Need ideas for milestone rewards

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silentKayak
silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
in Motivation and Support
Mid-40's mom of two here. I'm sure I used to have stuff I enjoyed, but I'll be damned if I can remember any of it now that I'm on the treadmill of house, husband, work, kids.

My goal is 90 lbs, and have given myself 1.5 years to achieve that. I've broken it up into very do-able 10 lb milestones. I'm about to hit the first one. The problem is I can't think of a single thing to "celebrate" or "reward" myself. I don't plan to reward myself with food, though I do plan to raise my cals to maintenance for a week or maybe two once I hit my milestone, then go back to cutting.

So the question is, what would you do, or have you done, to reward yourself for meeting goals? Maybe one of your ideas will resonate with me! Money's not a problem, but I don't want to go overboard. I could spend $100 or so.
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Replies

  • SwallowInTheOcean
    SwallowInTheOcean Posts: 10 Member
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    Ooh! I did this! I'm such a brat, I have mine set for every 5 pounds. When I was setting mine up I had to think about who I want to be and who I am outside of food. I want to learn how to paint and sew. I want to be well read. I want to be the type of person who goes on adventures to new hiking spots or find a pretty place by the river. Every 5 I would reward myself with something I normally wouldn't buy myself. I got a water color set, a cute skirt, a day date to explore a new trail.

    For me it was about getting away from my old habits of sitting at home and watching netflix and becoming the person that I want to become. I'm a mom too and I know that it's hard to think outside of being a mom, but it was fun rediscovering myself.
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    I've never understood this need to give yourself little rewards. For one thing, I'm the one buying the rewards so I don't see how that is a reward. Secondly, I am a worthy person. . . doing something kind for myself or treating myself is something I deserve every day. Finally, external rewards are not very effective motivators.

    I lost and maintained my weight because I want to be healthy and live a long time. That's plenty rewarding.
  • iseelondon
    iseelondon Posts: 17 Member
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    Buying new clothes to fit your changing body can be very rewarding.
    Perhaps a 60 minute massage would do the trick?
  • SandyBVTN
    SandyBVTN Posts: 367 Member
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    I have a few possible rewards I've been tossing around in my head - I might make them officially part of my goals, not sure.

    Probably more than $100 a piece though!

    After I reach my big goal of 50 pounds, and keep it off I'm thinking about a tattoo or two (always loved them and wanted one but never felt good enough about my body), and a shopping trip (gonna need a new wardrobe!).

    Smaller reward ideas that I like/can use:

    - new running shoes
    - a fitbit
    - healthy eating cookbooks
  • emienne
    emienne Posts: 29 Member
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    I bought myself a Pandora bracelet and for every 3kg (7lb) I lose, I add a bead/charm. I now have 12 charms on it and I'm 1kg away from adding my next charm. Every time I feel negative about myself or that I haven't achieved much, I count the beads on my bracelet. By the time I reach my goal weight, my bracelet will be full (which is why I worked it out to be split up into 3kg goals).

    When I hit my halfway goal I bought myself a pretty butterfly pendant.
  • iamladygusta
    iamladygusta Posts: 42
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    I bought myself a Pandora bracelet and for every 3kg (7lb) I lose, I add a bead/charm. I now have 12 charms on it and I'm 1kg away from adding my next charm. Every time I feel negative about myself or that I haven't achieved much, I count the beads on my bracelet. By the time I reach my goal weight, my bracelet will be full (which is why I worked it out to be split up into 3kg goals).

    When I hit my halfway goal I bought myself a pretty butterfly pendant.

    That is a really cute idea!
  • iamladygusta
    iamladygusta Posts: 42
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    I absolutely love scarves... so my "small" reward was to spend earn 5 dollars to go toward purchasing a new scarf.

    Then I switched to yarn... because I love to crochet.

    I already have an over abundance of these items, so rewarding myself with them was a way to justify buying more.
  • Hell_Flower
    Hell_Flower Posts: 348 Member
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    Clothes for me!

