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.
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.
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.
Take some time to select rewards that are long lasting because when food is your reward, the good feelings associated with this generally cease at the conclusion of your meal. Instead, of short term food rewards that will sabotage your efforts to lose weight through your calories loss eating, buy yourself something nice that you can use for a long time and that will remind you of your success every time you see it. Clothes are a great long term reward or you can get a manicure or pedicure, a facial, buy yourself a new book or a new CD or buy all the magazines you want and curl up in bed for a whole morning reading them.
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.
Limit your participation at functions where food is a central part of the festivity as this will involve you eating food and is likely to slow your weight loss success. Consistently avoiding these events is not always possible but if you are the bridesmaid at your sister’s wedding or the MC at a corporate function make sure that you enjoy the people at the event or the entertainment there rather than the food. Take special note of the food on offer and carefully select dishes that are closest to your calories loss menu and will help you reach the goal you have set yourself for a new look and healthier life.
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Tags: body diets, calories, calories loss, common dieting pitfalls, diabetes, Diabetes Tips, diet, eating healthy on a busy schedule, fad diets, losing weight, loss and diets, loss diets, loss diets for, low carb, low fat, metabolism, Weight Loss, weight loss myths
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