They're right! I'm NOT a dog....

Hang onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen. I'm about to share a secret with you - and I'm certain it will be a shocker. I reward myself with food. There. I said it...or wrote it...you get the idea.

• If I workout, I can have that bag of Cheetos. 
• If lose enough weight to drop a size, I get to have pizza. (seriously - what sense does that make!??!!) 
• If I'm good Monday - Friday, I can have a cheat day on Saturday, and eat whatever I want. 

It isn't just me! And it isn't even people that are all my size. There's a guy on the local sports station in the morning who talks about his "cheat" day. He also talks about how much he loves food. He also talks about how much time he spends on the treadmill. It would appear he's better at finding the balance than I am. So I know I'm not alone. But I also know how much I tend to do this - use food as the carrot...only a carrot w/ higher-than-average fat content, that has probably also been deep-fried.

And then I saw this. Holy shit, you guys! I've totally been rewarding myself like a dog. Roll over, you get a treat. Shake, get a treat. Come in the house rather than running through the neighborhood, get a really big treat. It spoke to me on such a level, that I needed to personalize it. I'm thinking about how I can get it blown up, and put on my fridge. Seriously. What the hell am I doing?

For a person with an issue, which I quite obviously have, with food - the last thing I should be using as a reward is food. Would you reward a gambling addict with a trip to the casino? Unlikely. Would you toast the recovering alcoholic with champagne? Probably not. So what the hell am I thinking? Turning the issue into the bonus isn't healthy. So enough of that crap. If I feel like I really need something that's bad for me, I'll have it - and try to have it in moderation. Expecting to never crave or consume unhealthy food, is completely unrealistic. But I won't set up circumstances where I "earn" the indulgence. I can see now that that's just perpetuating the issue.

I'm not a dog. I won't continue to treat myself like one.