Let’s talk about rewards… The definition of reward in the English dictionary is the following: “ a thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement “.
Throughout your fitness journey, would you agree that you are:
- doing a service for your health
- putting effort throughout the journey
- achieving micro-goals until you reach your macro goal?
That service, effort and achievements deserve therefore a reward or multiple rewards! But how are you rewarding yourself after you’ve had a good week eating healthy? Or how are you rewarding yourself after an intense workout?
Rewards are meant to be fulfilling to your soul, not to your stomach. At least not when your goal is to lose weight.
Think about it, if you’re using food as a reward, you’re throwing out all the service and effort you put into achieving your results. You may think you’re on track by having 5 days of eating according to plan, but the truth is that if you’re going to reward yourself with food, you’re very likely to end up on a surplus of calories when counting a whole week together. In that case, all the effort you put through the week was worthless.
And this will leave you feeling that your efforts don’t bring results. You start thinking that there is something wrong with your body and that no matter how many plans you follow, nothing works for you. So why try it? And that’s the moment you give up on yourself.
That’s why you should get clear on what kind of rewards you will be giving yourself before you even start your journey. Spend some time brainstorming what kind of things, activities, events, etc… fulfil your soul. Make a list of small things and big things. For example, go to the theatre, go on a trip, get new clothes… this will be very personal to what you like.
This way you will associate different experiences with achieving your results and build up positive thoughts that will help you keep motivated.
Comments