Just rewards

Well, darling invisible friend, Roommate and I have been on Weight Watchers for four weeks now. And no one has died by our hand! No, no one. Shut up. You can't prove anything.


Anyway.

One of the big challenges of the this "lifestyle change" [pause for requisite vomiting noises now] is finding non-food related rewards. This is really hard! Don't mock, it is. My way of thinking is as follows:

Situation: I did something well!


Reward: COOKIES!


Situation: I made it to the gym!


Reward: ICE CREAM!!


Situation: I sat through a required work meeting, AKA Coma Of Death.


Reward: FOURTEEN PIECES OF PIZZA, LARGE HOAGIE WITH EXTRA EVERYTHING, STEAK, POTATOES, MUSHROOMS SAUTEED IN BUTTER, A LOAF OF SOURDOUGH BREAD AND AN ENTIRE CHOCOLATE MOCHA CHEESECAKE!!!!


But this is, evidently, bad for one. Apparently, this is counterintuitive to one's lifestyle change.


Go figure.


Roommate and I have struggled to find rewards for our efforts, small and large. The big one was relatively easy: When we reach goal weight, we're going to Italy. We have plenty of time to plan for this. Believe me. Plenty of time. But the little rewards are tougher.


Here's the thing. I need something to anticipate. This is why food was always such a lovely little treat for me. Knowing that I would go out to breakfast after making it through a hideous week helped me get though that hideousness, and hey...I have to eat anyway, right? It's relatively inexpensive [as opposed to a flight to Dublin] and available everywhere. But chicken fried steak and eggs with piles of hash browns and buttered toast is not the best method of reducing the acreage of my ass.

I'm trying to come up with as many mini-rewards for Roommate and myself as I can, but it's not as easy as one might wish. Manicures and pedicures are our fall-back reward, and btw, our nails look fabulous! We buy flowers for each other. And provoke more unfounded gossip, which is really, a reward in and of itself. Heh.

Oh! We will go to see Santana in concert [one of Roommate's favs] after a significant goal is achieved. Not sure what the achievement will be, but there it is.

At twenty-five pounds lost, we will go out to dinner--don't yell! Wait for it--and we will dress up, really dress up, and make it an event. The food will be part of the reward, but we will pick a place that we can enjoy and stay on plan.

Once I'm under a Certain Weight, I will go to Cedar Point Amusement Park and scream my guts out on the roller coasters.

But my butt has to fit into the seats first.

I have no idea what to do for the in-between rewards, though. I suppose I could continue with the flowers. I could develop a shoe obsession. I could expand my collection of teacups.

Yes. Teacups. What?

Fine, you're so clever, you come up with something better.

.....I'm waiting.