Want to reward yourself for a good workout? Stay away from food.

We always make a fuss about the big things in life -- weddings, graduations, and so on. But it's important to acknowledge the little victories too.

Can't get motivated to exercise? Don't blame your body -- it's always ready to work. It's that mind of yours holding you back.

Yep, the body wants to move. The mind? Not always. That's why it's key to cultivate mindfulness, says Director of Exercise Physiology at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Reba Schecter, M.S., P.T.

"Half of developing a strong exercise habit is noticing how good you feel once you've gotten going on your workout, and how great you feel afterwards," she says. "If you really pay attention to that enlivened, relaxed, good-tired feeling, it becomes much easier to get out the door next time and to your gym or yoga class."

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Just pulled an elementary school newsletter from my kid's backpack and as always, there's a blurb about health featured on one of the pages, not too far from the print-out of the cafeteria lunch menu, in all of its unhealthy glory -- corn dogs, country fried steak, and pepperoni pizza are some of the school's staples. I guess I can't have it all -- a healthy newsletter and a healthy lunch menu. At least some of what comes from school is nutritionally sound.

Don't reward kids' good behavior with food, says our school PTA -- especially not candy, soda, and other sweet stuff. These rewards produce short-term behavior changes and long-term health implications. The folks at the Action for Healthy Kids Virginia say to use the following prizes for your pint-sized ones -- they'll inspire good behavior over the long haul and might result in better school performance too.

• Read a favorite book together.
• Play a challenging board game together.
• Take a special trip to a museum or park.
• Listen to music of your child's choice -- and dance.
• Work together on a project of your child's choosing.
• Play an outdoor game together -- try a water balloon toss or snowball toss, hide-and-seek, or tag
• Create a treasure box of small items, like stickers, pencils, and sidewalk chalk, and let your well-behaved kiddo choose a token.

Or, you could reward your kids by allowing them to pack their own healthy lunches -- no corn dogs that way.

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If you are what you eat, then on every Saturday I'm a chocolate frosted Krispy Kreme donut. But only on Saturdays. I have found that allowing myself one "Reward Day" per week helps me eat clean for the rest of the week. On this One Day, I enjoy snacks, buckets full of pasta, movie popcorn, cake -- you name it. If I want it, I eat it.

The key, as you probably figured, is to make sure that my reward day does not become reward days. That being said, I feel that by employing a reward day-type tacitc, the urge to carry over the poor eating habits of that one day into the next seldom becomes problematic. As a matter of fact, most times I am so sick of desert and pizza by the end of my reward day that I have almost no desire for those foods until the end of the following week. Now, in no way am I suggesting that eating like a glutton once a week is in any way healthy. I mean, what the heck could possibly be healthy about eating a piece of cheesecake?

But, let's face it, we're human. We are not machines, capable of resisting every temptation that may come our way. With that being the case, eating well on a regular basis can sometimes become a very difficult thing, especially when you may be pressed for time and a delicious Whopper is just so quick and easy. It is at this point where most diets fail; when people deprive themselves of the foods they enjoy for so long that they simply throw in the towel.

Do any of you guys follow a strategy of this kind? And if so, do you take a full reward day or just endulge in a reward meal or two throughout the week?

Congratulations to our Everlast Fitzness Fiend of the Week, Russell Hay! Russell expanded his workouts to the Trapeze, Acrobatics and Acrobalance. Now Everlast is sending him a gorgeous tank top, so he can look hot while flying through the air!

The fitness equipment, apparel and boxing giant Everlast was so impressed with our That's Fit Fitzness Fiends that they've offered to reward our devoted readers! Not only am I proud of you all, but Everlast is proud of you too!

For the next two months (at minimum), Everlast will be rewarding an Everlast Fitzness Fiend of the Week with one of their hot new tank tops from their Spring collection. They're absolutely gorgeous, totally comfy, and of ridiculously high quality.

I'm thrilled with the grand response from those of you who've already participated as a Fiend, and even more excited to meet the rest of you! ...........

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According to new research, people who habitually overeat may be able to lay part of the blame on their genes -- and their dopamine levels. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in our brains that largely affects our behaviour, and up to 50% of the population may have a gene variation that alters their levels of dopamine and subsequently causes us to get more pleasure from eating.

This conclusion was the result of testing that monitored how willing to work for food people were compared with whether or not they had a certain gene variation that affected their dopamine levels.

So does this mean that regulating Dopamine through drugs will help curb obesity? Perhaps, but don't hold your breath -- nothing's available yet. And remember -- there's no magic pill that can duplicate the benefits of a moderation and exercise.

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Do you ever find yourself reaching for a piece of cake or a bag of chips, or even something healthy like yogurt and granola, and then realize that you're not actually hungry? Upon further reflection maybe you'll realize that eating is making you feel better about a bad day or acting as a reward for a good one?

This is known as emotional eating and as this piece on AOL Body points out, it can make you break your diet and lead to unwanted weight gain. If you know that you're an emotional eater and want to figure out why and how to control the urge to nosh, the article gives a number of examples of what moods and situations might trigger you to eat as well as tips on how to avoid it.

For example, if you can't sleep you may be tempted to grab a snack in the hopes that a full belly will make you drift off. Rather than fill up on something that's full of calories, try a glass of warm milk or decaf tea as these may help you sleep. Perhaps you're not hungry but there is a big plate of tasty snacks right in front of you -- it can be hard to say no with donuts staring you in the face. The best solution is to simply walk away, or grab a diet soda or other low calorie drink to distract you from the treats on the table.

