Rewards (besides the obvious) for Weight Loss?
 

When I finish losing 100 lbs - which may or may not be my final weight, I'm going to buy myself a really nice cycling jacket & tights. Something stylish, rain proof but breathable (unlike my current rain jacket which has pit zips but still feels like a sauna inside. At least it fits me, again.

If I keep the weight off, and as we Clythenas know that's not always our history, I'm going to get myself something REALLY nice - like a super-fancy bike. There's lots of things I want, that's for sure ;)

Nope, not "if" - "when" :)

Right! Absolutely. WHEN...

I started softening up my wife for a really fancy bike. My current one is *pretty* fancy but I cobbled it together out of used parts.

It may require another 2 years of softening to get that one. Almost as great a challenge as keeping the weight off. :D

I have an entirely new wardrobe. :)

The weight loss *is* the reward. If you try to make it some kind of game show where you win fabulous prizes by subjecting yourself to systematic torture because of sub-par equipment, you'll have a rough time making the lifestyle stick.

If I need better clothes or a bike, i just buy it. It gets me out riding more.

Yep... this sums it up pretty well.

The reason I started cycling was to do more geocaching, as I didn't want to have to drive and had found everything within sensible walking distance of home. The bike provided me with a means to strike out further without worrying about train timetables or tickets, driving, parking etc. Then along the way my fitness improved (going geocaching meant I was striking out further and further without specifically registering that my fitness was improving all the time), my weight started to drop and the usual benefits of fitness started to accumulate. At the same time I discovered a load of new places to go cycling.

Once I started to gain fitness and lose weight I realised I enjoyed being slimmer than I'd been in years, I enjoyed having the strength and fitness to go on longer and longer rides, so just kept at it. Having now given away a whole bagful of trousers that are were too loose for me I don't want to go back to my old weight.

If you need something and you've got the money, go and buy it. Otherwise you end up putting arbitrary goalposts ahead of yourself and before long you'll find yourself hating your current equipment and deciding it's just not worth it any more.

I avoided buying cycling-specific clothing for a long time. When I started I was very much a fair weather cyclist - if it was cold or wet I'd stay home. Then I wanted to strike out further and accepted that in the summer I might get wet but in the winter I'd stay home if it looked like it might rain. Then when my body shape started to stabilise I was more willing to pay for cycle-specific stuff, on the basis I'd get more than a single season's use out of it.

If you figure how many calories it takes to cycle a mile, then look at "treat" foodstuffs as being the equivalent of however many miles it is, that can help. I've often found myself really fancying a bar of chocolate but when I think that it takes maybe 60 seconds to eat the chocolate bar (if it takes that long) and would then take 10 miles of cycling to burn it off again I often decide I don't really want it after all.

I was going to say exactly this. To me, the loss of the weight and all of the health bennies that would occur as result would be about the single biggest gift I could possibly ever give myself.

Looking at the baggy pants and the tent like shirts I have just cleared out I have to agree. More energy, More endurance, A body that I actually like to see, and I fit into normal sized clothes. Don't need any more rewards than that.

I question whether weight loss and looking good in itself is enough of a reward, especially in the long term as you adapt to the differences. What are you going to do, look in the mirror ten times a day and admire yourself for the good job you did? (Well, maybe for the first few months. :)) While you are losing weight there is the reward of seeing the pounds drop off. Each time you step on the scale you can get a nice little jolt of feeling good about yourself. That will disappear after you lose the weight. I no longer get that nice little pleasurable jolt stepping on the scale now that I have lost my weight.

I think it is fine to get yourself something nice, whatever it is, for a job well done. But I think what is most rewarding going forward are doing things that require you to develop and maintain a skill. Playing chess. Making jewelry. Improving your bike riding skills. Physical activity in itself is also rewarding. Right now I have been building my strength. Adding to how many pushups I can do is rewarding. Kind of a different take but fits with the research.

The reward is whatever it takes to keep you on the bike. If it buying stuff then that's good. If it is the weightloss itself, that's good. Whatever it is.

