How to Reward Yourself (without food)

Friday, Feb 19, 2021 | Lifestyle

Hi all! Coach Lisa here!

As a dog trainer, I am constantly teaching clients how to recognize and acknowledge the little things their dogs do right and how this affects their relationships. When we start noticing and acknowledging the small things that are going well in our lives – it opens us up to really paying attention. To the way we treat ourselves and others and what we find acceptable in how others treat us. Rewarding yourself can drive results, it’s as simple as that! 

In terms of weight loss – it is so important on this journey to have things not related to food to reward ourselves with (non-food rewards – NFR) and acknowledge those things not related to the scale and our weight specifically (non-scale victory – NSV).

For a long time, I had difficulty with this in my general life – but especially surrounding weight loss. It took me a long time to feel it was okay to be proud of an accomplishment and doing or saying anything that drew attention to me physically (like rewarding myself with clothes/jewelry etc) was a definite no-no.

Having a visual representation of our progress is a great way to stay motivated. One of the tricks I used was to take 2 jars – one for pounds left to lose and the other for pounds lost. I really enjoyed the victory of moving those marbles over…it was something I did for myself, by myself and enjoyed.

Since I was on the road a lot and eating fast foods in the car was one of my struggles – I also wanted something to take with me. I decided to use a bracelet and add beads for every major marker and five pounds lost.

I hung it from my rearview mirror as my visual reminder to not eat out on the road or sit in the van and hide. I have other non-food rewards for milestones like road trips and photography excursions, dog training supplies, things on my Amazon wishlist etc but this is a micro reward plan that I enjoy.