or not. Knowing this text and reporting is coming is what people say gets them to follow through on their goal. Once they are in the program a while, their daily action plan become more natural as the change is made and the routines are developed.

> “Accountability checks have been a game changer for me.”

> “Knowing that text message is coming in the morning gets me off the couch at night.”

## Daily Journaling
Journaling is powerful for many reasons. One of the key reasons is that it lets you take a step back and see what is driving your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Brooke Castillo is a very successful life coach and entrepreneur. In her [first episode](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3lHtDbL064zoFMdCv6Ottf) of her life coach podcast, she talks about how everything you learn in psychology will confirm that 100% of the time, your thoughts drive your emotions, which drive your actions, which determine your results. Journaling daily about your goal helps you see the connections in these. If you had a day where you failed to do your action plan, you can think through what you were thinking, feeling, and doing that drove that result. It also creates a story of your journey that you will never regret having.

Based on early data, I am convinced that there is a strong correlation of using the journal feature daily and the likelihood of hitting a goal. I am really excited as we get more data points to see how this plays out.

## Focus on the Action Plan, not the Goal
With Motivation Fund, you create a goal/aspiration and then your action plan. We focus on the action plan, not the goal. As some say, this is a focus on [inputs that you control vs. outputs that you don’t always control](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-results-focus-inputs-output-amit-somani/). We do it this way because the right inputs will eventually lead to the right outputs. This also means that you are fully in control of earning back your fund.

## Built in Exceptions
Let’s face it. Change is hard. You will not follow your plan 100%. There will be days that you fail. One of the worst things you can do is to be hard on yourself for your miss. A key reason people miss their goals is that they set the expectations too high for themselves or don’t plan for exceptions they will need. To counteract this, we do two things:

1. We encourage people to think through the planned exceptions they needs when creating an action plan. For example, indulgent foods are not part of my food plan. However, I have a built in exception for when eating indulgent foods is the “gracious” thing to do. I love this exception and it perfectly hits the balance I need to feel good about both sticking to my food plan while being gracious when I am offered something I don’t normally eat.
2. We encourage people to give themselves “allowed misses” for unplanned exceptions. People love having a “budget” of misses that they can use when something unexpected comes up. This also makes the fail a positive rather than a negative.

## Zero Judgement and Total Control
In the end, Motivation Fund makes it easy for your to manage your own goal and stay committed to yourself, not to us. As we have interviewed early customers, this was a surprising benefit that we did not anticipate compared to other goal setting/weight loss/fitness challenges. People love that they can work on any goal they want without judgement from us or from others. You don’t have to find a group of friends doing a similar challenge and can keep your progress as private or public as you want. You can even change your action plan, number of exceptions, or any of the details of your goal. In the end, we want to empower you to be in total control.

One interesting aspect of this is that some people want even more accountability. We are currently building a feature where you can ask a friend, family, or one of our coaches to be an accountability partner for you. I am excited to see how that helps.

## Conclusion
We think we have hit on a winning formula for personal development that can help many people. If the above formula sounds like it might work for you, we encourage you to give it a try. The service is free (we are funded by donations from those happy with our service once they achieve their goal) and you are in full control of getting your fund back by following your action plan with no judgement from us or others.

If this sounds like it would work for you, get started below.



There are 6 elements that come together to help people achieve thier goals and find the motivation they need to stick with them.

Why Motivation Fund Works


![Woman looking in the mirror](img/woman-in-mirror.jpg)
*Photo by bruce mars from Pexels*


## How many ways are there to lose weight?
> Let’s admit it. Losing weight is hard, but it can be done. 

I have been studying health, fitness, and weight loss for almost 8 years now. I have heard countless stories of success and failure. One thing has become really clear to me: 
>There is no one-size fits all solution to weight loss and the best solution is the one that works for you. 

To that end, I thought it might be helpful to compile a full list of all the things we have heard/read/seen/experienced that were part of success stories. In addition, we have thought of new takes on old solutions that make many of the tried and true methods that much more effective. Sometimes, all it takes is a new mindset to find something that works for you. 

## But what if I don't need 101 ways, just one?
So true! But often it will take time and experimentation to find the one idea or the combination of ideas that are going to work for you. 

As we share our ideas with you, we encourage you to pick one or more and give them a try. If they work, great! Share that with others. If not, come back and pick some more. With enough time, experimentation, and forgiveness of yourself, you will find something that works. In all cases, use good judgement about if and when to consult your doctor before making any changes.

## How can I make sure I see all the ideas?
We will update this article periodically as we add new ideas. You can also follow us on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/) where we will post all of our articles/ideas.

We hope you will follow along with us this year as we try to showcase for you 101 ways to lose weight. We are confident we will help you find something fun, effective, and sustainable for the rest of your life. 


There does not appear to be one-size fits all solution to fitness and weight loss. Finding the one that works for you is key.

