Day Twenty-Five: Reward Yourself

"I've been so good this week, I deserve a treat..."
"I've had a rough day, I deserve a chocolate chip cookie..."
"If you do well on the test, then we'll go and get ice cream...."

We've all been caught in the trap of rewarding ourselves or our children with food. Let's face it, rewarding with food is fast, easy, and effective. I know it works that if I tell my children that if they obey in the restaurant, I'll give them something sweet afterwards. Here's the problem with that....one day, our children will begin telling themselves that if they are good, they deserve something sweet. And thus, an emotional eater is then born.

Food is not a reward. Food is food.

We eat when we celebrate. We eat when we're depressed. We eat when we all get together, and we eat when we're feeling alone. We eat when we've done great, and we eat when we've done poorly. We eat when we're hungry, and sometimes we eat when we're already full.

And we develop emotional attachments with food.

Let's face it....much of life is bumpy. We get through a down time and then want to reward ourself on the upswing with something that makes us feel positive. So, we can still do that....we just don't do it with food.

I challenge you to come up with several rewards that are not food. These should be healthy, effective, and individually specific to your likes and interests. Some really great rewards include a manicure, a massage, time away with your spouse or time alone engaging in an activity that you enjoy.  Some children's favorite rewards include playtime at the park, playing a game together as a family, and swimming.