21 Ways to Reward Yourself without Food!

Rewards create a feeling of doing something you want to do, not just what you’re forcing yourself to do. Even the smallest of rewards can work wonders as you travel from milestone to milestone, pound to pound, and mile to mile.

Here’s how to set up a good rewards system:

• Choose some benchmarks and reward levels. You can also reward yourself for levels of consistency.
• Make the reward meaningful to you. As a reward, a new pair of shoes may not hold as much motivation as a simple night alone with a book. Then again, it might.
• Choose two or three options from the Reward Roster below or come up with a few reward options of your own. It doesn’t take much. Sometimes, the best rewards are those you can’t buy.
• A lot of small rewards, used for meeting smaller goals, are more effective than relying solely on the bigger rewards that require more work and more time.
• Don’t use food as a reward. Even good food. It’s just too much of a slippery slope. Don’t even mess with it.
• Plan to celebrate. Figure out now how you’re going to celebrate reaching your health, fitness or nutrition goal. Involve other people, tell them about it. Create a celebration that you can anticipate and then keep it within sight all the time.
• Be honest with yourself. Fudging the numbers mentally, or "borrowing" against the next reward hurts the cause of building a lifetime habit. Remember to keep your focus on building a habit, not just figuring out how to get the reward.

REWARD ROSTER CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITES AND USE THEM LIBERALLY

• Compliment yourself. Write down what you would say to anyone else who accomplished what you did.
• Create an actual plaque or trophy.
• Give yourself badges of honor for different levels of accomplishment.
• Take a vacation or weekend getaway.
• Take a day off from any goal activities.
• Put $1 in a jar every time you meet a goal. When it gets to $50, treat yourself.
• Create a Trophy Scrapbook, where you keep mementos from your accomplishments.
• See a movie.
• Make a grab bag of little prizes. When you reach a significant goal, reach in and get your reward!
• Go for a spa treatment or massage.
• Buy yourself a gift certificate.
• Take a limo ride.
• Subscribe to a magazine you always wanted.
• Go canoeing or do something outdoorsy.
• Watch your favorite TV show.
• Buy something for your hobby.
• Read a funny book.
• Celebrate "100% Days". If you reach 100% of your goals that day, choose two rewards.
• Find some time to be by yourself.
• Pay someone to do the yardwork or house cleaning this week.
• Fly a kite.

Courtesy of: SparkPeople.com

Orange-Scented Cornmeal Cake With Fresh Berries

Ingredients

For the cake:
3/4 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the berry sauce:
1 cup blackberries
1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice

Preparation

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, combine the four, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, combine 1/3 cup of sugar and the oil. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat for 2 minutes. Add the yogurt, eggs, orange peel, and orange juice. Beat for 1 minute. Add the dry ingredients and beat until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and the cinnamon. Sprinkle over the batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

To make the berries: In a food processor or blender, puree 3/4 cup of the blackberries, the sugar, and the orange juice until smooth. Strain the puree through a sieve into a small bowl; discard the seeds. Cut the cake into wedges. Spoon the berry sauce over the wedges and sprinkle with the blueberries, raspberries, and remaining blackberries.

Note: When you use an electric mixer to beat citrus peel into a batter, a lot of the peel can cling to the beaters. Be sure to scrape any peel from the beaters back into the batter.

Makes 8 servings

Per serving: 189 calories, 30g carbohydrates, 4g protein, 7g total fat, 55mg cholesterol, 3g dietary fiber, 200mg sodium

Getting Over a Bump in the Road

Q: I've blown it! I've been enjoying the results I've seen since I started your program months ago. But I got really busy in the past couple of weeks and stopped eating right and exercising. I've almost regained everything I lost, and now I just want to give up! What should I do?

A: Okay, so you had a lapse. It happens. There's no time like the present to pick yourself back up! Start right this second. Don't dwell on your minor slip, but do learn from it. There's no doubt you'll get busy again, so prepare for such times! If you have to skip your spinning class, do some other activity to make up for it — say, walking to work. If you had a high-calorie lunch, have salad for dinner. Making these little substitutions will help keep you on track until you're able to return to your regular Fitness and Meal Plans! Don't give up!

