Enjoy the Journey!

I often encourage people to reward themselves with something tangible when they reach a particular weight management goal. Interestingly, many people are surprised by the idea. "What?!" they say incredulously. "Reward myself for doing something I should already being doing? Are you crazy?"

I'm reasonably normal, but irrespective of my sanity, I'm on to something here. Consider this: The tasks you undertake to lose weight are things you'll have to do for a lifetime, right? So, hopefully, your goal is to get to the point where things you're not doing -- quite often because you don't care so much for them -- become habitual. You've got a pretty significant hurdle to overcome, right?

So how about rewarding yourself for your little accomplishments? Wouldn't it be a lot easier to follow through on a tough goal if you were looking forward to going out shoe shopping, hitting the golf course, or getting a massage as a treat for your hard work? Wouldn't it be encouraging to start out your day getting dressed in the new tie, earrings, or gorgeous little ring you bought yourself last week as a reward for meeting a goal? You bet it would!

I suspect that what holds people back from the idea of a tangible reward for progress is the idea that they've been bad, and they deserve to suffer for gaining weight. Pish. Here's what I've observed:

• Many people gain weight because they're using food as a tool to manage their feelings. They're just doing the best they can with the skills they have.


• Others have fallen prey to society's diet mentality. Their lifestyle habits and metabolisms are suffering as a result.


• There are plenty of perimenopausal women who truly don't appreciate what their bodies are going through, and they don't know how to cope with those changes.


• Baby boomers are going through changes related to aging, and don't know what to do differently.

I could go on, but you get the idea: Most of the people with whom I work need information or skills. I don't believe a lack of information or skills makes you bad, wrong, or wicked. And if you're here, reading this, I'm willing to bet you want more information and skills. That makes you the opposite of bad, wrong, and wicked, doesn't it?

What do you think of the idea of a small, but meaningful, tangible reward, so you enjoy the process of weight loss? How big of a hurdle is it for you to appreciate your accomplishments that lead up to your ultimate weight management goals? And, most importantly, how will you reward yourself -- today, tomorrow, next week, at the end of the month -- for what you're doing?