Losing weight is a long process, unless you're only trying to lose a few pounds. It's hard work. It's frustrating at times. That's why I turned it into a series of little goals, complete with rewards for each achievement.
For example, I had a pair of cute brown jeans. I had bought them in Iowa City when I had lost a smidgeon of weight one summer. They were always on the tight side, but I made them work until that fateful last semester of my Ph.D. program when I started the process of packing the pounds back on. By the time I joined WW last fall (11 months ago today!), there was not a chance in the hot and flamey place that I could get them past my knees. So my first goal became to get back into them. Each week, I went to my meeting and weighed in. I came home, and tried on my brown jeans. Each week they didn't fit...but each week they got a little higher up. By the first of December, they were up to my waist but far from zippable. By mid-December, if I swore not to breathe while I wore them, I could walk in them (until I passed out, of course).
And then, by Christmas...I could breathe in them. It took about 17 pounds to get into them, though they were still a little too tight and definitely tighter than they had been when I bought them. I wore them to our Christmas Day celebration as a reminder not to gorge myself. I also went to Christmas with a healthy, fruit-based contribution to the goody tray! Apples with fat-free whipped cream mixed with a packet of fat-free pudding---try it! It's so good (but filled with artificial junk, so keep it in moderation, y'all). By reaching that goal, I got to buy a new piece of clothing (forget now what I chose).
Then my goal was to hit 30-pounds by the time I went to London for spring break. That gave me 2.5 months to lose about 15 pounds. Honestly, that was one of my motivations for buying the Wii. Things were slowing down, and I wasn't sure I could do it without exercise. Once I got started on that, I was down down down again...about 40 by the time I went to London! Reward? Some cute, fitted t-shirts from H&M in London. Fitted? Me? Me wearing fitted clothes?? Yup.
Then I found out I was going to Ireland and I wanted to be to goal by the time I went there. That meant another 15 pounds in three months. Hey, I figured, if I could hit 40 pounds in four months, I could surely do 15 in three months! Well, not so hasty, Dena. Those last 15 were stubborn. I lost regularly, but far less at a time. I kept working hard, though, because I really wanted that goal. Turns out, I didn't quite make it. I was 1.5 pounds shy of goal when I left, but with all the walking I did in Ireland, I hit goal the first week I went back to meetings when I returned.
My reward for hitting goal had been to buy some kick-butt sexy jeans. Price was no object (well...within reason). I wanted hot jeans! I hit goal (and then some) by the end of June and successfully hit Lifetime Member status (six weeks of stability) by early August. But six weeks later, I had not yet rewarded myself with my jeans. Until yesterday!! I was with a friend who has much better fashion sense than I do, and she took me to The Buckle to find them. I ended up getting two pair (but will likely take one pair back when I decide which ones I like better). They are HOT! And THREE SIZES SMALLER than I've EVER worn before. That, my friends, is what I call a reward. A cha cha cha. When I wear them out for the first time, I'll take a picture to post.
So basically, then, the message is to provide yourself lots of little mini-goals with lots of fun mini-rewards! Don't wait to be excited till the end. Be excited all the way through your journey to success. Just like when you take a long road trip and use landmarks as markers of progress...give yourself something fun (and non-food based, BTW) to mark your loss progress. Work toward some hot jeans of your own!
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