Archive for » March, 2012 «

Mar
19

A Charming Reward System

Say hello to my little charms.

Almost since I started out getting healthier, I have struggled with the whole rewards thing. I’ve gone from saying that I don’t need rewards whatsoever, to giving them a go, to tyring to figure out what would work for me anyway.

For a long time, I have worked without them. Frankly, I was too busy trying to figure out a multitude of other things to sit down and figure out how to reward myself. But after a talk with my psych about rewards and how they really can be beneficial to helping one accomplish any goal, I decided to rethink the situation.

I’d tried books, gift cards, magazines and other stuff before, but I never had a reward that really stuck with me. The magazine was read, the gift card spent, so on and so forth. I’ve struggled to find anything that I would find both rewarding and encouraging.

I sat back and looked at myself. Not always a pretty prospect but valuable nonetheless. With the kind of person I am, I needed something fun and pretty to keep me attracted. But I also needed something permanent – not a book I would read and be done with or something that would be spent and gone. Whatever ‘it’ was, it needed to stick with me.

And, knowing me, (here’s the not so pretty part), I needed it to be in my face as much as possible. I get distracted. I get emotional. My head often has one or more cast of characters for whatever novel I’m working on in it. Being healthy isn’t always first on my plate. However, having a visual reminder either on my desk or on my body would have it right there nearly all the time.

Taking that all into account, I came to getting a charm bracelet with charms and beads to mark my progress. It’s pretty and fun, something permanent, something that marks my progress and something that will almost always be within my eyesight.

You might think that buying all the charms first up might take away the pleasure, but I don’t get to wear the charms until I reach the corresponding goal. That is enough to keep me going and working toward the next mark.

In the end, I’m quite proud of myself. It took some time and self-examination, but I think I have come up with something that will prove to be a good motivation.

Now only .8 lbs to go until I reach my first goal…

PS. These charms are the ohm symbol and the hamsa. Combined for strength, serenity, peace and protection.

Category: Rewards  2 Comments
Mar
05

92.3 To Go


Woo! I have new ticker. Haha. I was doing some virtual dusting around here and remembered how much I just to like tickers and that sort of thing. I also remembered how messed up I can be with numbers, so I decided just the ticker is more than enough.

Things have been going along nicely, as you can tell from my silence. I finished up my stress management course and am the better for it. I must admit that I did go in thinking that they wouldn’t be able to teach me much, but I did get more into the importance of breathing. That alone has helped me since with dealing with situations that give me anxiety. All up, a good thing.

I’ve had the first half of the pain management course, which set me off a little emotion-wise because I feel like I don’t deserve to be there. My aches and pains are weight-related, while many of the people there are dealing with accident recovery and complications due to aging. I’m nearly always the youngest one in the room.

I try to acknowledge the feelings and then let them drift by, though, because I reckon I’m there because someone thinks I need to be there. Done and dusted.

I had my first session at the gym there as well. I tried not to go ‘mind reader’, but I got the feeling that the instructor was a little confused as to why I was there. But then I explained my personality (all in until I injure myself) and my history, and things seemed to go well from there. I could swear we barely did anything, but I am feeling quite sore.

It’s been nearly a month since I started my food diary, and I’m managing to keep up with it. I think this is the longest I’ve kept one, to be honest. It does have me thinking more about balance, what/how much I’m eating, etc, so it’s all good.

All up, things are going pretty well. The weight loss so far has been entirely through food diary and what I like to call ‘calorie awareness’. I’m excited to see what happens when I add in the gym work.

Category: Checking In  2 Comments