08 March 2011

5

So, some days it is all about the cookies.
Today, the bakery had just 5.
These are my congratulations you made it cookies that I have (apparently) become addicted to as a reward for making it through work.
PathetiKate. I know. What are they? French macaroons. Almondy yumminess. Two bites each, perfection, naughtiness.
Just 5, I say, sadly, just 5.

Does anyone out there do this too? Set up a reward system to help make it through tough or daunting or just irritating times? Do you have any wholesome or embarrassing "rewards" you'd care to share? Feel free to be anonymous on this one. I'm curious if I am the only one.

12 comments:

Esperanza said...

Sometimes if I really want something I know I don't need I tell myself I can get it if I do something for the week, like not eating out or meditating a certain number of times. I don't usually do it with food though. I dealt with so many years of intense food issues, I don't equate food with things like that anymore.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kate...I'm your girl in Maine.
I'm so glad you might be moving here! You know Portland (and Southern Maine in general), so you know it's not perfect. But it's really a special place.

I just wanted to say about the rewards...I went crazy for rewards when my baby was really small. I "knew" I deserved to be rewarded in treats for all the suffering the colicky baby put me through. What I did was to take her for a walk in the baby-wrap every day, straight to the bakery. Then I would simply get myself whatever I wanted (always a baked treat, often with chocolate) and eat it on the walk home.

The punch line is that the baby turned out to have a wheat sensitivity AND a chocolate sensitivity. Hence the colic and various gross digestive complaints. Possibly this sensitivity came from a wheat/chocolate binge that lasted the whole of my pregnancy...but I'm sure you could imagine how guilty I felt when I finally figured this out after 3.5 months of caring for a miserable baby. Well, I know now (I tried wheat again a few weeks ago...no luck). And, I have lost all of the 60 lbs I gained whilst pregnant, and more. So I guess the weight loss was like a reward for giving up treats.

See, I still need rewards. Everybody does. Reward yourself before somebody (ie, Della) takes your reward away from you!

Rosie said...

When I worked for a mental health clinic in Queens, I used to buy a wonderful scone and coffee from an Irish bakery every morning. It was something to look forward to as I didn't like getting up early and the train ride, or frankly having to work every day! I also used to crash in the afternoon and feel overwhelmingly tired, which I realize now was the daily scone and coffee breakfast. Oh well. It's decaf for me, now. Those scones were so amazing.. and some crazy price like 3 for a dollar, or maybe it was 2 dollars.

babyinterrupted said...

Standard reward: latte. Extra special reward: pumpkin scone with latte. Super extra fabulous goodness special and seasonal reward: Girl Scout Samoa cookie.

I seem to be mostly food-based on this one. Occasionally I go with new shoes, but food is cheaper.

Elizabeth said...

Hello you -- my reward is, of course, a brisk walk in fresh air while eating celery and practicing my spelling. Just kidding. I'm a cookie girl too, except when I'm a (can't believe I will admit to this in writing) ham and cheese croissant girl. At the feels-like-I-really-am-in-Paris-it's-so-buttery-good bakery in town they make these not-too-sweet dark chocolate butter cookies with vanilla cream. I could eat twenty. When I'm not stopping for a croissant on the way to work. Love to you. Let's start a marine education society. I want to build a small marine science center. You could build one too. Bookends.

sprogblogger said...

I used to think of coffee as my reward, but since I've come to the sad conclusion that Henry really can't tolerate coffee OR dark chocolate treatses, I guess I food-motivate with the occasional ciabatta from the Bakery of Mean Italian Ladies around the corner. I usually feel like I deserve more in the morning than in the evening anyway - and a ciabatta fresh from the oven? Worth being good the rest of the day for, so I will have deserved it...

Joannah said...

Cookies are a great reward! I see nothing wrong with treating yourself while you're pushing through some tough times.

My rewards are usually more along the lines of a pedicure or a massage. So I have to really deserve it. :)

It is what it is said...

As I am in weight loss mode, I try to no longer reward myself with food (in fact, I try not to reward my son with food, either, as I do not want him to have the same emotional eating issues I have). I will, though, treat myself to a sugar-free ice blended no whip mocha when I've had a good weigh-in (there is a Coffee Bean next to my WW center). Now, I tend to reward myself with clothes (I just got new bras after losing 4 inches in my bust). Part of it is out of necessity, but part just to acknowledge progress.

I will sometimes have a Mickey Ds Sweet tea as a reward, but at 240 calories it no longer seems worth the temporary fix.

Clothes, shoes, purses, wallets, sunglasses...my new reward system.

Anonymous said...

I once painted a two story house, almost by myself. Divided it into sections, for every section scrubbed, scraped, primed, or painted, I had an edible reward. I gained ten pounds that summer.

@alyssa ettinger said...

i don't really do rewards, but incentives. as in, "if i buy the expensive boots they will sit on my dresser and i will have to look at them every time i'm lazy and don't want to get out of bed. and i can only buy them if i promise to get my ass out of bed once i see them."

linda said...

I tend to reward myself with pampering...a pedicure, waxing, eyebrow shaping, a haircut/blowout or something I could easily do myself but want to have someone else do it for me. I tend to reward myself with food a bit too much...to the point a cookie here or there (gluten free, of course) doesn't seem like the reward it should be.

RH said...

Oh Yeah - KB. Bigtime rewards in our house. At the end of the semester we go for sushi... which was way cheaper w/ just the 2 of us than it is w/ the 4, since the boys can eat as much as me & LL.
I go out for coffee / studying on the weekend and get better grades from less distractions (and caffienation). Cool reward there.
Sadly, when times are tough I've been know to reach for a cigarette. It works for me.