I am currently on a diet. Not because I want to be super skinny, but because during some unrelated health issues, healthy eating took a backseat and I need to rebuild my previous good habits.
As everyone knows, the key to a successful diet is to not expect miracles overnight and to celebrate the smaller milestones on the way to the ultimate goal.
I celebrated by using my "cheat day" to buy some of the gourmet donuts everyone in town has been raving about. (Rightly, it turns out. Yum!)
For some people, even a cheat day makes it too easy to break out of the good habits, and that's okay. Instead of a food reward, you could buy yourself something you want, like a piece of clothing from a store that you love, but isn't as frugal as you prefer.
Depending on your final goal, 10 pounds may be a minor milestone, but if you don't let yourself celebrate those small wins, then you're never going to make it through the drudgery required to meet your goal weight months or even years from now.
Want to become a musician? Then you're going to be practicing a lot of scales and you may as well reward yourself when you master a certain melody, because it'll be a long time before you can play a symphony.
Be proud of yourself, even for those small, silly accomplishments, because even baby steps move you forward.
