It’s Friday.  The best day of the week!  Here’s my challenge to all of you wonderful MFP folks: do something, even something small that makes you feel fabulous today.  Buy a new pair of shoes. An outfit.  Maybe a new tube of lipstick.  Low on funds?  Pamper yourself at home.   It’s all very simple.  When you look good, you feel great!  You smile a little wider.  You get more pep in your step.  You glow.  Small rewards now will reward you tremendously in the future!

 My latest realization transitioning to a healthy lifestyle was that weight loss rewards can do more harm than good.  OK, I know I sound nuts.  How do we stay motivated if we don’t have a goal?!  Instead of thinking of rewarding weight loss, why not try rewarding the NSV? Let’s take a moment to think about how many ‘NSV’s (No Small Victory) we’ve had on a weekly basis.  You exercised a longer.  You didn’t eat that cookie.  You took the stairs instead of the elevator.  You did something to make your life better.  That’s huge!   Doesn’t that deserve a small reward sometimes?  Rethink this a bit, and I bet you will have longer lasting success.  Quit letting that number on the scale determine whether or not you’ve been successful.  Success is those necessary and often difficult changes that make the pounds disappear.   Sure they seem small at the time.  So I ordered a side salad instead of french fries at McDonald’s, big woop-dee-doo, right? No way!  That’s a powerful move.  I told my temptations to go take a hike!  Celebrate that victory because that took you one step closer to your goals.

Last week, I bought some new outfits for the spring.  I haven’t lost a lot of weight yet, but my store had great deals, I had some nice coupons, and I was just plain sick of how tattered and torn my clothes were.  I was dumpy.  At first, I told myself, “Jess, don’t spend the money until you lose twenty pounds.  THAT will be your reward.”  Then I thought some more, and the prospect of looking fresh and saucy excited me. I didn’t want to miss out on that.  It was almost like I was punishing myself by thinking, “No, Jess!   You don’t deserve to buy clothes yet!  You haven’t hit that magic twenty!”  How damaging is that thought process?  I have had a million gazillion NSV’s in the past couple months.  I have changed habits instilled in me as a kid.  I work out on the weekends now… THE WEEKENDS!!  How is that not worthy of a reward? 

 My clothes came in yesterday, and I have been playing runway all morning. It feels spectacular! I want to go out and show the world that I feel like a million dollars.  That positive energy and thinking will resonate.  That never leaves you.  However, waiting to reward yourself might not have that same impact.  We all know weight loss can be a long and tedious process.  Some weeks, you can lose three pounds and then you can go a couple weeks and only lose an ounce.  Boy, I know I have a long way to go to get to twenty.  I don’t want to deprive myself in the meantime.  That’s kind of lousy.  What excitement do we have to keep us going during those rough weeks?      

Reward yourselves regularly.  I’m not implying you should go on a shopping spree every time you pass that extra helping.  Debt is not good either!  BUT, you should recognize that NSV as a bigger accomplishment than losing the actual weight.  Remember, you got to that loss by making positive and difficult lifestyle changes.  This journey isn’t easy by any means. You have to keep yourself going somehow.  When you celebrate those NSV’s by doing something fun for yourself, you’re refueling your drive to keep going.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, a gal’s gotta go spruce herself up in her new threads!

~Jess