(Hasn’t changed; losing weight is still work.)
As you work at losing weight, you need to congratulate yourself on each mini milestone you reach. Some celebrate with a pedicure, some with a new workout outfit, some with a massage… and some (ironically) with a nice dinner. How about a new pair of shoes!
But how do you know which milestone to celebrate?
Weight Watchers used to recognize every five pounds. Maybe they still do? But I’m not talking about milestones being numbers—I’m talking about those milestones that make a massive difference in your daily life once you achieve them.
I’ll just list a couple milestones you might want to celebrate.
- (A client told me this one the other day and I am still smiling at her progress!) No longer needing to shop in “the big girls” section of a store. Woot!!
- Climbing to your front door while holding groceries… and not being out of breath when you get there!
- The XXL pants falling off as you wear them.
- Climbing a flight of steps without your knees and/or back hurting.
- Going to the grocery store and not once thinking about going down the cracker/chips/cookies aisle… or, thinking about it and deciding to skip the trip down the aisle.
- Recognizing that getting in and out of your car is easier than it used to be.
- Reaching a certain destination/distance before you need to take a break to catch your breath.
- The glorious sound of a zipper zipping up without the painful groans, gasps, or sucks as you struggle.
- Hearing yourself say “yes” to an invitation you might not have said yes to previously.
- Recognizing that today you made a great effort to take care of that one body you’ve got to make last your entire life.
If you think about these for a minute or two, you’ll see that these are in no way “small” rewards. THEY ARE HUGE. It’s just sometimes we forget them and get discouraged all over again if we’ve had a bad day or the scale says something we don’t want to see.
Try making a list of reasons you want to lose weight. Yes, an actual, physical, pen and paper list. Make it full of small reasons and big reasons. Once you’ve accomplished something on that list, celebrate your progress.
You can do this.