101 ways to lose weight and stay fit



![Woman writing in a notebook](img/woman-notebook-pen-34072.jpg)

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.*

Losing weight and staying fit can be tough. Some people know exactly what they need to do and just need to find the motivation and resolve to do it. Others are not sure where to start. Others are on the path using a myriad of different tools and techniques to achieve their goals.

No matter what path you choose, you are going to learn a lot about yourself. Anyone who has achieved success has eventually had to learn about what was driving their thoughts, feelings, actions, and how to manage these to achieve the results they want. As such, before you spend money on a gym membership, life coach, weight loss program or anything else, a great way to start your journey is to understand yourself better by simply keeping a food/fitness journal. 

## What is a fitness journal?
A fitness journal is a place where you record what is working well, what you have learned about yourself, and what changes you want to make to your plan. For example, if you find you often have cravings in the evenings, you can reflect on what you are thinking and feeling that might be driving that behavior at that moment. Is it related to stress, fear of not having enough, or something else? Your fitness journal helps you unpack all of these things. It doesn’t matter where you do this or how long it is. Just that you do it.

## What are the benefits?
According to the [University of Rochester Medical Center](https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentID=4552&ContentTypeID=1), journaling has the following benefits:

* Helping you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns
* Tracking any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them
* Providing an opportunity for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors

## How do I get started?
Almost anything works for a journal. A [moleskin notebook](https://amzn.to/2ZB3KMO), a Google doc, the notepad on your phone. The key is to just get started. You can also use Motivation Fund where we have made this easy to do. Simply set up a goal to journal every day about your fitness/weight loss and we will send you a daily text with a link where you can create your journal entry every day. We will send you periodic emails with all of your journal entries so you can spot patterns, trends, and learnings. You can [get started here] (https://form.jotform.com/motivationfund/setup?whatIs2=Learn%20more%20about%20myself%20through%20daily%20journaling&whatAre=Write%20for%20at%20least%202%20minutes%20every%20day%20in%20my%20journal&whatIs=1%20month). 

We hope you give fitness journaling a try and let us know how it works for you!










A fitness journal is a place where you record what is working well, what you have learned about yourself, and what changes you want to make to your plan.

Start simple, keep a fitness journal


## The problem
My journey started with my pants ripping as I bent over to pick up something off the floor. That’s when I knew that my weight gain was finally at a point that I either had to accept it and start buying larger clothes or fight it and learn how to maintain a healthy weight. I chose to fight it. Like many others, I started trying all kinds of different programs from going to the gym to depriving myself of my favorite foods, all to no avail.

I grew up skinny as a bean pole as my parents would say and I never had to worry about how I ate. My favorite after school snack was grabbing a bag of tortilla chips and a quart of homemade salsa, finishing them both and then going on to eat a full dinner. My mom could never figure out where I was packing all of it.

But as I got older, with an office job at Amazon and several kids, how could I fit in time to exercise and use any of my mental capacity to think about eating right?

## The goal
I finally stumbled on one solution that helped me lose 35 pounds over two months. I reasoned weight gain is just an equation of how many calories you eat and how many calories you burn. I decided since I’d eaten too many calories over the last few years I would just stop eating until I was back down to my healthy weight. For somebody like me who kind of likes the extremes, this really resonated, but I knew my wife would never let me go for it. So instead, I decided to cut out all of my indulgent sweets and snacks until I got back down to my healthy weight. I was 100% black-and-white about it and it really motivated me to cut back on my calories to be able to eat all of my indulgent foods again.

This worked great to get down to my healthy weight, but then I couldn’t keep the pounds off. I would let myself eat my indulgent foods again, gain weight, and then have to cut them out again to lose the weight. With each cycle it became harder and harder to do.

## The research
Over the years I did a lot of research, experimented with various things, until one day Amazon had a conference where John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, explained his Whole Foods diet. The science-based approach to the ideal diet for humans for not just weight, but overall health really resonated with me. It seemed so logical and natural and something I could do for the rest of my life.

## Getting to the reward
However, knowing what I wanted to do and finding the motivation to consistently do it day after day was really challenging. I needed to commit myself to new habits and a new identity. Around this time, I had a friend who was doing a 1 year no sugar challenge with his family with the reward of going to Disneyland at the end if they succeeded.  Another friend was doing a 100lb weight loss challenge with $10,000 at stake if he did not achieve the goal. Both were successfully achieving their goals. That is when I discovered that there is something around fully committing yourself with a substantial reward and consequence when you feel highly motivated, to help you get past the slumps when you fall back into your old ways.  

And so, I set out to create an app that would make this commitment to yourself as easy as possible. Hence, Motivation Fund was born. I hope you find it as helpful as I have in achieving whatever goal you really want to achieve.  

The story that inspired Motivation Fund started with me ripping my pants.