's motd Thursday February 10, 2011

[Guest guest]

REWARD!

Thursday, 10 February 2011

When I was a kid, I remember all

of the many diets I tried in my efforts to lose

weight. On one of those diets, I started out very

well and lost five pounds in about a week. After my

accomplishment, I said to myself, ", this

is fantastic! You stayed on your diet for a whole

week and look...you've lost five pounds!"

I remember how my mother

Shirley shared in my joy. She gave me a big hug and

told me how proud she was of me. Yep, I was feeling

the pride but...wait! Figuring I'd earned a

"reward" for myself, do you know what I did? (Oh, I'm

so embarrassed to tell you this.) I marched right

over to the Woolworth's on Canal Street and ordered

myself a big-old banana spilt. Oh, how I loved them

and hey, I'd "earned it." Uh, right?

All of that ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and

crushed pineapple. I sat there at the lunch counter,

watching as the lady working there created that

luscious banana split masterpiece...just for me. "Oh,

excuse me, mam. But could you add a few extra

chopped nuts before you put that cherry on top?"

She oblidged me and after my banana split arrived, I

went to work with my spoon and lit into it until every

single drop was gone. But after it was

gone, at that very moment, it dawned on me what I'd

done. I'd worked so hard to lose those five pounds

in a week but here I was, getting a head start on

gaining every one of them right back. Oh my goodness,

what was I thinking? I mean, what kind of "reward"

was that?

Come on everybody, overeating is not

a way to reward yourself for losing weight. Talk

about defeating the purpose! That was an important

lesson I've learned but still today, some people lose

weight and reward themselves by having foods they know

they shouldn't be having.

First of all, it's a reward in itself that

you lost the weight to begin with. So why would you

want to "reward yourself" for losing weight by loading

up on some fattening food that got you into trouble

weight in the first place? All you'll do is end up

making those numbers on your scale go...right back

up! Smart, huh?

There's a lady who attends Slimmons who's done very

well with her weight-loss. With each ten pounds she

lost, her reward would be to do something nice for

herself. She shared with me the list of rewards she

gave herself for each of her 10-pound weight-loss

milestones.

For instance, for one 10-pound milestone, she rewarded

herself with a new hair cut. See, thanks to her

weight-loss, the shape of her face had changed and she

felt it was time to get a hew hairdo to compliment her

gorgeous new face.

With another 10-pound milestone, she treated herself

to a manicure and pedicure. She'd never really taken

very good care of the nails on her hands and feet

before. But now that she was feeling so much better

about herself, she was ready to spend more

time pampering her entire body.

After losing a total of 40 pounds, she rewarded

herself with a new pair of shoes. And every reward

she gave herself served as positive reinforcement,

inspiring her to work even harder to reach the next

10-pound milestone...and her goal.

And now that she's lost a total of

100 pounds, she cleaned out her closet of all

those larger sizes and donated them to Goodwill. In

the meantime, she invested in a brand new wardrobe for

herself. (Hey, that reward must have been a

lotta fun!) Isn't hers a great story? And you should

see her now...she looks fantastic!

Now the next time you reach a weight-loss milestone,

please, choose a reward that will make you feel

good about yourself. Why? Because you will

have earned that reward! And let's face it,

looking and feeling your best tastes a lot better than

a banana split topped with extra chopped nuts!

Hope you're rewarding yourself by having a great

week...staying on program!

Love,