I'm trying to think of small rewards to keep me motivated. My goal each month is to lose 10lbs (so that by this time next year if all goes well I'll have either met my goal or be REALLY close). I told DH that IF I reach my goal for the month then we'll treat ourselves out to eat (WW style of course). Since we LOVE to eat out and we're trying to cut back and I'm trying to lose weight this solves both problems.
Once I reach my 1/2 point I think I'm going to go shopping for new clothes!
DH said once I reach my goal then I get $500 towards a new wardrobe.
I just find this stuff helps me stay on track when I want to quit you know?
Sounds like you have a good reward system in place for yourself! I haven't been rewarding myself on goals so far, but my mom has been surprising me periodically with things. When I had lost 25 pounds she showed up at my house with an ipod for me.....she knew I had been snagging my kid's ipods every I headed out the door to walk. She has also bought some clothes for me here and there along the way, as just a little "good job" thing. Oh, and a couple months ago she gave me a card with $120 in it, and said it was for the next 3 months worth of meetings because she didn't want me to skip a week if I didn't have the extra cash that week (I only get paid once a month, so sometimes by week 4 it's a little tight!). I went ahead and signed up for the monthly plan right away. Once I met my first 10%, DH's company starts reimbursing for fees at every 10% mark, so it sort of sustains itself now!
I have a reward system set up for myself for every five pounds I lose. Each time I lose five pounds, I reward myself with a new bag, new shoes, or a new bra/panty set. I chose not to reward myself with clothing items like pants and shirts because I don't plan on fitting into them for long Once I hit my final goal, I'm getting myself a new wardrobe!
I have set up a reward system for myself which is really working. After every 10 pounds I lose, I get a pedicure (very indulgent for me), and then once I reach my goal weight, I'm giving myself a day at a Spa in our town that is nationally known. I want that day at the Spa more than anything else, and I'm trying to achieve my goal before we travel to Florida at the end of March. If you give yourself a reward of something that you wouldn't normally do/get, I think it works better.
Here is an article I found (don't remember where I got it though):
Eat or Treat
You know the feeling. You've hopped on the scale and WOW! it's looking good. Or you catch sight of yourself in a shop window and for the first time in years, instead of thinking “Who's that dumpy person?”, you say with an unexpected burst of pride: “That's ME!”
Or maybe you've won a prize, been promoted, come first place in a contest, beaten the opposition, or just got lucky in love. It's a human response in situations like these to want to celebrate; to feel like letting your hair down, painting the town red.
With most of us though, sooner or later our celebrating will flow on to food and drink. Of course! So what can we do to celebrate that has less calories than a box of chocolates, yet still feels like a reward? Here are our suggestions:
Instant Buzzes
• A facial can always make a woman (or a man) feel special. There is something about the smell of those creams and lotions and the clean skin we come away with that is pamper-plus.
• Go for glamour with a photo at one of those places that makes you look like a movie star or a top model. Or get an “olden days” photo to pass on to your grandchildren.
• A new hairdo is always a huge morale booster and a great reward. Try a new color, get your hair lightly waved (or straightened), braided or crimped.
• Give yourself flowers. Have them delivered or pick up a bunch at the markets. Better still buy tons and spread them through the entire house.
• Rent that video you've always wanted to see. If it's a romantic one, lay in a supply of tissues, or import a friend or two as support.
• Buy yourself a new outfit. If you’re still losing weight, you can be confident and buy it in your goal size as a major incentive to go the final distance. Or you can please yourself today with one that fits and flatters now.
• Don't wait for the overseas trip when you can get it duty-free, buy an expensive perfume and splash it around. You are celebrating, aren't you?
• Float for an hour or so in a huge bubble bath. Take that book you've been dying to read and keep topping up the hot water.
Time Treats
Of all our assets, time is perhaps the most elusive. It wastes without a trace, yet each day we have a whole new quota. But while we use it and abuse it, there often is not enough of it to do the things that really give us pleasure. So what better way to say “Congratulations” to yourself, than finding time to do the things that you specially enjoy?
• Read that new book. You know, the one that has been gathering dust beside the bed. Better still, combine two pleasures, and take it to the beach, on a picnic, or into the park and read for hours. Finish it if you like.
• Spend time with a friend that you have been promising to get together with for ages. Go shopping, take a hike, ride your bikes into the hills, even talk for an hour on the phone if he or she's out of town.
• Visit the museum, the art gallery or that new little craft store you've been dying to get around to.
• Scrap your diary and seize a whole day just for you. No plans, no pack drill. Take your watch off and just play it by ear.
• You love swimming, but somehow you never get to the beach these days. Pack a towel, sunscreen and hat, and go.
• Be a kid for a while. Go fly a kite, buy a bunch of balloons and give them away as you go, make a daisy chain, get a yo-yo and practice all those silly stunts again.
• Go through your photographs. Write on the back of them or have some fun making up silly captions. Stick them in an album or frame a whole wall-full.
Once you start thinking of special ways to treat yourself, dozens more will come to mind. Soon, rather than routinely slipping into a bakery the minute you feel a celebration coming on, you'll think again. You'll find yourself automatically popping open a bottle of bubble bath rather than the bubbly, passing the chocolate store on the way to the florist, and dialing the theater for tickets to a show rather than ordering in pizza.
And even if, after all, you choose to do none of the above, as the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “the reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.” So congratulations, anyway!
I got a Pandora bracelet with one charm on it for Christmas. I'm considering adding a charm for every 10 lbs lost. So far I haven't rewarded myself at all
On another group a while ago, someone suggested a rewards jar. For every pound lost, put $1 in the jar and at the end, you'll have money for whatever treat you want. I think I'll do that. In the end, I may have enough money for a new house! LOL!
Do you reward yourself?
Once I hit my final goal, I'm getting myself a new wardrobe!
