Non-Food Weight Loss Incentive - it works :)

Look at my pretty gel nails --------->

Either I'm fortunate or I'm not, depending on how you look at it, but I have 'experience' at weight loss, from multiple past attempts throughout my life, and if I've learned anything, it's that having some non-food incentives/rewards along the way helps to keep you going.

My mom had some gel nails done earlier in December (both her and I are unfortunately blessed with nails that split and tear very easily), and she loved them so much that when it came time to get hers filled in again, she graciously offered to pay for me to get mine done because she is happy that I decided to put my health first this year.

Anyway, we had them done a couple of days ago and I just snapped this picture quickly in my jewelry lightbox (it's too early and too dark to get any decent light in the house) to show you how they look.

I have to admit that I had given up a long time ago on taking care of my nails and hands with manicures, because working with metal isn't kind on the hands and unless you redo your nailpolish like every other day (which I have no natural inclination to do), your color will chip, look faded, etc.

And you will notice that I did not get my nails 'extended' because I want them to grow naturally in length, and I want to get used to them getting a bit longer as time goes by, otherwise I won't know how to handle some of my files and tools or even keyboard! LOL... I'm so used to my nails being trimmed very short because otherwise they tear and split that I'm going to need a bit of time to get used to this, but so far, so good :)

Now, the incentive part: Since these need to be filled-in/reworked approx. every 3 weeks, mom offered to pay for each subsequent maintenance appointment if I show a weight-loss averaging 1 lb per week in between appointments (so, a minimum of 3lbs lost per 3 week period for example), and if I don't meet that goal, then I gotta pay for the $35 (US$29) appointment myself for that period.

Not a bad little 'wager' of sorts if you ask me ;-)

I'm happy about it - I've never had my nails look this good (and I know that a lot of women's nails look much better than this, but for me, this is honestly a huge improvement).

Hey! If I keep this up, losing the weight and keeping lovely nails, I might actually be able to 'model' the rings I make for sale in my shops' pictures!

I should also write what I ate yesterday, while I'm at it:

Breakfast (more like Brunch - I slept in):

Pan fried (in a wee bit of olive oil, non-stick pan) cooked potatoes (thinly sliced up cooked round potatoes leftoever from another meal), an egg, a piece of sprouted grain toast and a bit of olive oil margarine on it.

Lunch:

Home made refried lentils burrito with all the fixin's (leftover mix I wanted to finish up - love leftovers!)

Dinner:

Sweet potatoes, lots of steamed vegetables (baby carrots, broccoli, mini corn cobs), and one of my 'Bean burger' patties topped with a bit of ketchup, and a few large olives on the side.

I also had a very small (we're talking 3-4 bites with a desert spoon here) piece of home made cake that mom made. DH has to have desert every night with his dinner (talk about a sweet tooth!) and his birthday is Tuesday, so mom made his cake early since she was out of desert for him. So I had a wee piece while it's ultra fresh... and yes, I counted my flex points for it :)

Evening snack:

I had some 'Smart' Orville Pop Corn with some Diet Coke.

And now it's time for this morning's breakfast... have a super day!