The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

138. How to Reward Yourself on Your Fitness Journey

• Kristy Castillo

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When you think about rewarding yourself on your fitness journey…what comes to mind?


Maybe you’re excited to go out and celebrate at your favorite restaurant with your family and friends, or..maybe you’re excited simply because you’re noticing beneficial changes happening within you. Regardless of how you like to reward yourself when you reach a new goal or milestone on your fitness journey, there’s not a ‘wrong’ way to do so!


This is a topic that’s come up recently with several of my clients, so I knew I wanted to dive into it more here. When we’re talking about rewards, there are extrinsic rewards (tangible or external), and intrinsic rewards (intangible or internal). 


Many people are motivated by extrinsic rewards; a typical example of this would be celebrating by indulging in your favorite foods and drinks. You could also treat yourself to a spa day, splurge on some new workout clothes or shoes, invest in more personalized coaching, or even a meal prep service.


If you’re not as motivated by external rewards (this is me!), you may not care about winning a ‘prize’, or buying something new. Things like trying a new hobby or skill, feeling more confidence in yourself because you’re seeing positive progress, or simply growing as a person because you’re stepping out of your comfort zone may be the MOST rewarding for you!


I personally feel sooo much joy when someone reaches out and lets me know they love the podcast. Knowing that my message and what I’m sharing here is helping you is much more fulfilling than me winning a major award for the podcast (of course..that would be pretty amazing too)! 


Whether you’re more of an extrinsic or intrinsic reward person, this isn’t a ‘one-size-fits-all’ type of thing. There are plenty of ways to reward yourself without derailing your progress on your fitness journey + having FUN too!

 

In today’s episode, How to Reward Yourself on Your Fitness Journey, we cover:

  • Extrinsic rewards vs. intrinsic rewards + why there’s not a ‘wrong’ way to reward yourself
  • Fun ways to celebrate/reward yourself that don’t involve eating or drinking
  • Ideas for the person who is more motivated by intrinsic rewards
  • Why it’s important to recognize + celebrate personal growth on your fitness journey


Links/Resources:

Kristy:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode.

Kristy:

But I remember studying about extrinsic and intrinsic rewards when I was studying to become a transformation specialist, which is kind of a twist off of my personal training certification. I need to be certified in different things and I love mindset all that kind of a twist off of my personal training certification. I need to be certified in different things and I love mindset, all that kind of stuff. So this certification was right up my alley and this week I had a couple of my clients come to me and say, hey, I am really struggling because it just kept happening and I'm like I've got to talk about this. But they're really struggling because, typically, when they rewarded themselves in the past, or when we reward ourselves right, when we go out and accomplish something or we become certified or we graduate, or we get a new job or we get anything right.

Kristy:

Something big happens in our lives. We celebrate by going out to eat or going to get drinks, right. And so I had one particular client she'll be listening to this, you know and she was like and this was kind of what made me think like, okay, I'm going to record this soon, I'm going to record this episode now, you know. She's like I've been really killing it, like I've been. I'm seeing results in my body. I'm, you know, I've changed my habits, I changed my ways. I'm really doing all the things. I'm doing the workouts, I'm meal prepping and tracking. My mindset is right. I'm drinking my water, I'm being much kinder to myself, I'm realizing old traits and old mindsets and where they came from family, the past, whatever and I'm like really doing a good job and I want to celebrate myself.

Kristy:

But typically I celebrate myself or celebrate things by going out to eat or having drinks, and I don't know how to do that and I thought, okay, well, I've had this come up a couple different times this week, so I need to talk about it and it's something that I think is a really good conversation, so there's not just one way to go about this, and what I have learned is there are extrinsic rewards, which are tangible, external, physical rewards, and some people love that kind of reward. There are also intrinsic rewards, which are internal the more satisfying and fulfilling reward that comes within a person. There's two different kinds, so there's not a right or wrong way to reward yourself or to think about this if you are different, because I had to learn this for myself and it's interesting, I was actually talking to a client also last week and I'm running a challenge right now inside of my Fit Club, inside of my app, and I am not a challenge person. If someone challenges me to something, okay, every once in a while, sure, I'll be like, yeah, I'll take you up on that, I'll kick your ass, that's fine. But usually a challenge doesn't motivate me, a prize doesn't motivate me.

Kristy:

I don't want to necessarily be rewarded, called out, celebrated. I am much more of an intrinsic reward person. I love the sense of accomplishment. I like a good, you know, hey, good job. I love not to make it all about me, of course, but here we go. I love getting messages from you guys. All about me, of course, but here we go.

