Reward and consequence

I've heard, read that during the weight loss journey I should reward myself. But don't use food as a reward.

Totally foreign. I really don't know how to reward without food.

The dialogue from my past goes something like:

Ooo, good concert, let's go get pizza!

Finals are over! Let's get to the bar!

Fourth of July! Let's bar b q!

Camping, let's have a fish fry!

It's Thanksgiving, haven't seen you in years! What's on the table?

I have no idea how to celebrate without food being a part of it. Until today. While watching "Heavy" on A & E they talked about a young man who was always concerned with food and if there was enough of it.  That clicked in my brain. There wasn't enough of it in his house so it became special, necessary, comforting. It became his reward, his special thing to comfort.

Shoes, shoes are a reward. A nice dress, a new DVD, some new music... these are rewards. These are little treasures I should treat myself to, not food. Even now, I find myself fighting this concept. Food isn't a reward? What about making special things? What about cakes and cookies and Friday doughnuts? What about chips and cheese to share over a movie? What about popcorn and a giant soda at the theater? What about an Icee on a hot day? Or going to DQ? My goodness, it's positively ingrained in me. The realist wants to say there is no way to avoid food as a celebratory factor, such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, New Years, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day... it does go on, doesn't it? A seemingly never ending reason to celebrate.

I think I will pick and chose which days I will use food as a celebratory thing. I hadn't realized until now how many times I've used it to celebrate things. I even instigated a doughnut day for when my youngest went to preschool to help him understand when the last day of preschool was for him. What I should have been doing was taking him somewhere special to do something fun instead.

This started out to be a post to explain how I was going to treat myself to shoes for every ten pounds lost as a reward. A really expensive pair of boots when I hit my goal weight. Now I've realized what a disservice I've been doing for myself and my family by using food as a reward for practically everything I could. They aren't overweight yet, but if I don't change they will carry that same thinking with them into adult hood and use food for celebrating every little thing.