How To Reward Yourself For Sticking To Your Fitness Plans
When you’re trying to create consistent healthy habits, you might need some extra motivation.
A popular motivation strategy is to reward yourself for achieving your goals: “If I do my workout every day this week then I will treat myself with a nice dinner this weekend.”
A reward system can be very effective for motivation. In fact, one study found that people who used a certain type of strategic reward system, called temptation bundling, were 51% more likely to exercise.
Beware, though. While a good reward system can help you achieve your goals, there’s a right and wrong way to use rewards.
What Is A Good Reward System
First, let’s be clear about what an effective reward system does. You should set up your reward system to give you some extra motivation to complete your goal behaviors.
In other words, it should help you take the daily steps you need to take in order to move yourself closer to achieving your overall goals.
If you’re trying to be more active by doing a 20 minute jog each day, your reward system should help motivate you to get your sneakers on and get out the door, even when you don’t really feel like it.
It shouldn’t be used as a prize for achieving certain results. That’s not an effective way to use rewards.
Results only come if you do your healthy behaviors consistently, so your focus should always be on your behaviors.
Here are the factors that make an effective reward:
It’s something you want but can’t always have access to.
It happens right away.
You can only get it by doing the target behavior.
A good reward can be big or small. I usually recommend small rewards. That way you can depend on the rewards less and less as you form a habit and your target behavior becomes its own reward.
Let’s take a closer look at the factors that make a good reward:
1. It’s something you want but can’t always have access to
Don’t use something you could get all the time. The reward needs to be special and enticing enough to motivate you.
If you decide that your reward is to watch tv while you’re on the treadmill but you watch tv all the time, it’s probably not going to be powerful enough to get you going.
2. It happens right away
This is probably the most important aspect of an effective reward. It needs to be closely tied to the behavior you’re trying to achieve.
Maybe your reward for going to the gym is to watch your favorite tv show while you’re on the treadmill. Or maybe you listen to your favorite podcast while you walk.
Maybe there’s a bookstore next to your gym, and you only allow yourself to go there to sit and relax with a book right after your workout. Or you could drink your coffee as a reward right after you get back from your morning bike ride.
In all these examples, the reward happens close enough to your target behavior that your brain will start to connect the two together. That’s how you form a habit.
I’ve read articles that say you should motivate yourself by buying a new outfit if you lose a certain amount of weight, or plan a vacation for the end of the year if you complete your half marathon. These rewards are for results, and they’re too far away to motivate your day-to-day healthy behaviors and choices.
Our brains are wired to prefer immediate rewards over longer-term ones. If the reward is too far in the future, it won’t be powerful enough to get you out of bed on a cold morning to do your workout.
If you do have a bigger reward in mind, or one that’s not easy to do during or right after your activity, you can still make it work. Reward yourself by celebrating the progress you make towards something bigger.
For example, you might decide to treat yourself to a “date night” with your spouse only if you eat a healthy lunch 10 days in a row. That date night is too far in the future to provide good motivation.
To make the reward more immediate, you could keep track of each time you successfully achieve your goal of eating a healthy lunch. It can be as simple as putting a check mark on a calendar. The act of checking off your achievement can serve as the reward. When you get 10 checks in a row, you can immediately call a babysitter for your date night.
You could also set up a “reward savings account” for your goals. Each time you do your planned workout, for example, you could put 5 dollars in a jar. Putting that money in the jar and watching it grow can serve as your small, immediate reward. When you accumulate a certain amount, you could buy yourself something special.
3. You can only get it by doing the target behavior
You might have to get creative here. Come up with ways to connect the reward you want with the behavior you’re trying to achieve.
I read an interesting story about a man who rigged his bike to power his tv. If he wanted to watch something, he would have to start pedaling. This is obviously an extreme example, but it’s a good illustration of how to connect a reward to the target behavior.
You might need a little help to set up this aspect of your reward. If you usually watch tv with your spouse in the evening, ask them to hold you accountable to only do that if you’ve gone for your evening walk.
One Last Tip
Don’t use rewards that will undermine your progress. Be very careful with using unhealthy foods, alcohol, or other unhealthy behaviors as rewards, because they could make it more difficult to achieve your overall goal.
I’m not against eating unhealthy treats or having a drink once in a while. That’s all perfectly fine in moderation, but you shouldn’t use those things as a part of your reward system.
Here Is An Example Of An Effective Reward:
Personally, I listen to my favorite podcast only while I’m doing my evening jog.
It happens during my goal behavior, so it’s an immediate reward. I really like to listen to podcasts but I rarely have time between work and family responsibilities, so it’s something I want but can’t always have access to. This is a special treat that I get only if I go for my jog.
Here Are Some More Ideas:
Put on your favorite song a few minutes after you get started with your workout.
Only allow yourself to watch your favorite tv show, listen to your favorite podcast, check social media, play a video game, etc. during or immediately after a workout.
Take a bath or long shower. Use candles, fragrant soaps, and music to make it as luxurious as possible, but only after you’ve worked out. *Bonus – on days you don’t work out, force yourself to take a cold shower.
Set up a calendar and draw an “X” every day you do a workout. Use the pride and satisfaction of seeing your progress as your reward.
Combine workouts with trips to beautiful locations – go for your run around a beautiful lake or on a trail, or bike to a local farmer’s market.
Put on a particularly comfortable set of clothes or lounge-wear only after your workout.
Post your workout online or in a supportive group for social reinforcement.
Schedule a night out with friends for after a hard workout, and only go if you complete the workout. Tell them about this plan for extra accountability.
Document your accomplishments by writing in a journal, taking pictures, etc. and making a "success" log.
Ask your family for help – have your spouse agree to make dinner or do the dishes on the days you exercise so you get a break as a reward.
If You Need Help
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