Kristy:

I love getting messages from you guys saying that my podcast is helping you. That makes me feel so good. That would make me feel so much. Those things make me feel so much better than if I were to get celebrated for something about the podcast, go up on a stage and given a plaque Now. Okay, sure, that's great and that's amazing. That would be amazing for me and the show and that would mean I help so many people. I get that, but I'm not doing this job, this podcast, this work, saying these things, putting all this time and work in so that I can get a plaque or so that I can hit number one on the charts. That's not my goal for the podcast. So for me to get these messages saying that the podcast is helping you, that is an intrinsic reward for me. That makes me feel internally happy and satisfied and fulfilled from within. It makes me feel like I'm doing something good Again. Sure, the other things are great. I've had many congratulations and a couple celebrations with my family and little things and I love that stuff. That's great, but that's not the why I'm doing it.

Kristy:

But a lot of people are not like me. I learned this when I started doing Beachbody and we would run a 30-day challenge every month and my goal per Beachbody was to get challengers. I was supposed to get three a month was your minimum to hit all these ranks and whatever. So I have these challenge groups, we have challenge groups, we run them all the time, every 30 days, whatever and you want to get people in and we could have our own prizes. So we could run these challenge groups however we wanted and there was always a prize for first, second, third place.

Kristy:

I could not believe because I'm not an extrinsic reward person. I could not believe the amount of people motivated by winning a shaker bottle or anything right, because I couldn't understand it, because that's not how I'm wired, that's not how I'm built, that's not how I'm motivated, but some people are. So I knew that going on in the Beachbody I was like man, I've got to, if I put something at stake here, a gift card. And that's what I'm doing inside of my current Fit Club challenge. I'm giving away gift cards, cash, whatever, like pretty big prizes, like $100 first prize, $50 second prize, $25, third prize, like you know, okay, pretty good for a month challenge and people are loving it and I love that for them. I love being that source of motivation and pushing people like that. Some people really, really need that. I do not If I lose a challenge, I do not care, and I'm sure there's other people in my fit club that are like, yeah, I have no interest in doing that because that's not how they are motivated.

Kristy:

So first thing that you should do when you're thinking about how to reward yourself, how to motivate yourself, how can I celebrate myself, my wins? Think about am I an extrinsic rewards lover or do I prefer intrinsic rewards? Do I just want to feel the sense of accomplishment? And how can I notice that? Can I notice that? So, taking that into account there, you know, if you don't want to go out and reward yourself by going out to eat and having drinks, things like that, I was kind of just putting together a little list myself of things that you could do and ways that you could celebrate yourself without it having to be food, because obviously in your fitness journey, like especially in my world, we're trying to count macros, trying to be okay, trying to be good and better and all that kind of stuff. So sometimes you're not.

Kristy:

I'm at a place right now where, yeah, I could go out and celebrate with food, but a lot of people are winning right now in their fitness journey by tracking and staying on track, and so to go out to eat is something that they're like I don't really feel comfortable with, or I quite frankly, don't want to do that right. I'm okay with, like, spending money on something tangible, but I don't want it to be food and drinks, because that's just going to throw me off. Maybe that'll throw me into a downward spiral or I'll feel like shit. I just I want to stay on track. So a few things that I came up with were to celebrate with a day off. I would love to take a day off of work, maybe take a day off of my workout, whatever, and go get a massage, go get a facial, have a little spa day, maybe have a night out with friends, maybe going to the movies, maybe just doing a little shopping.

Kristy:

Find things that maybe you need to put Right now. For example, I'm wanting to decorate my house for Christmas. So maybe I'm like, okay, I'm going to take a day, I'm going to go out and buy a couple new things for Christmas, to decorate and celebrate, and that's going to be me, you know, maybe I'll get up, I'll go to Starbucks and treat myself. I know that's food, but it's not. It's not a whole meal, right, bear with me, but that's something I could see myself doing.

Kristy:

So, as far as reaching a milestone, and if you lost a certain amount of weight, that you hit your goal, if you lost a certain amount of inches, if your clothes are fitting better, if you have more energy, if your sleep has improved, if you are sticking to your habits, like a lot of my clients have been saying, I want to celebrate the fact that I'm sticking to my habits, because maybe the scale is stuck, but they're building muscle and they're losing fat and so they're like I'm doing all these habits. I need to reward myself. You could, let's say, these are my clients, right, so they're doing Fit Club already, so they already have a personal trainer quote unquote. You could invest in more like more coaching. That would be great. If you are someone who is doing this on your own, you could invest in a personal trainer, or maybe invest in a gym membership if you're working out at home, or invest in a personalized workout plan Maybe just have someone create some workouts for you or a nutrition plan. You could meal prep, maybe, or even get a meal prep service for a while.