    Or some sort of spa treatment, a massage usually. Feel like a new woman after that. It's a treat because I can't normally justify spending that much on myself, even though I tend to just get them through Groupon anyway.

    Once I've hit goal weight (8lbs to go!) I'm planning on taking myself off somewhere I've never been for a weekend, probably Berlin (to eat back all my weight in beer and pretzels and currywurst, of course ha!)
  • cw106
    cw106 Posts: 952 Member
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    I bought myself a Pandora bracelet and for every 3kg (7lb) I lose, I add a bead/charm. I now have 12 charms on it and I'm 1kg away from adding my next charm. Every time I feel negative about myself or that I haven't achieved much, I count the beads on my bracelet. By the time I reach my goal weight, my bracelet will be full (which is why I worked it out to be split up into 3kg goals).

    When I hit my halfway goal I bought myself a pretty butterfly pendant.

    excellent idea as a constant reminder of results of your hard work.well done.

    at 1 stone loss i treat myself to ordering optical goggles. helped my swimming and reduced chlorine tears.
    at 2 stone loss. it was simply 2 slices of cheese on toast. my most missed snack.
    nothing wrong at all in celebrating lifes milestones.
  • cosmonew
    cosmonew Posts: 513 Member
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    I agree with the post that said... go in the direction of the person you want to be...
    for my first reward I bought an ipod so I could hear my running stats on nike +... I think a fitbit or nike + or something along those lines is a great reward and a good get moving tool.

    I hashed around the Pandora bracelet as well... but now that I work out so much... I already have to much jewelry.
  • gail1961
    gail1961 Posts: 111 Member
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    I bought myself a Pandora bracelet and for every 3kg (7lb) I lose, I add a bead/charm. I now have 12 charms on it and I'm 1kg away from adding my next charm. Every time I feel negative about myself or that I haven't achieved much, I count the beads on my bracelet. By the time I reach my goal weight, my bracelet will be full (which is why I worked it out to be split up into 3kg goals).

    When I hit my halfway goal I bought myself a pretty butterfly pendant.

    I love this idea. I have a troll bracelet (but that is not why) and my beads are reminders of other things, but I like the idea of one that is a reminder of successes.
    Here are some more ideas:
    Pedicure or other "pampering"
    Fitbit
    New Clothes (maybe for a bigger loss)
    Tickets to a show or other (non food related) night out
    Some type of "craft" supply, or new hobby-This is good because it also keeps your hands busy and you can't eat
    New workout clothes. I did this and it was great because they are more forgiving in terms of size so still fit as you lose.
    I didn't buy a lot of new clothes because my reward was fitting back into my smaller clothes!
    Yes, there is the reward of feeling and looking better, but I think small rewards along the way are also great motivators.
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
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    I've never understood this need to give yourself little rewards. For one thing, I'm the one buying the rewards so I don't see how that is a reward. Secondly, I am a worthy person. . . doing something kind for myself or treating myself is something I deserve every day. Finally, external rewards are not very effective motivators.

    I lost and maintained my weight because I want to be healthy and live a long time. That's plenty rewarding.

    I COULD buy things for myself, but in general, I don't. I'm the mom, and I put myself last, always. And my self-esteem is in the toilet from being treated like garbage over the last few years since I haven't been able to take off the baby weight. So it's great that you already feel like a worthy person and that you don't need to celebrate milestones. I don't feel worthy of spending my own money on unnecessary items for myself (like I will happily pay hundreds of dollars on sports equipment or lessons for my kids, but agonize over whether or not to get myself a Fitbit).

    So now hopefully you are a little closer to understanding someone else's issues.
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
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    Thanks for the great ideas, everyone! I LOVE the pandora bracelet idea. I really need to do something tangible to remind me that this is to be a one-way journey.

