Reward Your Way to Weight Loss
From an early age, we are conditioned to reward ourselves with
food. It might have begun in
kindergarten, when we were treated to cupcakes at the annual Halloween party. It may have continued through junior high and
high school, when we reached for the cookies after a hard day at school. In adulthood, we may buy a high-calorie
frappucino to celebrate a success on the job.
But the problem is, food was not designed to be a reward. It exists simply to give us energy. When we look at food as a reward, there is a
great temptation to overeat. We believe
that we deserve it, that we’ve earned this opportunity to indulge. We feel gratified when we eat food that might
otherwise be forbidden.
Our food-as-reward culture has
had calamitous consequences. An
increasing number of us are overweight, and getting fatter by the year. We suffer from a myriad of health problems as
a result of our obesity. We may feel
lethargic and unmotivated—too stuffed to engage in exercise. We have become a nation of couch potatoes.
Yet, we don’t have to continue living this way. We can simply stop rewarding ourselves with
food. However, it may not be that
simple. We will have to change our
mindset—to develop alternative systems of rewards. While this may seem difficult at first, it
can be accomplished in time.
Here are some ideas for rewards that
do not involve food:
·
Give yourself a day at the
beach. This can clear your mind and can
be wonderfully invigorating.
·
Schedule some play time. Your play might involve tennis, video games,
or blowing bubbles—whatever activity that will get your mind away from the
daily routine.
·
Go shopping at a dollar
store. You won’t spend much, but you
could pick up some tremendous bargains.
·
Share some quality time with
your dog or cat. Grab some pet toys and
have some fun.
·
Go to the cosmetics counter of
your local department store and indulge in a makeover.
·
Spend a day at a spa. It can be wonderfully relaxing to be pampered
with massage and aromatherapy.
·
Volunteer an hour or two at
your local elementary school. Being with
children, even for a short time, can be a rewarding experience.
·
Take your children to the
playground, a roller rink, or a swim club.
The activity can leave you feeling refreshed and energized.
·
Buy a new CD from one of your
favorite musical artists. Then make sure
you spend an hour or two listening to it.
·
If you play a musical
instrument, sit down and play a few tunes.
Music can be a great mood-elevator.
If you don’t like the idea of developing
an alternative reward system, consider simply varying your routine. If you’ve become accustomed to rewarding
yourself with a high-calorie cappuccino in the morning, spend some time in quiet
prayer or reflection instead. If you
feel as if you’ll be tempted to raid a candy store on your way home from work,
take an alternate route instead. In
general, keeping busy can prevent you from indulging in food rewards. For instance, you might be so busy reading or
knitting that you simply don’t have time to reach for a snack.
Making a conscious decision to no
longer use food as a reward is certainly counter-cultural. We have been conditioned to believe that
there should be a plate of brownies at the end of the rainbow…that heaven is
just one hot fudge sundae after another.
While food itself isn’t bad, our expectations about food can be. The first step to ending a food addiction may
be to recognize that food can no longer serve as our reward.
While it can be rough getting out of
the food-as-reward habit, it is well worth the effort. If we no longer view food as the prize, we
will organize our day differently. We’ll
devote our mealtimes to food, and the rest of our day to something else. We will eat only those foods designed to help
us stay healthy—and we’ll be in better shape as a result.
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