Let me set a scene for you. It's 8pm. You've had a good day. You ate when you were hungry and stopped at enough. You even crossed some things off your to-do list! And to celebrate, your brain screams:

"I deserve a treat!"

I used to listen to that voice every night. After being "good all day," I'd reward myself by eating something. Because food was the only way I knew how to reward myself.

But to lose my weight, I had to stop using food as a trophy. And in today's episode, Stop Using Food As a Trophy to Celebrate, I'm going to share how. You'll hear:

• Why rewarding yourself with food is sabotaging your weightloss
• 3 tips for how to celebrate your wins without undoing your hard work
• What you can do to make yourself feel proud instead of stuffed and guilty

Listen now to learn how to break free from using food as your only reward.

You're not a dog who needs a treat every time you do something right. You're a badass woman who deserves better ways to celebrate.

Today we want to talk about one of the sneakiest lies that your brain loves to tell you. And that is, oh, Corinne, you've been so good today. You deserve my trait. Does that sound familiar? I know it sounds familiar to me. And here I am, 18 years in a weight loss, and sometimes my stupid brain still is like, oh my gosh, we deserve a treat. I mean, you worked so hard today. So back when I was losing weight though, I used to play the game with myself all the time. If I kept promises to myself all day, if I said no to the donuts and shit, the next thing I know, I'm telling myself I earned the ultimate reward. I was going to be able to eat what I wanted at night. Because honestly, for me, food was like a love language. I didn't have a love language for Corin.  

I didn't know how to tell Corinne. She did a good job. I didn't have a love language. So food was it. I was just rewarding myself because I thought food was just the best way to celebrate. And I'm going to admit, the first bite always tasted good. Hell, even the second and third bites tasted good. But by the time I would finish, most of the time my stomach would be like, oh, he wanted to celebrate. Well, we didn't bitch. So here's some bloating and regret to add to your damn party. So one night, I remember this clearly, I had polished off a big ass pine of ice cream. I'm sitting there on the couch and I'm asking myself, why do I think this is how I should honor all my hard work? Why do I keep saying this is my reward? Why am I treating my body like a trash can?  

Just because I said no to donuts earlier in the day, just because I showed up being a mom all day long and that's when it hit me. Food shouldn't be a reward. Food can be a lot of things. It can be fuel, it can be fun. It can be comfort at times. It can be connection at times. But the one thing I didn't want food to be in my life was the damn prize. I wanted me to be the prize. So when I stopped thinking of food like that, that is when things really changed for me. I wasn't going to work anymore hard all day long just to undo it at night. So I decided if I need rewards at night, that must mean I need rewards during the day. So I started celebrating my wins in ways that didn't make the pants feel tight or my stomach heat my ass, and it felt so much better.  

So if you're like I was and you were using food as a trophy, I'm going to give you a few tips on how to start treating yourself more like a badass instead of just feeding your ass with food. So tip number one, celebrate actions instead of food. So celebrate with actions instead of food. This was a big one for me. Instead of reaching for food when I wanted to reward myself at the end of the day, I started asking what else would actually make me feel really right now? Now, sometimes it was going to bed, sometimes it was watching TV and not feeling guilty about it. Other times it was like taking some time to actually sit and journal. I didn't have time to do that all day long. And sometimes it was really just, it dawned on me. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about how great I am.  

It feels so braggadocious. It feels like I'm doing something bad. And that's when it dawned on me. It's like, well, no wonder I want food as a reward if I think sitting around inside my own head where no one else in the world is going to hear me, and all I'm doing is telling myself, girl, you did so good today. Really you should be proud of yourself. You wanted to eat when the baby was crying. You didn't want to do half the things you did today and look at you. You did them anyway. You are really showing up for your life. That right there is not something that we should be ashamed of telling ourselves. And it dawned on me. That's what I've got to fix. I got to fix that. I got to quit fixing another bowl of ice cream to reward myself. So if you are used to celebrating with food, I just want to warn you in the very beginning, some of the swaps of listening to your favorite music, watching some tv, going to bed early, whatever it is, probably will not feel near as satisfying is instantly getting some food.  

But I want you to remember this. The other things that you do are not going to come with a side of regret, like eating will. There are so many ways to honor all of your hard work without sabotaging your weight loss. And it doesn't have to be fancy. Just reward yourself with something that fills you up emotionally, that taps in emotionally instead of physically. Now, the second thing you can do is just wait for hunger. So please hear me when I say this. I am not saying that you cannot have the treats if you really want them. Go ahead and enjoy your ice cream in your pizza. Just do it when it's planned and when you actually are hungry. Because let me tell you why this matters. When you're not hungry, your body isn't asking for fuel. So that food is never going to taste the same.  

It's never going to hit you the same. It's kind of like pouring gas into a full tank. You're just kind of wasting it. And I don't want you wasting it. I want you to thoroughly enjoy the treats. I don't want them coming with the unintended byproduct of regret and bloat and heartburn and things. You should enjoy your foods, and one of the best ways to actually enjoy them is to be a little hungry for them. The next time you catch yourself thinking, I deserve a treat, I want you to stop and check in. Am I actually hungry right now? If the answer is no, I want you to just wait and say, if I'm not hungry for food, I must be hungry for a reward. So what else could I do? What else could be rewarding right now that would help me enjoy my life more?  

The next thing is I want you to remember that food is not a trophy. So this one took me a while to fully get. I used to think food was the only way to celebrate, but your hard work deserves better than a brownie that you didn't even need or were hungry for. So when you reward yourself with food, when you're not hungry, you're not really celebrating, you're just giving into an old habit and it's not helping you lose weight and it's not helping you feel amazing. In the long run, rewards are supposed to feel amazing. Just think about anytime when you were in school, if you got a certificate or you got a ribbon or something, you probably hung it up in your room because rewards should feel good for a long time. Food usually doesn't do that for us. We hardly ever remember thinking like, I remember that one rewarding meal I had the other day, and here I am, still luxuriating in it.  

So your reward for crushing a day should be something that builds you up, something memorable, not something that leaves you feeling blah and wondering, why can't I get my shit together? So here's what I want you to do. The next time that little voice pops up and says, you've been so good, you totally deserve that cookie. I want you to stop and ask yourself, am I hungry? And if not, how else can I celebrate? And then I want you to do that thing, whether it's blasting your favorite music, taking 10 minutes to scroll funny reels on Instagram, or just saying, I'm so fucking proud of myself today. Look at how I showed up. I want you to find a way to reward yourself that feels good to you. And when you find that thing, let everybody know what's working for you and what feels good. I want you to remember, you are already a badass woman. You do not need a treat to prove it. You are not a dog and you don't need a bone every time you do something good. But you do need your own approval. You do need to signal to yourself you're truly now taking care of you and that you really are proud of yourself. So go and celebrate like the amazing woman that you are.