Though I am no longer a college student, my schedule still revolves around Spring and Fall semesters, because I work at a local community college as a writing tutor. 

As such, I have a 1-month-long winter break (from about Dec 20th to Jan 20th) where I do not tutor, and I only work my side-jobs. That means a whole month during which my coworkers will not see me at all.

A lot of "dieters" have surely experienced this: people don't notice your weight loss at first (because they see you every day, like 'watching grass grow')...but after an extended period of NOT seeing you (summer break, etc), they finally are blown away: when you come back, they are like, "DAMN! You lost weight!"

Now, those who know me best KNOW that I have a love/hate relationship with weight loss compliments. I even wrote a DB blog post about it. But that is mostly because some people don't know HOW to give appropriate compliments, and their 'compliments' often come out like awkward insults...

Shouting "where's the REST of you?!" when someone walks into a crowded room is NOT a cool compliment. Simply saying, "hey, you look GREAT!" is a PERFECT compliment! Why people don't understand the difference is beyond me... :)

Anyway, right now, I WANT compliments, and I am gonna use that as MOTIVATION. I am nearing the end of Round 1 of a 6-month-DietBet. I wanna buckle down and reach my goals...and I know that spending the next few months eating WELL and training HARD is gonna get me there.

When tempted with extra food, junk food, or skipping workouts, I am gonna visualize my return to work in late January:

It is gonna feel SO GOOD to strut into the tutoring center, 10 or 15 pounds lighter, wearing a smaller size, and having my coworkers and friends notice!

And since I know from past experience that my coworkers are very supportive (they have noticed and complimented my weight losses before), I can use this as a REALISTIC and HEALTHY scenario to visualize :)