Is it Possible to Celebrate your Successes sans Doughnuts?

Does this sce­nario sound famil­iar? You work extra hard at the gym, get a good grade on your test, or sur­vive a tough con­ver­sa­tion with your boss, and you glee­ful­ly decide that you have “earned” a tasty reward and head right to the cup­cake truck? Not only does it like­ly sound famil­iar, but you’d be hard-pressed to find some­one who can’t relate to this con­cept at all. Don’t get me wrong — I am ALL for cel­e­brat­ing every aspect of our lives, and while I am a big fan of fab­u­lous­ly fun, deli­cious, and even indul­gent meals, does­n’t this whole idea seem counter-intu­itive? How did food become the best, eas­i­est, and some­times only way we reward our­selves? Where did the whole sys­tem start that some­thing tough in life required some­thing less-than-nour­ish­ing? Life is full of mile­stones and accom­plish­ments to cel­e­brate, both health-relat­ed and not, so can you give your­self some kudos with­out gorg­ing your­self on Twinkies and donuts?

Here are just a few thoughts and ideas to get you start­ed, and please leave a com­ment on this post here or head over to our Insta­gram page to share some of YOUR favorites!

1. Take your­self to a movie, any movie YOU want to watch. This could even be a TV show, a play or a con­cert. Go do some­thing relax­ing and fun where all you have to do is show up, sit down (or stand up and dance) and be enter­tained, no think­ing required. Yes, this can get expen­sive, so save up ahead of time if cost is an issue. And yes, you can include friends if you want to… but only if that expe­ri­ence will leave your buck­et full, not drain you of your pre­cious reboot time. If your part­ner and/or kids have no inter­est in going with you? Well, then I hope they can find a way to enter­tain them­selves while you are gone! Pick some­thing fun that is all for you, you and only you!
2. Can you say Spaaaaaaaah­hh! Noth­ing feels bet­ter on those new­ly devel­oped gym mus­cles than a nice, relax­ing mas­sage. Very lit­tle will make your skin glow like a nour­ish­ing diet, but com­bine it with a facial and you just may have a new pro­file pic­ture that requires sun­glass­es to view! Put any spare change in a jar every time you work toward your goals, and lit­tle by lit­tle you will have enough to enjoy a cell-phone-free zone, com­plete with com­fy robe and cucum­ber water, on the house.
3. Buy a new out­fit! Bonus points if you took time to clean your clos­et of all the clothes that are no longer the right size, you Rock­star you! Buy some­thing that you love, that tru­ly flat­ters you and that makes you hap­py to be wear­ing it.
4. Take a nap. Don’t like naps? Sit and read a book or a mag­a­zine — in the com­fort of your own home, or if you need some space, find the near­est cof­fee shop or book­store with extra cushy reclin­ers and snug­gle right in. Take some time to just recharge and ener­gize your­self. You deserve it.
5. It may not seem like much, but I think there is some­thing pret­ty mag­i­cal about set­tling into a clean set of sheets and tow­els after a long day. Take a nice, lux­u­ri­ous bath and head to bed ear­li­er than usu­al …ahh­h­h­hh, bliss.

I am proud of you for cel­e­brat­ing your suc­cess­es large and small! How will you cel­e­brate your next excit­ing achievement?