I got on the scale this morning and I've lost 2 more pounds. So this is 3.5 lbs in 3 days that I've lost. My weight tends to come off in whooshes. My immediate thought was, ooh I've lost 3.5 lbs, I can go get such and such to eat. Then I just shook it off and told myself its the evil temptation talking and trying to sabotage my efforts.


Does the feeling of wanting to reward yourself with food ever go away?

Yes it does. When I first started too, I would use food as a reward then it finally hit me that I wasn't doing what I really wanted or feeling really good after my "reward" so I no longer use food for that.

Kudos for shaking off that feeling. Hang in there

Nope. It's a constant battle - but SO worth it.

I am sure with like a lot of other things, it is different for everyone because for me, I can definitely say I no longer think of using food as a reward. Once I really decided to commit to being healthy and losing weight, I just changed my mindset about food and there is no longer the battle..for me.

I work too hard for that weight loss to blow it with a food reward! Now I think of the weight loss as the reward. They are my gold sticker! My lifestyle change is rewarding me by taking away pounds. Developing this attitude has really helped me.

Hooray Cheryl

I'm with Cheryl, my reward is that number on the scale... maybe I should buy some gold star stickers (heck I probably have some in my school stuff for the kids!) and put my weight on one and put it on a chart on the bathroom wall everytime I lose.. haha, the kids would think I've lost if for sure then!

Congrats on the loss!!!

cheryl i absolutely love that idea. you are so right! thank you!

Well said, Cheryl. And stick with it, Hypnodat. You're doing GREAT.

I think it depends on the person... I don't think of food as a reward so much but I do very much struggle with relating food to fun. Be it my friends or my family, a lot of social time together is centered around eating or drinking calories... neither of which I can afford or want to do right now. So that's a struggle for me... not giving into their pressures to be fun.

When I started thinking about rewarding myself, and what this usually meant, I really stumbled into an important bit of knowledge about myself.

That was: I squirm at the idea of "rewarding" myself for doing something good as a result of a positive situation. I am much more used to "comforting" myself when things go wrong, or when I feel hurt, in a negative situation.

Isn't that screwed up? It means I'm only good to myself when the rest of the world isn't. And so often, it's food that I'm using.

I have to really WORK AT thinking of ways to be nice to myself that do NOT involve food. But I think it's critical to have a list someplace, so you can turn to it when those "reward" and "comfort" needs come up. I see people on these boards compiling those lists & struggling with the same things all the time, so I know it's not just me. Maybe it's you, too.

hpnodat,
I am sorry. I really did not answer your question. Yes, it does go away, or at least it did for me. It took a long time but it did go away. Like Saef, I do still want to "comfort" myself with food. I hope that goes away some day.

About the reward thing, for a long time I rewarded myself with various things, a book, a piece of jewelry, etc but now I am happy with just the weight loss. I have been working on this a year but sometimes I am surprised, even shocked at how my thinking has changed. Not just about rewards, I don't think about food the way I used to think. I want different foods than I used to want.

I have heard that it takes 6 weeks to change a habit, but I think it is more like 6 months or a year to change deeply ingrained habits. Or maybe I am just slow.

You are doing so great! Hang in there and it will get easier!

The more you avoid using food that way, the less of an urge you will have. It's like giving up any behavior or an addiction, like smoking. Can you imaging rewarding not smoking for X amount of time by lighting up?

Remember, this isn't a temporary thing until we get to some number on the scale, and then we can eat anything we want all the time. That's a sure way to regain the weight.

Hang in there! You did good!

Jay

That statement really made sense to me. I've been smoke free for 3 years and 2 months. The longer I go without smoking the less urges I have. In fact, I cant think of the last time I wanted a cigarette now that I think about it. I so hope to get there with food urges a whole lot sooner than I did with the cigarette urges.

I actually do pretty good avoiding things for the most part because for the first time ever, I really want to achieve my goal. When trying to lose weight in the past its always been about how fast I can lose it without concern about what it was doing to my health. Then I'd give up and quickly pack back on what ever weight I lost plus 10 or 15 lbs. For the first time in my life I feel like I can actually achieve what I'm trying to do. It's almost as if someone else is doing the driving for me.

This is really perceptive SAEF. I've been thinking a lot about this myself.

I struggle with this all the time too.

It seems like the best I can do to give myself pleasure is to reward myself by giving things to other people... my kids mostly.

But I struggle mightily to do nice things for myself.

My husband is the same way. He doesn't do much for himself and he also doesn't do much for me (treat-wise) although he's generous to a fault with others. For years, we showered the kids with gifts on holidays that we had to reach to afford, and then either skipped gifts for each other or got something incredibly modest...

I never realized how much I was using food as the one thing I got a free pass on. Hair cut? Too expensive. The car I want rather than the most practical one-- ridiculously frivolous. New clothes or shoes? Extravagant. Pedicure? Maybe someday. Vacation? Ha! A nice dinner out with my husband? Who's going to watch the kids, and besides, don't they have stuff they want to do instead? And on and on.

How did I get this way? Probably partly my upbringing, and partly because my husband and I struggled with money for a very long time. But, even when there is not a lot of money around, you can still do little things. I always managed to find ways to do nice things for my kids.

So, no wonder, when I systematically refused any type of personal pleasure for myself I thought a bag of jelly bellies or a secret trip through the drive-through was a good idea.

I am trying to retrain myself. But it's hard.