You've hit the nail on the head, here, or at least one of the nails. When the "new you" becomes the expected norm, the initial rush wears off. It's important, when dealing with negative addictions, to learn to remember what being addicted was like, and use the negative as a positive reward. I've had the "benefit" of having to learn this skill with respect to both tobacco and alcohol.

I'm going to try to keep firmly in mind how much it sucked to be obese. How my feet hurt. How my knees hurt. How I felt graceless and clumsy. How I panted for breath on minor exertion. How I cringed every time I caught an unexpected glimpse of myself in the mirror. How unattractive I felt to members of the opposite sex. How it took much longer to establish credibility when I presented talks - the feeling that people were looking at me and saying, "Why should we believe anything this fat slob says? He doesn't even have the self-discipline to keep his weight under control..." And the list goes on.

I think it's common, when it comes to negative addictions, to have to turn these memories into your reward. Because, after every one of those sentences in the last paragraph, you can say, "But that's NOT true anymore!" That's the reward.

That, along with the positives: being able to jump from rock to rock when I hike with my son, to being able to climb those hills, barely breaking a sweat, that had me dripping and panting a few months ago, to seeing that spark of interest in someone's eyes ...

I am trying to do some of this. I thought that I had got rid of all my fat clothes but did find one pair of stretch pants in a drawer. The spouse took a picture of my holding those pants, standing in front of the refrigerator. I then put the picture up on the fridge. I also went through my several year accumulation of digital photos and actually found fat pictures of me that I had managed to not delete. I made two photo albums, "fat me" and "skinny me," and look at them every once in a while.

The aha moment that started me losing weight was lying in bed on my side, feeling the weight of myself and the pain in my back. I often think of that when I go to bed at night.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-n...2/IMG_0019.JPG

But still for me what is rewarding is doing something. Building muscle. Making jewelry. Getting to be a better bike rider.

I did other stuff while I was fat - played music, woodworking, carving, writing, tinkering ... Being fat didn't stop me from doing those things. In fact, riding and exercising more is impacting the time I have to devote to practicing and doing other stuff.

Ballroom dancing, riding, hiking, ... THOSE things took a hit from being fat. Life's all about trade-offs, I guess.

I wish I had some more revealing "before" pictures, but I had adopted the strategy of "hide the belly behind somebody else in the picture", so most of my fat pictures are head and shoulders only...

I never let being fat prevent me from doing/buying anything I really want. Since I've eliminated the grains & sugars from my diet (I'm a Primal Blueprint fanatic) I rarely crave anymore, so I don't find healthy eating much of a hardship (except for Beer. I had to quit drinking Beer because of the T2 diabetes). And I just bought a nice bike to replace another bike which was nice enough but didn't fit me well. I like my new bike very much. But I'm looking forward to enjoying being a normal size again. Wearing something besides t-shirts & elastic pants, although that's changing already. I've just about shrunk out of all of my clothing. I think I have two pair left of "skinnier" jeans I couldn't bear to let go of even though they were 4 sizes too small at my heaviest. I just feel that after all the hard work, I want a physical reminder (besides the body reflection in the mirror) of all I've accomplished.

Baby girl, if you want to got out and treat yourself to a hot red dress, buy the damn hot red dress! Don't let anyone convince out of what makes you feel good, just get it outta your system.

I often see people rewarding themselves with cycling gear after they lose weight. I have a contrary opinion on that front however.

Do not wait to buy new cycling gear, as cycling is the means by which you are losing the weight. Anything that makes cycling more fun will only help you attain those goals faster. I waited last year to lose a certain amount of weight so I could buy a road bike- big mistake. I wish I had bought the road bike at the start of the year, then I would have biked even more!

LOL. Uh HUH!

i am down 70 pounds and i enjoy the knowledge of knowing that i am outrageously more fit than other people my size and smaller. i can outdo my buddies that are up to 60 pounds lighter than me whether its weight lifting, biking, running, etc. that is what makes all this work worth it. and as above, new clothing is so nice and unfortunately required :). so dont look at it as just visual. you look and feel better than the people around you. that matters the most.

I've posted about this before, but I put money in an ING Direct account for every pound I lose, to be eventually spent on a new bike when I get below 220

currently at $1500, should max out at around $3500.

Well said.