Kristy:

Use the money that you would use on going out to eat and getting drinks because, let's be honest, that's not cheap and you're probably not going by yourself. So let's say it's you and your significant other, or you and your family. You're going to spend 50 to 100 bucks easily if you're getting food and drinks for you and your significant other. So take that and get a meal planning service, meal prepping service for the month. Or go out and buy a new pair of shoes to work out in. Go buy a new workout sports bra or some shorts, things like that. So think of things that you like that maybe revolve around you, your self-care, your body. Go get your hair done. Go buy some new makeup, something like for yourself physically or for your workouts. Like I said, get some new cute socks. If you don't want to spend that much money, go to Marshalls and get some skincare, get a sports bra, things like that. So those are a couple of things that I just thought of.

Kristy:

For myself, I should have compiled a list of things from Instagram, so feel free to shoot me messages on Instagram letting me know if there's things that you've done or that you think I can always share them on my Instagram. I think that would be great. I can make a post out of them or something if you have things that you've done. So those are a lot of different ways that you can celebrate yourself. You can go out and buy a new journal, you could hire a therapist for a few weeks, you can get some books. You can get some books on self-growth or fitness or nutrition, so you could kind of read up on things and maybe get inspired that way. So there's a lot of other things that you can do to go do something, to purchase something, to feel something physical in a way that makes you feel proud of yourself. Also, I would advise planning ahead for this.

Kristy:

So for my next milestone, the next time I want to go celebrate, what's my goal going to be? Right, maybe you. I love Nike Metcons, so I would keep my eye on these Metcons for a while and be like, okay, when I feel like I'm in a place to do a little more walking or whatever, like when I hit this next goal of mine, I'm going to go buy these shoes. I'm not just going to buy them right now because I don't need them and I maybe don't feel so proud of myself at the moment, or whatever it is. But if I can do the things that I say I'm going to do, I can go out and buy these. The next time I'm here, when I hit this goal of being consistent for 30 days or whatever, I can go buy these shoes and I'll feel really freaking proud of myself and every time I look at them I'll think, oh my God, I got these because of that goal. That can be really, really fun and honestly for me, something like that.

Kristy:

I don't love the extrinsic rewards of things like buying things, whatever. But for me, working hard for something that I want like seeing, like oh my God, I love that sports bra, but I can't really justify spending 50 bucks on it right now. Oh my God, I love that sports bra, but I can't really justify spending 50 bucks on it right now. But if I work my ass off for 30 or 60 days and I'm consistent, I grow X amount of muscle and then I feel like I've worked for it and I have it in the back of my mind and then I can go grab it. So think ahead of things like that. Then I want to talk about intrinsic rewards. So, if you are someone who because I think this is important to think about if you are someone who doesn't like buying things or rewarding yourself with external rewards this is me I used to think like something wrong with me, like I don't want to celebrate that, or like I don't need to celebrate that, or that's not something, that's on my love language or you know.

Kristy:

However you want to think of it, of it, right, you're just like I. I don't need to go out to eat to celebrate the fact that I lost 10 pounds. Like I get that that's a thing and people like to do that, but like I don't want to do that. So what's wrong with me? Nothing intrinsic people are is that like a and this is not at all facts but like I'm, I'm an empath and I'm introverted.

Kristy:

I'm extroverted around the right people and in settings that I feel very comfortable in, but I am an introvert. Like I love to stay home, I love it quiet, I love to be by myself. So maybe that's, maybe there's a correlation there. I don't know, that could be totally inaccurate, but I think people, if you're like me, we love the sense of accomplishment, like just me knowing I don't need anyone to know that I worked out that day. I don't need to check it off a list, I don't need to post it everywhere, I don't need an accountability partner, and a lot of my clients it's about half and half Half of my clients are like this. They're like I don't need you to hold me accountable, I need you to just give me a plan and I'll freaking do it myself. But when I feel accomplished and I feel proud and I feel like, oh my God, I did that, I'm inspired to keep getting up day after day after day and keep doing it right.

Kristy:

Some other things are just like mastering something. If you're like, okay, I didn't know how to lift weights and now I do and now I feel so good at it, that's something to be proud of. Learning something new is something to be proud of. To be proud of Learning something new is something to be proud of. Growing and healing and bettering yourself that's something to be proud of. So it doesn't have to be something physical all the time, like I gained so much muscle mass or I lost weight, or it's something physical Again if you just learned something new, if you're feeling more confident in your clothes, if you are growing.

