Your Goals, Your Rewards

So, I get lots of questions about how I lost 140 lbs.

The answers aren’t glamorous at all.

1) I watched the food that I ate and budgeted my calories.
2) I became active and recorded my efforts.

People usually do not respond well to those two answers. Likely because they both look and sound like work.

Well, they are work.

Sort of.

But the ‘work’ part isn’t the strain of the exercise or the constant focus on calories.

The ‘work’ is in changing the way you live.

Changing your habits can be tricky and sometimes painful. It’s not all that easy to stop eating the way you eat, eating what you eat or tracking how often you exercise. It’s not easy embracing change.

It’s scary confronting who you are with who you want to become.

It was hard for me to fathom the notion that I could be skinny when I was wearing 3X shirts and had a size 50 waist.

But it wasn’t as hard to see “a few lost pounds” in the short term.

“What about 10-20 pounds? Surely I could do that, right?”.

One trick for me was a silly reward system.

I Absolutely Love Ice Cream!

Ben & Jerry’s to be more precise.

I would set 10 pound weight loss goals. If I lost the 10 pounds, I would get New York Super Chunk Fudge! Phish Food was a strong second second choice.

But is there really a bad choice in ice cream? No, not really.

Now you are asking yourself, “Ben and Jerry’s for weight loss? Really Uppie?!”.

Sounds stupid, I know.

But follow me for a sec.

I’d lose 10 pounds. I would eat 1,000+ calories in chocolatey goodness. I’d put 2 pounds right back on the very next day.

But, man, it tasted good. Ice cream became my taste of victory!

Earlier, I called this concept “silly”. But was it?

Fourteen half-pints later, I’m weighing in at 177 pounds and running half-marathons!

It’s all about moderation.

So Where Do You Go From Here?

Where you go from here is a “lifestyle change”.

Understand that going “slow” is ok and probably best for long term change.

Embrace the fact that “slipping up” will happen. Just have the determination to get back on the horse after you fall off.

You’ve got to get good at four things:

1) Stay focused on your goals by setting your rewards.
2) Realize you aren’t perfect and that you will “slip”.
3) Never, never, under any circumstances, give up.
4) Believe in yourself.

Your weight loss is an investment in your health, the health of those around you and in your self-esteem.

Set the example and let me cheer you on…

So what’s your next goal?

What do you get for reaching it?