Weight loss rewards

Holy crap, I really seem to be in the zone about posting health blog topics tonight.

Anyway, a quick tally of the rewards I've given myself after reaching target weight loss goals, and a pledge for what I might get for the last big one :) Just cause I feel like remembering what I rewarded myself with for some reason!

I REALLY wanted to be careful not to "celebrate" with food. That was very important to me because food is so often an easy thing to celebrate with - "let's go out for dinner!" Terrible. The whole point of my hard work is that I'm making the conscious choice to put my long-term health before an immediate short-term enjoyment like fatty restaurant food. Double-negative warning: I shouldn't NEVER eat that kinda stuff :) But I definitely wanted to be sure not to buy food as my celebratory event.

Tea doesn't count though :) Since drinking tea is actually further helping my weight loss (given its properties for epic appetite suppression and also because it is 0 calories), I decided that was a good thing to use as motivation. Plus I am now somewhat obsessively in love with weird and wild teas, I figured this was a good thing to rally behind: I love it, and it's healthy, and it helps me continue on the right trend. Awesome!

I also bought practical stuff which would help me continue the weight loss or gym progress, like a nice gym bag, some running shoes for the gym, and nice and awesome workout clothes that I liked and felt comfortable in. They were pretty nice clothing items too, which I might not have bought otherwise, so it really was special to get some high-quality and nice workout stuff.

• At 200 lbs: Fancy tea kettle and joined the gym at work. Crazy new shoes. New workout Dry-Fit t-shirts and shorts from Macy's.
• At 190 lbs: More fancy tea: from Lupicia, Upton, The Republic of Tea, and more. An awesome Nike workout bag.
• At 185 lbs: Gaiwan tea preparation cup, yes, and even fancier tea from The Imperial Tea Court
• At 180 lbs: Clothing time! This was my first major goal (30 lbs). So this was a big one to celebrate. Getting this far means I'm close to what I expect I'll stop losing and start maintaining at (170 lbs), so I'm close enough where I can start buying some new clothing and giving away old stuff. I got this stuff: Suit, leather jacket, wingtip shoes, new belt in Buenos Aires. Long sleeve and short sleeve collared shirts from Banana Republic, new jeans from Levi's. Sorting through piles of T-shirts, pants, jackets and donating a massive amount of stuff to Goodwill. And of course, more expensive fancy tea in Buenos Aires.

What's next?

Well, I already bought some nice clothes and one shirt from Banana Republic is quite fitted - it's got a little room for me to lose a bit more to fit better in it. So that's a little extra motivation. The next goal is when I hit 170 lbs (or an equivalent low body fat percentage loss).

I am not 100% sure what I am going to get, but I might actually finally buy My Dream Jacket. An amazing $500 Gore-Tex ProShell, a glorious shade of purple, made in Canada, and can defend you from pretty much anything nature can throw at you. I LOVE THIS JACKET. Months and months later, I am still drooling over it. I think this would be an awesome celebration of my commitment to weight loss and also... a GREEEEEEEEEAT way to "bake in the loss" as I mentioned in a previous post. I totally love this jacket and if I spend a damn fortune on it, I sure as hell am not gonna put ANY weight back on that could result in the jacket not fitting well in the future. I actually think for that reason alone this is probably a brilliant idea. I am definitely gonna search around and try to find a nice sale price for it, but I'm starting to think this might be a fantastic gift to myself at the conclusion of the weight loss progress.