Reward or Punishment?

This month is dedicated to getting myself back on track.  I’m finding the most difficult thing is getting my food in check, so I started up a food journal again.

For those of you who have never done one, basically you write the date, time you ate, and what you ate.  I also like to track my weight, exercise and note any unusual factors.

So I looked through my journal for the week and this is what I discovered:

1. My children are very popular.  We went to three birthday parties this weekend (Pizza? Check. Cake? Check.) and two year-end school parties (Cookies? Hell to the yes!)
2. While the human body is comprised mostly of water, my own personal body is comprised mostly of Diet Coke.
3. Temptation, thy name is old fashioned popcorn with coconut oil.

Also making life more interesting was that my husband was out of town part of the week (making exercise more challenging) and when he returned we celebrated with wine and binge eating/watching TV.

Needless to say, I did not win my reward of a manicure, because my plan completely went out the window.  This tells me that the reward I chose for myself wasn’t really that effective.

Revised Game Plan:

Stick to clean eating for the week allowing for three cheats, cut down the soda to 2 cans per day, and only do TV on Sunday night.  New reward:  Spray on tan.

I think this reward will work, because I really like looking tan (but don’t want to tempt skin cancer with a traditional tanning bed experience).  But if this reward doesn’t work, and I can’t stick to my own game plan, I will have to bring up a punishment.

That’s right.

I will write a donation check to the Tea Party.  As a Progressive Liberal, I can’t let that happen.  And, no, my Republican friends (and husband,) you cannot send me cupcakes to try to trip me up: that’s foul play.

How about you?  Do rewards or punishments work better for you?

Lisa 🙂

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two.  Her book, “She’s Losing It!”  is available at Amazon.com.

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