Some personal thoughts about rewarding yourself
Allmyusernamesaretakengeeze
Posts: 146 Member
"What are you doing to reward yourself for hitting your goals?" It is a fairly common post and the answers are pretty much new clothes, a night out, or dinner somewhere. Maybe it is my age, maybe I've been there done that one too many times, I don't know. I've changed my thinking regarding what an actual reward is.
At 10 lbs shy of weighing 300 pounds I was like, nope nope nope, not gonna happen. In the past, I gave myself whatever pampering I thought would be nice. After reading the question and answers in another group, it hit me, this isn't good enough anymore. It's just things. I deserve MORE.
Many of you have never been this fat. Others know what it is like. This weight has made me self-conscious, physically unable to do what I want, and caused me to withdraw a bit. I'm not the fat chick but that is what people see. It has taken a lot of freedom and joy away from me over the years. I don't want a new (insert explicative here) outfit. I want my life back.
I've set incremental challenges for personal achievement. At 25 lbs down my reward will train to bench a minimum of 175 lbs. More is better. I want to be strong again. At 35 lbs down, I want to run a mile without getting winded. I want to have energy and not tire easily. 3K, 5K, and fun runs are in the future. I'm going to hike at least 50 miles of the Adirondack trail. I want adventure.
TL;DR:
Make sure the rewards you choose are worthy of you. You deserve far better than a new outfit, a special treat, or a night out. Also, I just discovered MFP will auto correct the F-word with the word kitten.
At 10 lbs shy of weighing 300 pounds I was like, nope nope nope, not gonna happen. In the past, I gave myself whatever pampering I thought would be nice. After reading the question and answers in another group, it hit me, this isn't good enough anymore. It's just things. I deserve MORE.
Many of you have never been this fat. Others know what it is like. This weight has made me self-conscious, physically unable to do what I want, and caused me to withdraw a bit. I'm not the fat chick but that is what people see. It has taken a lot of freedom and joy away from me over the years. I don't want a new (insert explicative here) outfit. I want my life back.
I've set incremental challenges for personal achievement. At 25 lbs down my reward will train to bench a minimum of 175 lbs. More is better. I want to be strong again. At 35 lbs down, I want to run a mile without getting winded. I want to have energy and not tire easily. 3K, 5K, and fun runs are in the future. I'm going to hike at least 50 miles of the Adirondack trail. I want adventure.
TL;DR:
Make sure the rewards you choose are worthy of you. You deserve far better than a new outfit, a special treat, or a night out. Also, I just discovered MFP will auto correct the F-word with the word kitten.
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Replies
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Great goal setting strategy! I, honestly, never viewed rewarding myself with exercise but, perhaps I should since I kinda loathe it.
You could be onto to something...if I look on exercise as a privilege, will I be more likely to do it? Worth a try.
Continued success on your journey. Thanks for sharing!1 -
Yeah I'm not sure. I'm a grown woman, I don't need a damn pat on the head for looking after my health. The rewards that come automatically are feeling better about yourself, and being able to do things you couldn't do before. I was 250lbs at my heaviest so I've felt the limitations that being big imposes on your life. I'm 199lb now and I can do many things I couldn't do before.
The other side of that is letting go of the guilt if you do eat something you shouldn't. I no longer feel the need to binge, but I also don't stress if I have 60g carbs one day. Tomorrow is another day, move on. One day or one meal in the grand scheme of things is just called "life" and is not the end of the world, or an excuse to binge for the rest of the week and "start again Monday".
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Now, hey there. If I want to do something special, just for me, because I choose to use it as a motivator, that's cool. If that doesn't work for you, that's cool too. Calling it a pat on the head, that's not fair. Honestly, it felt kinda patronizing and I'm sure you didn't mean it that way. We all do what we think will work for us best.
I was going to start running at 35 lbs and then do a 3-5K at 50 lbs down but Achilles Tendonitis put the stops to that plan. One more pound to go and I'm down by 50 lbs. Yay me!
This weekend I've begun clearing out an unused bedroom.
Hello, home gym. It's good to meet you.2
