Living the Lifestyle (LTL) - Wednesday, 4/17/19

minimyzeme

We meet here to explore, share, celebrate and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Thread starters for April are below:

Monday - imastar2 (Derrick)
Tuesday - whathapnd (Emmie)
Wednesday - minimyzeme (Kim)
Thursday - misterhub (Greg)
Friday- jimb376mfp (Jim)

Today's Topic: Rewards

Do you make a deliberate effort to reward yourself for reaching any of your weight management milestones? If so, what are they? Has your thought process or reward type changed over the time?

jasper60103

"Do you make a deliberate effort to reward yourself for reaching any of your weight management milestones? If so, what are they? Has your thought process or reward type changed over the time? "

I don't reward myself for maintenance, but I did a couple times when I was loosing.
I recall buying some tools on one occasion, maybe a new pair jeans on another.

88olds

When losing it was always clothes. I’ve posted a bunch of times about my career as the best dressed guy in our office. At least I was aiming for it. It came as a total surprise and was great fun.

But now I’m retired in Key West. My current project, to redo my program with a lower GW of 170lbs seems to be its own reward.

steve0mania

I don't remember every thinking of something as a "reward" for weight-loss, but rather as necessities. Like the other respondents, I had to buy a lot of new clothes!

As an aside, I bought a lot of new clothes in one big day at the mall (Banana Republic, J Crew, and a few similar stores). I hate shopping in general, but that was actually pretty fun and it felt like a capstone on my weight-loss efforts.

I did buy a high-quality scale, but again, I felt like that was a necessity rather than a reward.

Likewise, I never gave myself a reward during maintenance. Hmmm, maybe I should start thinking about it since I'm almost at my 10 year mark of maintaining!

podkey

I am not so much of a "reward myself" kind of guy. I did buy a professional quality scale that is the same model as WW without using the computer hook-up when I got close to goal. My other scale quit and I knew I needed an accurate to track my status. Like Steve-O it was more of a necessity than a reward.

Gosh I told myself when I reached 25,000 miles on my bike I would celebrate big time. What did I do. I kept on riding to 25,001 and 25,002 etc. I did celebrate with dinner at 50,000 miles.
I was riding a 60 mile ride with a friend when I turned my bike odometer over from 99,999 miles back to zero. We took a picture and I had a craft beer w lunch where we toasted that.

I am planning a ride with son and DIL with a bike and brew theme (very limited brew for me) and staying at an iconic place in the Columbia River Gorge when I reach the distance of 1/2 way to the moon of about 119,450 miles (average distance) this summer.

Honestly I am not good at organizing celebratory stuff and don't celebrate with food normally.

Al_Howard

Nope! Like Steve, I buy necessity.
Rewards, especially food ones come at anniversaries, birthdays, etc.

misterhub

Not generally. Certainly not food rewards. Maybe a piece of clothing that fits better than what I have. But, not usually.

“Eating crappy food is not a reward—it’s a punishment.” -Drew Carey

gadgetgirlIL

The last thing that I can remember buying as a reward was a brand new (not refurbished) MacBook in June 2012 after I earned my doctorate. I would have bought it earlier but did not want to get into tech upgrade hell while I was still working on my dissertation.

imastar2

I've had so little to reward myself lately due to the fact that I haven't hit any of my goals. When I was on track and losing weight I really didn't do any type of rewards because eating was what I was trying to avoid and buying clothes was a necessity.

cakeman21k

Funny, the first time I joined WW (1st of several) The topic in my 2nd week was all about giving yourself rewards, as you would expect the most common ones that came up were "Get a Mani Pedi", and "Go Shopping" after listening to this for several minutes I raised my hand and asked if any one had some suggestions that might work for a man? I was barraged with a chorus of explanations on how shopping and mani pedi's were the PERFECT reward. I walked out and did not go back for several years (that did not help my WL journey).
This time (over 12 years ago now) I figured I would have to come up with some rewards on my own! I have used tickets to a game, a new golf club, and a camping fishing weekend. I have not done a reward in a long time because I have not been in real weight loss mode in quite a while. Maybe I need to go back to that.

minimyzeme

Do you make a deliberate effort to reward yourself for reaching any of your weight management milestones? If so, what are they? Has your thought process or reward type changed over the time?

I have not done this. I think for me it's part of trying not to make too big a deal out of the whole weight loss thing. It's certainly important to me but I find it comes with its own rewards (as previously discussed).

That said, I sometimes have firings of little food flings after successive under goal weighings. I might splurge a little more on a food thing than I would otherwise. The thought might cross my mind that this is OK because of my "success", but to date, it hasn't been a long-lived experience--just a blip and done. I don't consider it a reward as much as breathing a little easier that things are going as planned.