I thought I'd never get back here! Whew.

You know, "they" tell us to reward ourselves for achieving goals and other marks of success in our weight loss program. "Get yourself a charm for your charm bracelet," "Treat yourself to a weekend at a spa," "Buy something you've not allowed yourself to spend for."

But is that really sensible? Why can't I have a food treat when I've lost 5 pounds. I don't intend to have 20 ice cream cones, but just one. We train animals with food. We train children with food (e.g., see attached photo of my friend getting my other friend's child to look at the camera!) I'm losing weight by not eating all the sugary and fatty foods that delight me (and exercising, nothing helps like getting the bod moving). It seems reasonable and appropriate that my reward should be a small portion of a food I'm not eating regularly.

Where is this going? Of course, it's my rationalization for the Dairy Queen cone which will be my next -5 weight loss treat!! I'm having this treat in honor of Mother too. In my belief system, Mother is watching me lose weight as she wanted to do, at the age and weight she wished she'd started at. I feel her rooting for me and being proud of me and happy for me. And I remember from my childhood, Mother loving soft-serve ice cream from Dairy Queen. So I'm going to have a soft serve, small, vanilla cone from Dairy Queen when I've lost 2 more pounds! Yay! I'm so looking forward to it, and I'm so encouraged to say, "No, thanks," to miscellaneous treats which come my way and urges to just eat which start after dinner BECAUSE I'M GOING TO HAVE THIS FOOD TREAT AT MINUS 2 MORE POUNDS!

ALSO, I have to write about our giving up TV. Husband has been on a budgeting road the last few weeks. (I imagine similar roads are happening in a lot of families, right?) He began examining our cable costs and where we might cut it down. I'm ready to go for basic cable only. Well, the base rate is this and the fees are that and then the governments also get some taxes laid on top of the cost. It turns out basic cable will cost almost as much as we originally started paying for extended basic! I could not believe it when I learned that we have been paying over $100 a month to watch TV! TV, which can hypnotize me and keep me on my butt and thinking of food and "what can I eat next" -- I'm paying $100+ per month for that privilege?!! I knew I wanted to give up this constant temptation.

I know, I know, I should have the self-control to use the TV for only good programing, but here's the fact, Friends: I don't have self-control. Well, I'm sure I have some self-control but you know what I mean -- those things in life we become addicted to are so hard for me to say no to. Perhaps I'm getting better at it; after many years of trying I finally gave up cigarette smoking. (If there's anyone here who's saying, "Well, everyone has given up smokiing, that's no biggie," (as a friend at my church said when i was celebrating the 6th anniversary of my quit date), then I must tell you, "My dear, you were not a smoker." I love tobacco, I love cigarette smoke, I love the habit of smoking -- the whole thing of it, I love. THAT's why it's such a very big deal for me that i haven't smoked for 6 years.

And that addiction-ability which I have in spades is why it is such a very big deal that I'm only .3 lbs away from being 20 lbs shy of my CK start weight. I am so delighted!!! I love being with CK friends here who have lost 50 lbs or 100 lbs or 5 lbs or 9 lbs or who have 62 lbs to lose or who have 2 lbs to lose -- !!Sharing the journey, being with follks who know what it is to change those habits, to retrain those desires, is a blessing beyond compare.

So on that note, I'll close at last tonight, saying thank you, thank you, thank you! and Happy Monday, Everyone!