Overeating: Rewarding yourself with food?

Mom says, "You got an "A" on your report card, COOKIES and ICE CREAM!" Boss says, "We had a great month in sales, lunch on me!" You say, "I had a long hard day at work, I'm having pizza for dinner!"

We eat things that are bad for us, things that make us gain weight, things we know we shouldn't be eating, but we want to be eating, but when we eat it we have eaters remorse about it later, we even eat when we are NOT hungry! We eat things that frustrate our plans of weight loss or make it hard for us to reach our goals of weight loss...WHY?

One huge reason why we eat these types of food even if we know it will not do us any good can be summed up in one word: REWARD. Food is easy, food is cheap, food is quick. When you need that reward all you have to do is drive through, you don't even have to get out of your car! It will cost you $1 and within minutes, you can be spooning a chocolate sundae into your mouth.

Even if you consciously KNOW that the food you are eating is working against all your weight loss goals, your need for reward is even greater. Some of my clients have explained it as an "out of body experience." "It feels like someone else is making the decisions and all I can do is give in," I've been told.

That strong pull in the brain is normal. The reward sensory in your brain is much, much stronger than the reasoning sensory in your brain. This means that if we get to "reward" ourselves, that feeling of reward will override any feelings of "reason." Make sense? We are actually addicted to the feeling of reward.

So what can you do about it? You must create for yourselves a new reward system! Instead of fighting with the urge of wanting reward but not being able to give itto yourself (this is miserable), create a new reward system. This is what I've been doing for all of my beloved clients. I see them weekly, in efforts to help them create a different world, a different set of goals, a different set of rewards, a different.....lifestyle.

It is possible and it does not take a miracle! Hawaii people love food and I've seen amazing changes. You just have to put in some work to change your programing. Instead of looking at cake, chocolate, ice cream, chips, etc and reinforcing that reward system, develop a reward system around the benefits of not eating those kinds of food: self esteem, self confidence, skinniness, empowerment, weighing in and feeling happy about weight on the scale, fitting nicely into your clothes, and knowing your are making positive change for yourself (just to name a few).

Spend time every day working to establish the thoughts, emotions, images in your mind and body to reinforce this new rewards system for yourself. The reward mechanism in the brain is stronger than the reasoning mechanism. Instead of fighting this, use it to your advantage. Develop a stronger reward system that works with your weight loss plans and you will be one step closer to reaching your goal!