Kristy:

If you're just feeling like you're becoming a better person for me, I'm just like that's better for me, right? Or if you are trying something new. If you started going to a gym when you felt really uncomfortable going to a gym, that's something to be like. God damn, I'm so proud of myself. You can go buy yourself something if you want to celebrate like that, but if not, it's okay to just feel like God, I'm really growing and I'm changing and I'm becoming the person that I wanted to be, right, taking on more responsibility at your job or at home, or like keeping up on housework, or it can be so many things that you're just like noticing in yourself. This is what I'm getting at is noticing that for yourself and saying I'm really becoming a different person. I'm really trying hard, I'm putting in the work. You know I have new habits. That is something to be celebrated.

Kristy:

This is a really big reason that a lot of my clients who are more introverted and who do like this more intrinsic reward style to have a coach be there for you is huge, because I am standing here saying good job in a way that they feel seen right. I'm noticing their habits and their attitude and their mindset and their self-talk and their confidence and their being a better mom or dad or friend, or they're showing up for themselves. I'm noticing those things that they actually care about. Like, yeah, you lost weight and you got, you know, you have more muscle and you look freaking amazing. But a lot of my clients come to me and they're like I want to do the physical things, but I actually want to become a better mom, I want to become a better person. I want to understand this journey. I want to show up for my fucking self. I want to figure out how to stop self-sabotaging.

Kristy:

Those aren't tangible things that a lot of people notice about you. They're not like, oh my God, you're being such a good mom. Or oh my God, you're being so consistent. People don't celebrate that. They're like oh my God, you look so great, you've lost weight, you've gained muscle, you look strong, you look great. But people aren't noticing oh my gosh, you're getting up in the morning and spending time on yourself and again being a good mom, being a good wife, being a good husband, being more consistent, you look so confident. No one's saying that. No one's noticing those things.

Kristy:

So for us who are really proud of those things. It's nice to have a coach or someone in your corner saying, wow, you're doing a really good fucking job at these little things that no one's noticing. I love that for you, good job. And you don't even need anything tangible, that alone is enough. So that's.

Kristy:

I have a lot of clients that are like no, you're my therapist. You're kind of like a therapist to me more than a personal trainer and I'm like yeah, because a lot therapist, you're kind of like a therapist to me more than a personal trainer. And I'm like, yeah, because a lot of this is mental, and I know that about myself. That if someone were to just say like, hey, you're really trying hard or you are very consistent, you look confident, something about myself and my efforts, not just like, oh, you look so strong, you look so great, you look great, awesome, I love that. But also I'm trying so hard on other things. So, yeah, that's just something that I wanted to talk about too is like you have all the permission in the world to celebrate the shit out of yourself just being a better person and just trying hard and just showing up right, and if you don't need something physical to feel good about that, that's fine, because that's exactly how I am and we are just fine and that's okay too. So I hope that helped you think of things that if you are an extrinsic reward person and you are like I don't wanna always go out to eat and get drinks, there are so many other things that you can do and celebrate.

Kristy:

And, yeah, just be very, very creative and think about things like what have I been wanting to do? Have I been wanting to go to a concert? Do I want to go see a certain team? Do I want to go to a movie? What is something that I want to do but I wouldn't really usually do for myself? Go do that thing, go buy those little things, go spend time on yourself, go walk, go walk around Target with your best friend. I did that a couple of days ago and it was so relaxing.

Kristy:

Just go do something like that for yourself. Clear your mind, get some alone time, whatever it is yourself. Clear your mind, get some alone time, whatever it is, and I think you'll be surprised at the amount of things that you think of and it'll make you even kind of think about like, yeah, what do I like other than food and drinks? Right, like what would I like? That always alarmed me too, sometimes, like, do I not like anything? Like do I have no hobbies, do I have no interests? That I can't think of one thing to go buy for myself.

Kristy:

But anyways, there are things I feel like sometimes we just don't know ourselves in the way that would make us think of something. I think a lot of times we think of oh, so-and-so would love this and so-and-so would like that, but what are we like? That's a whole another topic, a whole another podcast episode. But I hope this was really, really helpful. We are all so different and there's not one right or wrong answer.

Kristy:

I will never get on this podcast and tell you that there is one specific way to do something, because there's not. And if anyone ever does tell you that, run in the opposite direction because they're lying to you and they don't know what they're talking about. But to kind of circle back to the beginning, we're all worthy and we're all special in our own way and we're all different. So if somebody says something and you're like, yeah, that's not gonna work for me, it's because it's not meant for you. And however you wanna celebrate yourself and however you wanna celebrate your wins, and whatever your wins look like they're amazing and you should celebrate the shit out of yourself. All right, I will talk to you next week.

Kristy:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at ChristyCastilloFit. I will see you next time.