Another interesting conversation made this blog post come to mind. I was working out with Erin B. at our Keller facility. We were talking about weight loss, exercise, dieting, etc. She mentioned that she might be going to work full-time from 8 to 5. She is a wonderful nurse and currently works several night shifts a week and it has totally taken a toll on her weight loss and fitness efforts. She mentioned that she can't seem to get into a healthy routine with her eating due mainly to her schedule. She says that she is so tired from working the night shift that she finds herself rewarding herself with food. She thinks in her mind "Hey I work the night shift and it is hard to do that and I am tired therefore I am going to reward myself with this piece of cheesecake"! This made me think long and hard about the whole act of rewarding ourselves with food. Why do we do that?
Another example of this food for reward was with my training buddy Doug who by the way is looking RIPPED. He is trying desperately to clean up his eating. I bought him the book The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno and he is really making an effort to follow her guidelines. Unfortunately, to eat clean means that you have to really come clean. No soda, junk food or fast food. I received a text message from Doug stating that his "Veggies were screaming for ranch dressing". I texted him back and said "NO RANCH". He texted me back and said "I want the ranch because I deserve the ranch". You can see where this was going.
My challenge to you is this...no longer reward yourself with food. Just don't do it any longer. If you have had an awesome week and have got your required work-outs in and have eaten as healthy as possible then why not reward yourself with something else. My dear friend and training partner Runner Susan would most definitely enjoy new shoes. I would most definitely reward myself with additional training with Denny or something for my bike.
Give it a try by rewarding yourself with something other than food. From this point forward think of food as fuel and let that be the end of it. Let me know what you reward yourself with instead.
Show up and make it count!
Monday, December 15, 2008
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2 comments:
Good luck with your new blog Cindy and continued success with your biz.
I like where you're going with not rewarding yourself with food, especially the calorie bombs like desserts, cookies and dressings/toppings etc. Myself, well I can't eat just one of anything. The food industry, check that; the soft drink industry or just the fast food industry, spends enough on advertising in one year on the things that none of us should put in our bodies that world hunger could be ended. This industry is also responsible for confusing, or deconstructing, the accurate, useful and very simple information about nutrition that has not changed in 50 years. One way of distorting the above mentioned info is to focus to individual nutrients instead of being able to say," don't eat so much salt, sat-fat, sugar, white flour... and eat your fruits and veggies." Another tactic is to literally make it illegal to say anything disparaging or to issue an "eat less of this", statement about the above mentioned foods. I know I sound like a raving loonie here, but here is the bottom line...Just Say NO To Ranch and to Cheesecake.
Ranch? Oh my. Everything tastes better with ranch.
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