Dump Food Rewards that Prevent Calories Loss and Slow Your Diet
Posted on November 18, 2008
Filed Under Food |
A very common problem that stops people from successful weight loss is using food as a reward. For adults, almost all social activity revolves around food or drink so it is easy to associate food with celebration. Generally the cake, cookies and ice cream we eat at celebrations and wash down with equally celebratory champagne is not the type of food that we would include on a calories loss diet in a serious effort to regain our healthy body.
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.
Maybe you reward yourself for working out every day with a milkshake or a beer at the end of the week or you think that since you have been really good about watching what you eat all week you can have cake on Saturday. The trouble is, all these extra calories and small treats add up fast, and you can sabotage your calories loss diet by using food as a reward. If you really want to change these associations and behaviors, you need to acknowledge your natural disposition to reward your self with food and re-program yourself to celebrate in other ways.
Determine what causes you to reward yourself with food, and in particular where this behaviour originated. Childhood is often the source of life long attitudes to eating especially if your parents used food high in calories like candy or ice-cream as a reward for acceptable behaviours that may have included eating other healthier foods! After you have established why you use food rewards, you will be in a better position to change this behavior either independently or with the help of a health professional.
Take deliberate action not to use food as a reward when next you celebrate for any reason. Find an alternative to coffee and donuts or a three course meal at your favourite restaurant with a ‘non-food’ reward like; buying yourself a new piece of jewelry, going to that movie (but skip the popcorn) or renting one of your favorite movies and watching it twice. By changing your reward system to these kinds of treats you can enjoy double the benefit as you keep losing weight on your calories loss eating plan.
Search out rewards that you can enjoy for an extended time, unlike food rewards that only last as long as it takes to eat them. Spend an afternoon at the beach, go to the craft store and blow $20 on any craft supplies that look fun, treat yourself to a day at a local spa or be like me and splurge of a new bottle of perfume or pair of shoes. There are endless ways of finding longer lasting rewards than foods and every time you use them, wear them or experience them they remind you that you are achieving your work or family goals as well as your health goal; sticking with your calories loss eating plan and continuing to lose weight.
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.
Find ways to steer clear of occasions that focus on food as often as possible so that you can keep making the weight loss progress that you crave. Sometimes you just can not avoid occasions where work or family expect you to participate but when you do make an appearance at these times, make your greatest interest the people around you, not the food. Play close attention to the kind of food on the menu that would be most closely aligned with your calories loss diet and as you eat only that remind yourself that your new re-shaped body is the gaol and that you will enjoy this soon.
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