Carrot

Historically, I've always had trouble coming up with good dieting rewards for myself.

How often is often enough? How much of a reward is really rewarding -- and how much is too much? Do I reward the good behavior, or the good results (as they don't always match up exactly)?

The last time I got really serious about a diet, when I got down to about 225, I decided that when I got below 200, I was going to buy myself the new laptop I'd been lusting after.

Finally, I thought, I'd hit upon a good one. The goal was not so far away as to be completely out of sight, and the reward itself was something I wanted but didn't actually need (my old computer was doing its job adequately, after all). It was big enough to be a serious expenditure, but not so big that I couldn't afford it at all.

Naturally, then, I hit a plateau and hovered around 220 for two straight months. And then the maid service dropped my computer and broke it, which made getting a new one more or less a necessity.

So much for that idea.

I'm still working on it, this time. And I'm working on it hard right now, because I'm currently in a bad state of mind for dieting where every little bit of progress seems to take forever and I'm feeling discouraged, like I'll never get there.

When I hit my 10% goal (and also to reward myself for getting through Christmas without gaining anything), I got myself a full 90-minute massage. That was lovely and decadent, but it wasn't really planned. More of a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Lately I've found myself eying purses whenever I'm in a store that stocks them. My current purse is about three years old, and it's starting to get pretty beat up and pitiful-looking. And boring. I want something with color and pizazz. And sure, I could pick up a $25 bag from Target, but then I thought maybe I could get one of these terrifically expensive but oh-so-gorgeous Anuschka bags as a diet-goal reward. Maybe when I hit my next 10% mark, which currently looks like it will happen in April. Yeah, it's more than I spent on the massage, but surely the smaller, prettier me deserves a pretty bag?

I'm going for the big-big reward again, too: I've been pondering an SLR camera for some time now, and I love the pictures that they take, but I'm not entirely sure I could justify spending that much on a camera that I'm mostly going to use to take shots of the kids. (Especially since most SLRs do not come with video capability, so I'd probably be losing that function if I didn't want to lug multiple cameras around.) Anyway, I've been waffling for a long time. It's a lot of money to drop on a piece of equipment... which makes it a perfect reward item, yes? So I've pretty much pegged it as my reward for my next 10% goal, which (not coincidentally) will be the one that drops me below 200 for the first time in almost 15 years.

And I'll worry about rewards beyond that point when I get closer to them -- I think that's plenty to be going on with.

What I'm pondering are rewards for smaller goals and triumphs: 5-pound marks, maybe, or successfully negotiating events and holidays. Something to focus my mind on to keep myself going for just another couple of days without mounting a raid on the Pepperidge Farm outlet store...

I have... no ideas. I am not restrained about buying books or music, and I'm trying to declutter my house anyway. Food is obviously a counterproductive idea. Spa treatments (massages or whatever) are too expensive for rewards that could hit two or three times a month. Movies and similar activities are too much trouble to arrange. Clothes shopping is a chore, not a reward.

I need ideas. Something in the $30 or under range that can be obtained without completely rearranging my schedule and which could reasonably be called a reward, something to make it worth the struggle of putting down the snacks and going to the gym... Ug. I just don't know. C'mon, help me out here.