For more examples and tips, check out the article in its entirety at AOL Body.

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When you eat something 'bad', do you feel horrible and beat yourself up over it for hours, sometimes days? You're not alone -- I do too sometimes. We're always punishing ourselves, and self-punishment leads to shame, and shame leads to a lack of self-confidence and perhaps even to a food binge to make yourself feel better. Yikes! You don't want that, do you?

Here's an idea that I heard on a Canadian talk show this morning: Instead of thinking of yourself in terms of what you've done wrong, think of things you did right. What bad foods did you resist lately? Did you turn down a slice of birthday cake even though you wanted it soooooooooo badly? Did you just have one slice of pizza and not 3 like your stomach was telling you to? These are all actions that deserve to be rewarded.

What have you resisted lately?

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When I'm feeling low, I reach for the macaroni and cheese, the pasta, the bread, the tapioca pudding. Those are my comfort foods, what I irrationally use to feel better, though I tend to feel worse afterwards. But a new study shows that we don't always binge on comfort foods when we're feeling down -- we do it when we're feeling happy too.

The reason is simple -- comfort foods are things that are usually full of carbs or sugar so they help maintain a good mood. Also, they're foods we love, and when we're feeling good we like to reward ourselves. I believe it -- when I worked a regular work week, I always felt the need to reward myself on Friday, as if it was some sort of special occasion, a reward for getting through yet another grueling week. I also rewarded myself on Saturday because, hooray, I have a day off. And Sunday I had an extra helping of dessert because boo-hoo, I had to go back to work tomorrow. You get the gist.

What can we do? I wish I could change my idea of comfort food from Mac n'Cheese to carrots or low-fat cottage cheese, but alas, I don't see that happening any time soon. How about a different sort of rewards system that doesn't involve food? Like, say, a pedicure for a job well done? How do you resist the allure of comfort food?

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If the words "jumpstart your fitness" sound like something that applies to you then what you probably need is renewed motivation. Motivation is the gas that keeps your workout plan moving -- and although it's cheaper than the gas that moves your car (it's free!) the trade-off is that it's much harder to come by. There's no one way to motivate everybody -- heck, there's not even one way that will always work for motivating one same person. It's all about your mood, and your current situation. What helped you drop that last 5 pounds two summers ago may not mean anything to you at all this year, and maybe you've got other things in your life on top of it all that you didn't have to deal with before, like children or a new job.

It's tricky to figure out what's going to trip your trigger and get you moving again, especially when it feels like you've been dieting and exercising forever and you just want to rest. Remembering that being healthy and getting in shape is about making permanent lifestyle changes can help, and if losing weight feels like true exhausting 'work' to you then maybe you need to make some changes on how you're going about it. Not to say it will always be a totally easy piece of cake, but you shouldn't be miserable either.

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The SUBWAY restaurants near my house are doing a neat little promotion today. SUBWAY is giving a free Fresh Fit for Kids Meal to parents who bring in their children, ages 12 and under, with a photo of their children engaged in an act of fitness.

I love the way SUBWAY offers healthy choices, and promotes eating healthy as a whole. Going this extra step forward and rewarding children for their fitness accomplishments is an awesome idea, and they deserve a big high five for doing so. Check with your local SUBWAY to see if they'll reward the fit child in your life too!

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No, this isn't a program for shoe shop-aholics. The Shoe Diet is about rewarding yourself for a job well done, a goal reached, pounds and inches successfully lost. It's about the power of looking forward to something and how motivating it can be in helping you to overcome those bumps and slumps and plateaus along the road to your ultimate goal.

Shoes can help you look thinner, feel sexier, and the majority of women love the whole idea of going shopping for them in the first place. What better way to motivate yourself than by the promise of new shoes floating on the horizon?

So here's the gist of the Shoe Diet:

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Imagine this. You're working at a job that's pretty tough but you're working for a cause that you believe in. You have a boss that's pretty tough on you, and you figure that if you work harder, your boss is sure to notice and let you know that she is impressed. But no matter how hard you work, she never offers you any sort of bonus, or even a word of praise. In fact, she berates you more for not working even harder. Eventually, the lack of recognition gets to you and you have to quit for your own sanity.

Now apply this scenario to dieting. Both the employee and the boss are you. When you work hard at anything, you need some kind of reward to keep going. You need motivation, something to make it all worthwhile. Otherwise you're doomed.

When you're trying to lose weight, it's probably best if you don't reward yourself with a giant slice of double chocolate caramel cake. But how about something calorie-free? Like a manicure? Or a massage? Or a great pair of shoes? Or if you've done really well, an expensive pair of designer jeans that make your new butt look great? You deserve it, you know.

Check here for more inspiration.

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Although fitness and weight loss have awesome health benefits, and that should be all the reason we need to work so hard at the gym or deprive ourselves of food we love, let's be honest -- most of us do it to look better. And even if appearance isn't your biggest reason, I don't know anybody who ever said "You know, I really wish I didn't have to be in shape to be healthy. I just hate the way I look when I'm thin and toned."

So with beauty in mind this might be the perfect time, as the pounds are dropping off one by one, to reward yourself and finally act on that urge to do something different with your hair. The power of a woman's hair is amazing, from the infamous "bad hair day" to how wonderful and beautiful you feel when it's doing just the right thing. But what to do differently -- cut or color? Bangs or no bangs? Long or short? Steering away from anything drastic is good advice, and check out this article for pointers from a Miami stylist regarding the latest hair trends and ideas for different age groups.

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