The Brown-Bag Lunch Challenge!

Is your lunch hour your time to unwind in the middle of a hectic workday? If you're spending most lunch hours in restaurants with co-workers or clients, you could be doing a lot damage to your diet! Massive portions, loads of fat and calories, the never-ending bread basket, and I haven't even mentioned dessert — did you know some restaurant meals have more calories than you should eat in a whole day?!

You can make healthy choices when you eat out — like asking the server to remove the bread basket, requesting sauces on the side, and sticking with grilled chicken or fish and steamed veggies. Still, it may be easier — and tastier — to just bring your own healthy lunch from home!

Brown-bagging isn't hard at all; it just requires some planning. Here are a few of my favorite bring-to-work lunches:

• Sandwiches: Nothing is easier than a no-cook sandwich, and the options are endless — chicken, tuna, cheese (yum, fresh mozzarella!), egg salad — I could go on and on! You can pick whatever filling you like, just put in a whole-grain bread, wrap or pita, limit or avoid high-calorie add-ons like mayo, and throw in lots of veggies.
• Soups: They're really filling and super easy to heat up at work! Invest in a thermos and a few cans of hearty and healthy soups, or cook a big pot of your favorite veggie soup on the weekend. Pair it with two slices of whole-grain bread and you're set!
• Yogurt with granola and fruit. This light meal is an ideal grab-and-go lunch. It's perfect for those days when you don't have time to pack lunch — all of the components can be found in nearly every grocery or convenience store.
• Leftovers: My personal favorite is last night's leftovers! If you take the time to cook a healthy dinner, why not make a little extra and bring the leftovers for lunch? You can heat them up in the microwave at work.

This coming week, how about brown-bagging it at least one more workday than you usually do? You'll not only get healthier and save calories — you'll save money too!

4 Bad Eating Habits

If you're overweight, you're probably practicing some of these nutritional no-no's


No time to plan. With work, kids and social and community commitments packing their schedules, most contenders make food decisions on the run – which can lead to poor choices, such as relying on packaged, processed convenience foods and hitting the drive-through when a time crunch hits.

Skipping meals. Because of those busy lives, most potential contestants miss out on at least one meal a day – usually breakfast. It sounds counter-intuitive, but skipping meals can actually contribute to weight gain, not loss; eating when famished almost always leads to poor food choices, and it's hard to pay attention to your body's natural hunger and satiety cues.

Processed white foods abound; whole grains are missing. Foods like snack cakes, cookies, white pasta, chips, and soft drinks are all high in calories and very low in nutrition – but they're both tasty and convenient, which makes them tempting when on the go. But in addition to adding empty calories, these foods have adverse health impacts – they affect your blood sugar and insulin too quickly. And unlike their whole grain counterparts, these foods lack antioxidants and fiber, which are good for digestion and can help prevent some types of cancer.

Few fruits and vegetables make the menu. Budget and time constraints can make buying and preparing produce seem out of reach. But fresh fruits and vegetables are the cornerstone of a healthy diet; they're full of vitamins and antioxidants, and because of their high water content they have low caloric density, filling you up without adding too many calories. Once the show begins, I work with contestants to help them incorporate fruits and vegetables into every meal – with the goal of eating 4 cups daily.

Resisting Temptation at Work

Has this ever happened to you? You're walking past the lunchroom at work and notice a coworker has brought in some chocolate cake. Even though you know you aren't hungry, you stop and dish up a piece. After eating the cake, you realize it wasn't even very good — in fact, it was a little stale! Yuck.

Welcome to the minefield of eating well at work. From vending machines full of junk to free food left in the lunchroom to treats on the receptionist's desk, temptation looms around every corner. And when you consider how many waking hours you spend in the office, it's easy to see why the work environment can pose many hazards to healthy eating.

