You Would Not Believe It - 6 Ways to Celebrate that Don't Include Eating

I can't believe it. Try googling: "ways to celebrate besides eating food" and you get nothing except for a bunch of websites talking about FOOD! (How to celebrate Valentine's Day with chocolate, great crunchy snacks you can get, the works). I'm very shocked.

This isn't a new idea. I didn't specifically mention it in my book (I will in an upcoming book), but there are ways to celebrate besides eating.

I was thinking about this today. I want to motivate myself to exercise and I was thinking about possible rewards. I've heard that smaller rewards work better than bigger rewards. I actually learned that in a psychology class in college. So when I was thinking about rewards, caramel flan from a nearby restaurant came to mind. But then I thought, "No! I don't want to exercise and then eat something that will be twice as many calories as I burn off." And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to make a list of WAYS TO CELEBRATE THAT DON'T INCLUDE EATING.

So there's my list. Feel free to add comments to make the list longer.

1) Take a break and plan a trip to nature. Go to your local beach, take your dog to the park, go take a picture of the sunset, take a hike in a pretty place. Give yourself permission to get out and go!

2) Take a break and watch an episode of your favorite TV show. Seinfeld, Saved by the Bell, and LOST are fun ones if you have the DVDs with the seasons.

3) Come up with a point system to get something bigger you really want. For example, let's say I fall in love with this shirt I saw online, but it costs $30. That's too big a reward for exercising for 30 minutes one time. But what if each time I exercise, it's like I get 3 points to get that shirt. Each point could be worth one dollar. So after exercising 10 times for 30 minutes, I can go online and click "Order Now!"

4) Take a break and listen to your favorite music. Use Itunes or Grooveshark or Pandora. If you want to make the reward better, buy a new song each time you exercise. It's only about $1 on Itunes.

5) Take a break and spend 30 minutes on your favorite hobby. I want to make time to put together family photo albums. I just had a baby 5 months ago and she is CUTE, so I want to make sure we capture that so we can enjoy it for the years to come.
Give yourself permission to take a break and get on that!

6) Take a break (I know, it's a common theme) and take a power nap if you need one. We all work so hard that squeezing in some extra sleep is an appealing reward.

You'll notice most of my rewards include taking a break. Maybe that's what we need. Permission to do the things we really want to do and take a break from the same old same old. Plus, taking a break relieves stress, which helps us avoid overeating because so much overeating comes from being too busy or from being too stressed.

Ok, those are my 6 ways to celebrate that don't include eating. What are your favorites and what can you add?