Day #18 – How Do You Reward Yourself When You Achieve a Fitness Goal?

I really, really, really like rewards.   I used to reward myself with things like chocolate chip cookies or a trip to Starbucks for an upside down venti caramel macchiato with 4 packets of brown sugar (really, really, really bad for you (albeit tasty) rewards.)

Once I started getting in shape I had to switch my reward mentality.  The first 10 lbs. my reward was throwing away all my size 14 jeans.  That was a no-brainer and a lot of fun.  Also, I got to go shopping in my closet.  Hello, size 8 jeans!  I missed you!  You’re awesome! 

When I hit 20 lbs. lost, I started pulling out the big guns.  A massage.  Yeah baby, bring it.  And not a wussy 30 minute dealio either, I’m talking 90 minute Swedish massage with oils and candles and CDs playing raindrops falling on stones type massage.

But the biggest reward I gave myself?  When I lost 30 lbs. I got my belly button re-pierced!

I am one of the few people alive it seems without a tattoo.  When I was 23 and on tour playing Anne Frank I decided to get my navel pierced while in San Francisco.  I thought it could be hidden easier than a tattoo, would encourage me to stay slim (so as to avoid looking like a Purdue done-it turkey) and, let’s face it, tattoos hurt a lot more.

I loved that little ring.  It was blue and pretty and sexy and about as close as I came to be rebellious.  I never took it out either, but that’s only because I didn’t know how to remove it.  But then I got pregnant with Rylee and, sure enough, it looked like the timer went off on my womb.  After my OB-GYN laughed at me one to many times, Henri figured out how to remove the thing.

For the next five years I was either pregnant, on a diet, fat, or pregnant again, so the hole closed up.  And honestly, at size 14 I was none to eager to reveal my mid section.

But with that 30 lb. milestone we made a day of it.  We got a babysitter for the afternoon and went to a Affinity Tattoo in downtown Austin.  It was so much fun!  I got to relive my youth a bit and then Henri and I enjoyed the warm Texas sunshine laying out on a pier near Lady Bird Lake.  It just made the entire day spectacular.

What about you?  How do you reward yourself when you achieve a fitness goal?

Lisa

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