Try using these techniques for sticking to your plan at work:

Make time for meals. Studies show that when people eat in front of a computer, they eat more and feel less satisfied. Plan some time into your workday to take a break, get up from your desk, sit at a table, and really focus on your food.

Pack your snacks. If trips to the vending machine are tripping you up, bring an assortment of healthy snacks to have on hand when the afternoon munchies strike.

Walk it off. If you're a desk potato, make efforts to add movement into your day. Take the stairs. Park further away. Deliver that memo in person. Take power walks during breaks. Any movement is better than none.

Change course. If you just can't resist the goodies in the lunchroom or vending machine, alter your path so you don't have to walk past them. You won't know what you're "missing."

Think it through. Before helping yourself to junk food or sweets at work, make yourself wait ten minutes. It's likely that the urge will pass.

Let 'em have it. Chances are, during your ten-minute delay your coworkers will polish off the free food before you get there. Problem solved!

This week, pay attention to the food traps at your workplace. Spend some time thinking about how you can face these situations going forward.

Courtesy of: Duke Diet and Fitness

Exercise Alone Is Not the Answer to Weight Loss

The cover story of the August 9, 2009 issue of Time Magazine was, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.” This article stirred debate about the role of exercise in controlling body fat. ACE (American Council on Exercise), ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) felt compelled to issue a statement responding to the suggestion that exercise is not a central component to turning around the growing epidemic of obesity in America. Many health experts feared that Americans would not initiate or would quit their exercise programs at the suggestion that it was not going to help them control their weight.

People who actually read the article would learn that the author John Cloud was basically saying that exercise does not allow you to eat anything you want. He makes the point that all too commonly people will stop off at their favorite coffee shop and reward themselves with a coffee and muffin after exercise. The problem is that the calories in a half of muffin often are more than the calories many people burn in their 30-minute exercise session. If you eat the whole muffin, over time, you will not lose weight, you will gradually gain weight!

How often do you see people on the elliptical trainer drinking a 16 ounces sports drink during their 30 minute session? A 170 lb individual at a typical effort level on an elliptical trainer will burn about 250 calories. 16 oz of sports drink alone will put back 40 percent of those calories. The truth is that water is better for most exercise sessions under an hour. A person who has exercised will feel increased appetite and consume more calories than they would have had they gone for an easy 30 minute walk. With only 150 calories to spare from their exercise, it seems likely that the person will easily eat those calories and more. Then they wonder why they gain weight at the end of their first month of exercise. This problem is made worse by the fact that the unconditioned individual may actually burn fewer calories the rest of the day, because they are tired from their exercise.

The John Cloud article can help you avoid common pitfalls people make when they begin an exercise program to lose weight. The fact remains that most people who are successful at steady body-fat loss do have an exercise program. However, all people who are successful have one thing in common: They burn more calories than they consume. It is a numbers game. There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. If you have a deficit of 500 calories a day (from eating less or exercising more), you will lose one pound of fat in a week (7 X 500=3,500). The duration and intensity of exercise will affect the increase in appetite that many people experience. (See my blog “Exercise and Weight Gain: Success and Failure”)

Keeping a diary of all food intake has been a tool used by professionals for many years. Now online calorie counters make it easier to track your calories consumed and expended. There are even applications available for iPhone that will track your daily balance of calories out and in. I think these programs are valuable for people as an educational tool. They are fairly accurate and quickly expose misconceptions. You may learn that the handful of nuts you eat midday are your real enemy. Or you may be surprised by the number of calories you burn in your exercise. One thing is for sure, you should keep moving. Obese people sit on average two hours a day more than thin people. Just keep moving. After dinner, get out the door and go for a walk. You may find that you feel full and avoid the snacks that turn your day into a plus calorie day. If you want to make a dramatic change in your body fat, you will have to make a dramatic change in your caloric balance. Keeping the same patterns will not result in changes to your health and body-fat composition. The tools available to day to help track your balance make a lot easier to identify and resolve roadblocks that keep you from achieving your goals.

Courtesy of: Everyday Health