I grew up in a family that used food for all sorts of emotional substitutes and placeholders -- including as a reward for hard work.
You got straight As? Let's go get ice cream! You did so well in soccer practice today! Have another meatball!
It was all well-intentioned and driven by love, but it was not a great setup for the lifetime of health and wellness that we should be pursuing on this Badass Fitness journey.
Like so many Badasses out there, I certainly struggled with food as a teenager and college student. Fortunately, I have come to understand the importance of balance. Within that balance is allowing myself to be rewarded - sometimes with an ice cream cone, but more often with things other than food or drink.
After I set a new personal best in the Palace Saloon 5K this past spring, I treated my feet to a pedicure. After the Chicago marathon? A new pair of running shoes.
Each of us Badasses deserves a little pampering and self-indulgence after reaching whatever health and fitness goals we set. In fact, laying out rewards to accompany each milestone of our journey is a great motivational tool.
A few ideas:
- Treat yourself to a massage for every 5 pounds lost.
- Buy yourself a new pair of running kicks for every personal best you set on a 5, 10 or 15K.
- Train for a race or competition that has a reward at the finish line. As in, cash or other prizes. The fitness challenge I'm organizing at work has a first place prize of a day off, and a second-place prize of a massage. Suh-weet!
- Turn your first half- or full marathon into a vacation. Races and triathlons are typically held in some great cities.
My first trip to Chicago was for the marathon (pictured at right), and if not for that I might not have ventured to what is one of America's best cities!
- If food must be your reward, how about treating yourself to a healthy cooking class or a shopping "spree" at a gourmet/organic store?
Sooooo (here's me, a former newspaper reporter, burying the lede)...a week ago today, I gave myself a rather significant reward. Two, actually. Yep. I bought myself a new set of, um, twins. Headlights, tatas, call them what you will. Hence, my blogs earlier this week about active recovery and being temporarily sidelined.
I share this 'enhancement' information not because I have to but because it is a decision I wrestled with a lot, in terms of the self-acceptance and self-driven Badass reshaping that I talk about often on this blog.
I thought, well here I am preaching about doing the Badass Journey the real way, and yet I'm considering a fake rack? Hypocrite much? I mean, I cringe at liposuction-type procedures that people have done because they want to look fit and trim the "easy way," with all of the surgery and none of the sweat and physical perseverence.
But after much thought and honesty with myself, I went ahead and adopted these lovely twins, so to speak. Not because I think they're the key to my happiness or because I think they will bring me Prince Charming. If you're the type of guy whose gaze goes straight to the cleavage, you've got no chance with this Badass anyway.
I did it because I work hard every single day to keep my Badass strong and lean and healthy, inside and out, through wholesome eating and challenging workouts. I practice what I preach to my students and my clients, because it is what I believe in. But no matter how many pushups or chest flys I do, I can't reshape - or form - what, genetically, just ain't there. (Can I get an amen, fellow A-cups?!?)
So I decided: I just want a little cleavage. My reward for pushing my body to new challenges and pushing my fitness career to new places. In the past year I have launched this blog, formed a fitness business, earned my personal training certification, helped open a new cycling studio, and am about to launch the Badass Fitness website. I love every bit of the hard work and early mornings and late nights behind all of it. The best part? I'm not even close to being done.
You Badasses might not have made the same decision, and I completely respect that.
I'll just end with this thought: Whatever your reward is, for whatever achievement, just be comfortable with it. Be confident that you deserve something special, just for you, for wherever you are in your Badass journey.
Coming tomorrow: The health bug is contagious!
