I’ve tried setting up something like this before, but honestly I’ve never really been very good at it.
I’ve been thinking lately that I need some sort of incentive to help get my diet back on track because even though I’m doing pretty good with keeping up my exercise, I’ve still been splurging a lot and I get the feeling that I’m pretty much reversing all of my hard work with a few uncontrollable spoonfuls of peanut butter in the middle of the night! I need something to help me focus better on the now – i.e. a single day’s 2,000-calorie limit – something that I can look forward to when I’m passing by the cupboard before bed or even just lying there unable to sleep, its sweet, sweet nectar taunting me invitingly from across the house…
I wish I was making this up, folks, but I guess this blog is all about honesty, both for better and for worse! 😳
Anyways, the most obvious idea that came to my mind – though in hindsight, I’m not sure that we can afford it – is some sort of monetary incentive. Say $5 / day to save towards something completely frivolous for every day that I’m able to meet my caloric goal for that particular day. And while I have a tendency to just buy cheaper stuff if I want and see it in the store, some things come to mind more in the $100-200+ range that I could save up for over the course of a month or two.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like our budget can really support that right now with other things that we currently have on the horizon. 🙁
But I guess I just feel like I need something to focus on for today – not an incentive that I might get once I lose X pounds or whatever because at the point I’m at right now, it feels like I need more focus on the things that will help me lose weight as opposed to just the concept of losing weight in general. Plus, in a way just looking down at the scale to see the pounds actually lost is a reward all by itself, so I don’t think I really need anything else at that point … where I really need the help is something a bit smaller to help push the day-to-day along.
Any ideas??? It seems like everything I’ve read is both a) always based on pounds lost instead of smaller steps; and b) involves more expensive things like new clothes and massages and so on and so forth. Is there something else that I could shoot for on a day-to-day basis, or do I somehow just need to carve out a small amount in our budget for incentives, even if it’s a smaller amount like $1-2 instead of $5/day? At first glance I have a hard time believing that I’ll be able to get excited over $2/day, but if it’s the best we can do right now, is it still worth a try???