Say NO to the Reward System

Give yourself gifts often

Say NO to the Reward System

Say NO to the reward system when losing weight! It is counterproductive and could sabotage your weight loss efforts. We have read or seen weight loss experts that promote rewarding yourself for your weight loss efforts such as the dangling carrot method as a way to lose weight. But, this dangling carrot could cause you to make decisions that you would not otherwise make and to your detriment!

Reward Is Not Really Worth It?

 

What if the reward that you decided you would get if you made your weekly goal is just not worth it. Maybe it was a massage and you really don’t have time for a massage anyway. So this becomes an anti-reward system. You are no longer motivated by the initial reward you said would motivate you, so now what is your motivation to not go for the second helping of chicken and dumplings? Nothing!

You Need the Reward No Matter What!

So you said if you made your goal you would buy a suit to wear when you go on that interview next week. The problem is that you need that new suit no matter what. It doesn’t matter if you meet your goal or not you still need to go on the job interview and you don’t have a suit that fits. So this becomes a tricky reward in that you may try hard to meet your reward but not all goals are achieved (at least not in the original time frame desired) so if you still give yourself the reward even though you didn’t meet your goal you are no longer going to believe yourself that the reward system is real, so now you have lost credibility with yourself.

 

You Can’t Reward Yourself the Way You Want

A lot of other people will use the reward system and they may buy themselves some extravagant “rewards”. This is fine if they want to, I don’t want to judge. But, what if you can’t afford to buy as expensive “rewards” as your friends? Then you will be sad, instead you should be ecstatic that you made your goal. Which is why I do not believe in rewards. Be happy that you made your goal! Write down “You did it!”, “Great job!”, “Way to go!” jump up and down, get a big smile!! But, don’t give yourself a reward.

Do Things You Like All the Time

 

You want to be sure that you are doing things and giving yourself things often and as needed. If you need some relaxation then go ahead and get a massage, if you need a suit for an interview be sure to get a suit (maybe from a discount store since you will be losing more weight), and if you want to do something fun—go do it!

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com