How to Stay Motivated Week 6

Visualize and Reward Yourself

So in recapping Take It One Day At a Time, Surround Yourself with Positivity, Ask for Advice, Know Your “WHY”, and Keep it Fun have been the topics over the last 5 weeks.

Today we are going to talk about two topics: Visualizing and Rewarding Yourself

Visualizing is a very important part of the process. Most of us see ourselves in the mirror and if you’re a woman you generally see yourself a lot bigger than you are or you can’t see the changes that your body is making because all you see is the woman in the mirror of the past. So you have to dig deep and as you change your body you have to change your mind and the picture that you had of yourself.

On my weight loss journey – I couldn’t always see the new me because my shape didn’t really change, I just got smaller and bought smaller clothes. Everyone else sees you at the new size, but you have to change your minds view of you. I lost 27 lbs in 3 months. Now I have maintained for 2 years at that same size and I love it.

My daughter, on the other hand, has lost over 95 lbs in a year and a half and she has had many milestones to deal with. Just being able to go to a regular store and not have to buy at a big girl store was mind boggling to her. She is dealing quite nicely with it, but she still has her moments – till you change the picture in your head of who you are – where she has issues really knowing that she has done it. She is in the best shape of her life and it all started because she wanted to be able to walk around Disney World with her 5 year old daughter.

Rewarding yourself then becomes something that isn’t FOOD related. When I’ve been on diets before in the past I used to reward myself with one of my favorite dishes or eating Mexican and having as many chips and salsa as I wanted.

My recommendation is to use NON-FOOD rewards. Go spend $ on a new outfit in the size that fits you now. Go to a concert. Go for an adventure to a new destination that you never thought you’d be able to do. Go hiking. Find something that is NON-FOOD related as a reward. Rewards are very important because it makes us feel like we’ve accomplished something and feeling accomplished helps our mind to know we are accomplishing something.

This is where that plan that you wrote at the beginning comes in. You need to set your goals – When I’ve lost the first 10 lbs I will ______. When I’ve lost the first 25 lbs I will _______. Those things aren’t written in stone, but they can help you have a clearer picture of where you are now and where you want to get to and if the reward is already written down then you can wrap your mind around it and fulfill it and reward yourself. Writing down rewards is also part of the visualizing process. Knowing where you want to get to.

None of this is easy, but all of it can be easier. And we are always here to help. Also don’t forget that exogenous ketones can always help as well and keep that journey moving forward faster and make it so that it isn’t impossible to accomplish. Have an awesome week.