I Find That Sometimes I'll Reward Myself With A Food I Like. Should I Stop Doing This?

February 1, 2009 -- Question: I find that sometimes I'll reward myself with a food I like. Should I stop doing this?

Answer:

Many people reward themselves with food, it's quite common in our culture, in fact, it's built into the way food is marketed. For some people, they really do need to stay away from foods that can send them into out of control frenzies, much like a drink might be for an alcoholic. And so in that case, rewarding oneself with a favorite food tends not to be a good idea.

In other cases, when you restrict a certain food, it makes it even more desirable, and people think about it all the time.

And so as a default, we usually recommend that people develop a healthy relationship, even with foods they've had difficulty with in the past. That is, to eat small amounts, eat them very slowly, enjoy every bite and savor them.

So you can still reward yourself with food, but in moderate amounts and with healthy food, for the most part. That is by far the best policy.

But for some people, they might really have to avoid the foods that they often find themselves rewarding themselves with, because that ends up as a problem.