    The clothing thing is interesting. I never want to buy myself clothes. No matter what my weight, I always think I'm going to lose, so I never want to buy myself anything nice. So I end up in cheap, crummy clothes that look terrible and don't quite fit. I think that might be the answer: to buy myself something I love that fits me NOW, not at some mystical future time. And maybe part of that will let me get rid of some of the old clothes in my closet that I've been keeping "until they fit" but which will be massively out of style and maybe which I never loved that much anyway.

    I definitely know my answer for milestone #1 which is - a new bra! LOL!
  • NuggetLovesEdie
    NuggetLovesEdie Posts: 477 Member
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    After completing my first round of 30 Day Shred, I decided my reward would be a food vacuum sealer because I freeze a lot of things.

    After the second round of 30 Day Shred, (ending today as it happens), I get to spend $60 at Lush on frou frou bath stuff.

    Soon, I will be rewarding myself with smaller pants. :)


    The intrinsic rewards of seeing my body and fitness change are pretty powerful. However, I also tend to have different priorities for my money than gifts for myself. Mostly this is just the habit resulting from low wages.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    i go with makeup, nail polish, books about fitness stuff, massages, clothes (especially workout clothes :love: ), silly coffee mugs, fun socks, etc.

    i'll save the actual non-workout clothing for bigger loss
  • Otterluv
    Otterluv Posts: 9,083 Member
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    I tend to buy myself stuff that I feel like will help me (new running shoes, fitbit, training sessions, whatever) get to my goals, rather than using them as incentive itself. But, I do have a couple of things. When I hit 100lbs lost, which will coincide with being under 200lbs for the first time in over 20 years, I'm getting taken out to dinner and I may decide to get a massage. I've never gotten one, and have been doing a lot of lifting, so that sounds really lovely. But, until I get to goal that's my only external reward. Well, except that once I can get into Lulu workout clothes, Imma' buy myself something cute.

    Other stuff, I've just found that if I buy it as I need it then things go a bit smoother. But, if small rewards work for you, go for it!
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
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    I don't tend to do rewards myself, as generally the rewards come pretty naturally with the weight loss, being able to do more things, looking better, etc, but if I was more patient in my weight loss, I would probably reward myself with a small break from my diet when I hit a major milestone. Diet breaks, of a week or two are supposed to be very effective overall for dieting, but I'm just too impatient to take them, lol.

    Re: rewards in general, I find the things I tend to appreciate most are things I won't give in to buy because its uneconomical, so perhaps something you wouldn't normally treat yourself with, might be a basis for some ideas for milestone rewards :)
  • jaz050465
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
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    I bought myself a Pandora bracelet and for every 3kg (7lb) I lose, I add a bead/charm. I now have 12 charms on it and I'm 1kg away from adding my next charm. Every time I feel negative about myself or that I haven't achieved much, I count the beads on my bracelet. By the time I reach my goal weight, my bracelet will be full (which is why I worked it out to be split up into 3kg goals).

    When I hit my halfway goal I bought myself a pretty butterfly pendant.

    That is a really cute idea!

    Also look at a Trollbeads, x by a Trollbeads, thomas Sabo charms and Thomas Sabo karma beads
  • LisaPower123
    LisaPower123 Posts: 1,837 Member
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    Here are my milestone rewards:

    25lbs: new fit bit bands (bought myself the fitbit at the very beginning & it really helps me)
    30lbs: new work out outfit
    35lbs: Mani & Pedi
    40lbs: new work out outfit
    45lbs: new outfit
    50lbs: massage

    I also do not buy things for myself. I just don't. I buy things for the house, for the kids, for DH. I work

    Take care of yourself. and definitely get rid of the old clothes (I have them too & will be cleaning them out this weekend!) Who wants to wear old clothes on a new body.... even if I only have one pair of pants it is better then wearing the pants I bought in 2007 and haven't worn since.
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
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    There are some great ideas on here. I got a Pandora bracelet for my birthday so I will buy myself a charm when I get to goal. Might have a browse of the brochure now to get some ideas.

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