Bracelet

To encourage and reinforce my healthy behavior changes, I bought myself a charm bracelet. I bought a troll bracelet at the beginning of my journey with a Mexico clasp. For every week I complete my exercise goals and stay within my calorie budget on LoseIt, I earn a new bead.

I am doing it this way for a few reasons: most people reward themselves for the weight lost, but the weight loss is a reward in itself. It is difficult to make changes in behavior and the weight loss is a slow process. As clear and simple as it seems, it can be hard to see the connection between day to day behaviors and changes on teh scale. A small reward directly related to my behaviors is going to increase my adherence to my program.

In addition, wearing the bracelet is a constant reminder of 1) my committment and 2) the progress I have made.

I have earned 5 beads so far:

Phoenix & Dragon: Obviously chosen because I have adopted the phoenix as a symbol of my new journey in life. Still searching out my dragon.

Milky Way: My love of astronomy- keep looking up.

Blue Dessert: Was feeling lost that week, trudging along with no direction.

Stopper: Made it through that week, but barely- felt my committment had faltered a bit and didnt deserve a full bead- plus I didn't like the way the beads would move around on the bracelet.

Rainbow: God's promises to us. The rainbow has always been an important symbol to me. One of my most powerful and confusing prophetic dreams involved rainbows. Think I finally figured it out.

Storms will come, but God will help us survive them