Eating food as a way of rewarding yourself is a real challenge faced by many people who really want to experience permanent weight loss. For many years our social gatherings including birthdays, weddings, retirements and bar mitzvahs have all included a large component of eating and drinking. This celebration food is not always the kind that is ideal for losing weight and would rarely be found on a healthy calories loss menu.
Can you think of occasions when you celebrated recently at work or at home? Birthdays, engagements, promotions or any of a wide range of other reasons to celebrate, punctuate our lives as often as once a week. It comes as no shock then that rewarding ourselves for planning to get married, earning a raise, living another year or even a successful project at work can happen over a meal or a drink with food.
Rewarding yourself is a healthy part of life and you should continue to do this but you need to find alternative ways of doing this and avoiding those greasy potato chips with a glass of wine at drinks on Friday night. The downside to these ways of rewarding yourself with food is poor quality of what you eat and the fact that most of this is generally too filled with fat, sugar or carbohydrates. It would never appear on your calories loss eating plan and ultimately stops you from losing weight and becoming healthier, so reward yourself differently in the following ways.
Discover how food has become a reward for your achievements, especially whether or not this has become a behavior you developed as a child or more recently during your adulthood. Interestingly but perhaps not surprisingly childhood is often the source of some of our eating behaviors and because these were learned in a different era when puddings with every meal and lashings of cream with cake were acceptable then, they are not always helpful now. When you have determined how you learned to eat food rewards as you do, you will be better able to change them.
Consciously decide NOT to reward yourself with food as part of your next celebration and replace the food and champagne at a dinner evening with rewards of a different non-calorie kind. There are plenty to choose from so go to a museum or a gallery, take an afternoon nap, take an art class or even take an extra long, hot bubble bath. Choices like these provide a reward especially tailored for you and allow you to continue with your calories loss diet and successfully lose weight.
Choose rewards that last for longer than the time it takes to eat a meal as long-term rewards assist to extend your celebration and help you feel good about yourself over an extended time. Stay committed to your calories loss eating plan as well as your exercise routine and include in as part of these, special treats like buying a new lipstick or eye shadow, a new pair of shoes or piece of software or even going to the travel agent and get brochures to plan a special vacation. It doesn’t take long to find a store that has products and staff who want to pamper you so head in the direction of a Wellness clinic for a facial and makeover or a manicure and a pedicure and know that you are going to enjoy these for much longer than a meal.
Locate places for outings with friends and family that do not focus on eating so that you can alter the way you think about rewarding yourself differently. Find places where activity is the main reason for getting together rather than eating. Frisbee or a game of soccer in the park, hip Latin dance classes are all fun, involve the fine tuning of your skills, include no food and are more than likely going to appeal to those you choose to invite to join you.
Avoid situations in which food is made the center of the celebration as much as you can and remember that your long term goal is long term weight loss. If you have no choice, on occasions like office parties or weddings, join in the celebrations by interacting with the people around you or enjoying the music, rather than concentrating on the meal itself. Look for food items that can be part of your calories loss diet and enjoy the ‘win win’ outcome of being part of the celebration without compromising your journey to a healthier body and life.
