Goals and Rewards

It is important to keep motivated as you lose weight and to not fall off the wagon. One way that I do this is by having goals and rewards.

This is my current and not updated goal/rewards. I've already hit 170lbs, so I got myself some new kicks.

These are my new and awesome running shoes. I use them solely for forward direction activities (walks, running) and not for zumba, turbo kick, etc. (btw, I used to not have ankles and that line going up my calf. How awesome is that??)
So, now that some time has passed, I want to update my goal/rewards.

170 lbs New Running Shoes

165 lbs Newer Magic Bullet (mine is crapping out!)

160 lbs Heart Rate Monitor

155 lbs Haven't decided yet

150 lbs Mini Vacation

145 lbs Haven't decided yet

140 lbs Clothes Shopping!!! (Hubby totally agreed to it! No shoes though :( But I can get those now!)

This bad boy (maybe girl, since it's pink.) is my next toy. The Polar Women's FT4 Heart Rate Monitor. 

A couple of notes if you're going to do this. 

• NEVER EVER reward yourself with food. You're not a dog! Especially fattening foods. I used to lose like 5 pounds and say "Let's go to Chili's now!" and get fattening foods and gain it all back in no time. You're training your body and cutting out that bad stuff. Every once in a while it's ok. I usually have my cheat day once a week, but lately, I honestly don't really want to. And when I do cheat, I feel gross afterwards.
  So, don't train your body that after you do good to do bad, ok? One step forward and two steps back, is what that does. 
• Don't reward yourself with clothes until the end. Mine is set to 140 right now, but if I decide that I want to get to 130, I'm going to wait.
  If you're jonesing for some shopping time, either buy some workout clothes, buy a pair or pants or a bikini as a goal for yourself, or visit this woman's site: Merrick's Art
  She takes her old clothes and redesigns them! I actually have a few clothes ready to resew sometime!
• Always re-evaluate your goals/rewards. Like I said before, I may want to go down to 130, so I'm going to see how I look at 140 and reevaluate!
• This system is tricky. I don't really depend on the scale that much. Because I do weights and cardio every day, it's hard to judge how much a weigh through a scale. I usually hit a certain number and then gain a few then after a few days I lose it all again. You gotta remember that muscle weighs more than fat. I am getting thinner, but sometimes weigh more because of it. Right now I'm fluctuating around 170, so I just crossed it off the list now. 
• Patience. Of all people, I should not be the one who says to be patient. I'm the worst person when it comes to patience. THE WORST. But with this, I've learned to be patient. I used to be like "oh I'm close to my goal, I'll just have my reward now." It was like celebrating my birthday before my actual birth date. When it came to my day, it seemed so sad. I wait to get my reward until I hit my goal. It only makes it so much better. It's worth the wait. 

Also, I have my goals and rewards posted here:

Idea from pinterist. I do not want to take any credit for this.

Up on the top left I have pounds to lose and pounds lost. 

Bottom left I have all my classes lined up and color coordinated for which gym the class is at.

Top right is motivational words, my goal/rewards and how long I can hold plank for

Bottom right Are some notes and my monthly plan. 

I highly recommend doing something like this. It keeps me on top of my game and lets me write down my schedule and ideas for workouts. My husband also puts notes up there and leaves me some motivating words.