Rewards for reaching goals (2)

I approached my weight loss journey by doing just that - not all at once but with deliberate targets to try and hit along the way - in set timespans. I'm pleased to say i exceeded each of them (bar one - which I hit dead on). Starting my journey in December 2008 with a wedding to attend in August 2009 - my first was to be below 20stone by then (needing to loose over 7.5stone to get there) - I went to the wedding 8st (and half a lb) lighter. Since then it's been things like loosing 10st by Halloween 2009 and getting to 15st by my birthday at the end of March 2010.

It's these targets - with a date to achieve them - that has helped keep me motivated. But that said - I've also come to realise that sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve them. One point in case is the week I made 15st in Mid-March last year - at the end of the week I received an invite to an event in London at the end of April. I gave myself a target to have lost another stone by then. I weigh on a Monday night and the event was on a Wednesday. Two Monday's before the event - I still needed to loose 5lb to hit that stone - well, that is a big ask, and so just decided that I'd be happy with any kind of loss - didn't push myself to get there, didn't starve, or make any other kind of changes. Just relaxed. Imagine my surprise the Monday before the event to have actually lost that 5lb. but if i hadn't - so long as it was a loss - i wuoldn't have cared (well maybe if it was 4.5lb i would have)

my stories at http://members.tripod.com/~oscagne
whatever i say is my opinion, and mine alone.

I had - still have, I suppose - quite a lot to lose. When I started I was very gung-ho - oh yes, a pound and a half a week, every week, that'll take me...

Then, as time went on, life got in the way. A stint in a hotel, then Christmas, then lack of motivation...

I've come to a couple of realisations. One is that losing weight is okay, keeping it off is the hard bit.

The second is that if I try to do the denial involved in losing weight for too long, I eventually get fed up, fall off the wagon, and am in danger of putting it back on. Which then triggers a vicious circle of, "Well, why bother?".

So rather than aiming to lose all my weight in one go, I'm breaking it up into chunks of a stone or half a stone, with maintenance periods in between.

At the moment I'm in the midst of losing a stone. I set myself a nominal goal date, but it's the stone that counts - so if it takes me an extra week or two (it probably will) then I'll keep going till I get to that weight. I'll then have a month "off", learning how to maintain that weight. That will allow me more "treats", so as to stave off that sense of denial, before aiming to lose another half-stone before my holiday in September.

I haven't really set myself a specific reward for hitting my goal. But I do factor in nice things - trip to the spa, facial - on the way, as a reward for sticking to it. I imagine the sense of satisfaction when I reach the next stone target will be reward enough!

And yes, I've got a vague plan in my head for the rest of the year - that half-stone before the holiday, ideally maintaining on holiday (it's going to be very active so that should outweigh the odd treat), then another half-stone before December which will be a maintenance month, realistically.

It's slow. Breaking it up like that with maintenance periods is bound to be. But it works for me, it's teaching me how to maintain which I view as important, and it stops that horrible sense of failure. I'm either "on it", in which case it has my full attention (no birthday cake for me this year!), or I'm not.

But yes, the reward tends to be the weightloss itself.

Edited 8 May 11, 10:30 AM by littlenic