Week 4

Well here's the situation... I forgot to post "week 3" because it was my birthday last week, and to be completely honest, last week is fuzzy to say the least. I did however keep track of my eating habits from that week (April 18th to April 23rd). To be completely modest, I think I did pretty damn good for it being my birthday and all (I had to go out to eat a lot). I made my family go out to this organic restaurant in Pasadena (which they hated me for) but it was a success on my part. I only failed to eat organically on ONE occasion, but it was Benihanas! Who eats organically there? But the good thing is.... my positive reinforcements/punishments worked out to my benefit. I ran like I said I would if I didn't follow the plan. So actually, as opposed to the lateness of my published post, i'm pretty much on track =]

Week 3: Design Your Program

The modification of my behavior would surely fail if I didn't give myself valid punishments and reinforcements; but I think I came up with some good ones. First off would be the reinforcements. A postive reinforcement that i've given myself is to go to the movies every week I eat solely organic food. Another reinforcement would be my health and well-being, but that comes much later. A negative reinforcement would be loss of self-doubt. Now on to the punishments... A positive punishment would be to make myself run the Mt. Wilson trail if I fail to eat oganically that week. I was thinking to run a mile for every day that I don't eat organically. And if you've never been on the Mt. Wilson trail, trust me, it's not fun. A negative punishment would be to also deprive myself of the movie night at the end of the week. I found some effective strategies on how to stay the course, and also save some money when buying organic:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cheap/20040901a1.asp
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/sshw/message/default.asp?p=Health&m=108

I'm assuming this is a fixed-ratio schedule because if I eat organically Sunday-Friday, the reward comes Saturday night. So this means the positive response comes every 7th time I eat correctly.

Week 2: Baseline Behavior

In researching my behavior change, I not only found places close to my home that sell organic foods(such as whole foods and a farmer's market in Monrovia), but I also came across some health benefits. I ate organically for three months during my wrestling season and found I was in a better mood and also felt generally well. So this past week has been a little hectic, and one thing you need as an organic eater is organization. I set out a plan to wake up 30 minutes early everyday to pack myself an organic lunch. One way operant conditioning can come into play here is that I make myself follow the general rule that if I don't pack myself an organic lunch, I don't eat; and i'm a man who likes to eat, so this negative reinforcement is a harsh one. My mom has also pomised to buy an abundance of organic stuff for me so that should help a lot =]