Self Reward?
Self Reward?
In today’s world we all have increasingly high demands placed on our time and energy. Family and work commitments, community service, and social engagements are just a few of the activities we juggle day in and day out, 356 days a year. Whatever your priorities are at any given time, it takes personal commitment to make them happen. You want to join a bowling league? Carve that time out of your week. You have to work mandatory overtime for a month straight! Rearrange your schedule to get your time in. Your child got sick at daycare? Time to take that extra bit of vacation you had been saving for a rainy day. It’s hard to find the time to do the things we want to do and the things that we know are good for us. This is true especially when it comes to exercise, and even more so, diet.
It’s so easy to skip that workout at the end of the day or have that slice of cheese cake after dinner. You deserve it. You work hard. It’s not the worst thing you could do, right? Well, that depends. I’m not proclaiming that we should never reward ourselves for a job well done or surviving an arduous day, but time and time again I have seen many valiant efforts derailed from abusing the “reward system”, be it a cheat meal or a “free” day. The purpose of this article is to make you aware that the habit of rewarding oneself involves hidden traps that can end up hurting our health and well being, and to offer some hints on how to stay on track to meet your health and fitness goals. There are several recurring themes that I see as major hurdles to keeping on track with a diet plan.
Frequency
By far the most popular error we all make in rewarding ourselves is by doing it too frequently. The main issue here boils down to the fact that you might not have done much to give yourself that day off from the gym. If you find yourself having a sweet calorie laden dessert – or a treat every single day of the week – then there’s a problem with your effort/reward paradigm. In order to benefit from a diet or exercise program, consistency is key, and that means sticking with your exercise schedule and limiting your cheat meals to once a week at most.
Try using the 80% rule. 80% of the time eat according to your diet goals, whatever they may be, and save the cheats or rewards for just 20% of the time. Rather than crunching numbers to find out how many times per week you can cheat, most people just pick one or two meals during the week in which they can eat whatever they want, with the assumption of course that the next meal is right back on track with their diet goals.
Quantity
Now that you have given yourself some leeway to fudge (pun intended) a little, you have to keep an eye out for the next hurdle. Quantity! This booby trap is almost impossible to avoid. Serving portions have been getting bigger and bigger (think “Super Size Me”). What’s especially dangerous are the large servings of simple sugars and carbohydrates being consumed in the form of soft drinks, bread, pasta and rice. Learning to moderate your serving sizes will advance you a long way towards living a healthier life. The only reward gained for “pigging out” until you have to loosen your belt is a serious case of heartburn and a larger number on the scale.
Take some time to learn the standard serving sizes on many popular foods. For example, a standard serving of pasta is 1 cup and the standard serving of steak is 5 oz. (about the size of a deck of cards).
Poor Quality
You’ve heard of the saying, “you are what you eat”. An increase in the consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and potatoes has caused a steady increase in heart disease and autoimmune disorders. Avoiding sugar laden high glycemic foods, while increasing the consumption of fruit, vegetables and healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts, seeds and avocados, will result in bountiful health rewards. It probably goes without saying but fast food is not good quality food by anyone’s standards.
Start with baby steps. Try eliminating, or at least greatly reducing, one type of grain from your diet. Bread is a good one to start with. Over time slowly remove other starchy foods such as white potatoes and rice and replace with large amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Food
I’m sure you have seen the recurring theme of food as a “reward”. That’s because it’s arguably the number one reward we give ourselves for a job well done. From birth, we have been bombarded with gifts of food from birthday cake to celebration dinners. Maybe it’s time we started thinking about more positive substitutes for rewarding ourselves, or better yet, changing our mindset so that the achievement of greater health and wellness becomes the reward.
Try some alternative reward ideas like massage, a manicure, or a vacation. Telling others about your diet and exercise successes often leads to developing a support group of like minded individuals who encourage you and provide motivation to continue doing the right things. Finally, sometimes the best reward is the one we give ourselves. A mental pat on the back for accomplishing our goals, or sticking to the plan we have made for ourselves, is a great way to provide self recognition and re-enforce good dietary habits.
By Jerome Winters
