Goals And Rewards

So, my new friends here have been really recommending Jillian Michaels podcasts. I've never been a Jillian fan so I was leery-but they assure me it's worth hearing what she has to say. I have yet to get on that, but it's on my radar. That said, they were discussing Jillian's belief in goals. The theory goes that without goals, you have nothing to work towards and you will give up or throw in the towel sooner.

That whole discussion has really got me thinking. On the one hand, it's like what I've taught my girls. The goal isn't to get a reward, but rather just in the doing. An example, we don't pay or reward them for good grades. We want them to just get inner satisfaction of doing their best and having the grades show for it. It's an intrinsic reward rather than an extrinsic one. The reward is in the hard work showing. It's kind of the same with weight loss for me. The reward is getting healthy, fit and meeting a goal weight. That's my "end goal."

That also led me down the path of rewards, though. We were discussing rewarding yourself for meeting certain milestones. One could be hitting a certain weight loss number (say, the first 10 lbs) or reaching a significant physical challenge (running a 5k.)

Once again, I had nothin'. I don't have any real "rewards" set other than just meeting my goal and feeling better about myself or fitting into my clothes from back in da day.

I DO believe that as women, we often don't pat ourselves on the back. I know I'm always sure to let my girls know how proud I am of their hard work and dedication to an endeavour, yet if things get hectic, the first thing to go out the window is me taking time to do something for myself. How come I don't treat myself with the same support and enthusiasm?

I know that, for me, setting a long term goal often seems surreal or so far down the line it's abstract. It works well if I set several small timelines that I can have the satisfaction of checking off on my path to the big goal.

As of today, these thoughts are mere swirls in my headspace. I'm going to ponder them throughout this week and next week I'll put in writing what my rewards and small goals will be. From there, how can I NOT help but look forward with optimism and anticipation?

On a totally unrelated note, my friend Angie posted on her blog http://angiealltheway.blogspot.com/2011/04/healthy-delicious-hummo-de-gallo.html about her hummus addiction because of it's crack like quality. I, too, have a total hummus umm, problem. I had recently purchased the PC chipotle and roasted pepper topped hummus. I also had some Garden Fresh medium chunky salsa on hand. Angie's idea was that hummus can be high in calories if you go over around 2 tbsp's at a time but it's so dang yummy that it's easy to do that. She had the BRILLIANT brainwave to make it stretch and keep the calories down by mixing it with salsa. I tried it today and WOW. I don't know if this will just create an even WORSE addiction, but it was DELICIOUS. So delicious that I found myself using my finger on the bowl to get every last drop. Yikes. To me, it kind of tastes like a chipotle chip dip? Whatever it reminds me of-it was seriously awesome. I was skeptical at first, but am SO glad I tried it. I can feed my hummus addiction while still watching my calories. Take my word for it-try it!