Week 8

I summarized my result below:

Week 1: planed to cook 4 days a week.
Week 2: Cook Day/ Total of days = 1/4
Week 3: Cook Day/ Total of days = 0/4 (changed plan to 2 days a week.)
Week 4: Cook Day/ Total of days = 0/2 (add punishment)
Week 5: Cook Day/ Total of days = 2/2
Week 6: Cook Day/ Total of days = 1/2
Week 7: Cook Day/ Total of days = 2/2
Week 8: Cook Day/ Total of days = 2/2

From the summary, I can see my behavior did change. I felt fun at week 2 which just started and sound interesting to me, but I got lazy after it. I did nothing during week 3 and 4, so I added a punishment which made a big change! When I found some excuses to not cook, such as week 6, I received the punishment from my sister immediately. That made me keep going for week 7 and 8.

I think the punishment work the best on me. I love dessert, but I am ok without it. For the punishment, it is an additive work for me. I feel so bad that my sister is watching TV and relaxing when I do the house work. That motivates me to cook every week.

When the blog started, I pay attention to my behavior most of time. I thought about going home at lunchtime and dinnertime. I felt guilty when I ate outside. I start changing my behavior when I know what I am doing.
If I want the change to be long-term, I believe that the main thing is keeping punishment and reinforcement. Many people lack of self discipline, so the best way is to let other people administer the punishments and reinforcements as Winston said. It may sounds like parents teach children, but company also use it. Employee gets promotion if they work hard, and they are hired if they don’t go to work.

The most challenging aspect of this assignment is tracking my behavior. I forgot about it sometimes because it’s eight weeks assignment. I list it as least important in my calendar, so I often ignored it even if I was aware for my behavior at the beginning weeks.

The most valuable thing of this assignment is that I change my behavior. I eat healthy at home now. My sister also change her behavior with me. I hope we can keep going and make it be a long-term change. During these weeks, I had very good time with cooking. My sister and I always argued about dishes washing after cooking, so we always played games, such as cards and wii, to decide. That is interesting and exciting.

Week 7

This week is a good week for me. I made some stew beef soup, so I can use it to make variable foods, such as beef soup noodles, beef soup rice, and hot pot for next few days. I started cooking something that can change to different dishes, so I would not feel tired of it. I lost appetite if I eat the same thing every single day…

On Sunday, Mothers’ Day, my family went to restaurant for lunch. We did not go for dinner because there would be a lot of people at night. My sister and I decide to cook the dinner for my mother. We made some salads, steam fish, miso soup, and fried rice noodle.

The operant condition works well on me. I feel I need to do something on Thursday and Sunday now. I bought myself a cheese cake (positive reinforcement) as reward on Monday. That encouraged me a lot.

I think the operant conditioning theory is like a dog training. People punish dogs when they bite, and people give them a cookie when they do a trick. I believe that opereant condition can work on both animal and human.

Week 6

I did not cook on Thursday since I was busy and lazy. As the result, I receive a positive punishment from my sister. My sister happily asked me to clean the rooms for a week. I can feel that she is very satisfied with my program. I also had negative punishment, convenience. I could not get my meal in few minutes. I need to go out and buy it.

I did not want to get another house work for another week, so I made a fried rice on Sunday with my sister. http://chinesefood.about.com/od/ricefried/r/friedrice.htm Fried rice is an easy dish, and it did not take long time to make it.

I want to change my program again because I realize that if I do not cook for a week, I need to do house work for next two week. For example, I did not cook on Thursday, so I needed to clean rooms till next Thursday. If I also not cooked on Sunday, I needed to do another thing till next Sunday. It is confusing sometimes. Therefore, I want the positive punishment do a little change. My sister will ask me to do the housework until I cooked again. That means I need to cook something, or the punishment would not end. > <

Hope this will work well.

Week 5

This week was pretty good.

I cooked a pot of curry on Thursday with my sister. I boiled carrots, onions, potatoes, and beef first, then add the Golden Curry sauce mix in it. When I was doing it, my sister washed and steamed the rice. This process went very fast and smooth. I had good time talking to my sister.

The most benefit is convenience. On Friday and Saturday, I only need to put it in microwave for 1 minute, and I can eat without messing up the kitchen.

I cooked another dishes on Sunday and froze them with curry. I reached my goal which is cooking on Sunday and Thursday.

I was happy for what I done. The operant conditioning theory works well on me. I don’t want to be punished (do a housework for a week), so I cook. After I cook, I get reward(mess up kitchen and convenience for other days).

I am satisfied with my program now. I would not change anything for this week. I think the program may makes me addict on cooking. haha.

Week 4

The program does not work as smooth as I thought. I totally forgot about it because I was kind of busy this week. = ( I worked on the paper and Chapter 10 quiz on Thursday, studied for the test on Friday, and went to whole day volenteer on Saturday and Sunday. I feel bad for this week. The reinforcement are not enough for me. I think I need to add some punishments to my program to make sure that I am actually doing it. I will ask my sister to force me to cook with her, and if I reject by any excuse, she can ask me to do housework for a week, such as wash all dishes, take garbage outside, or hang the clothes out… This positive punishment should be effective because I will not have problem that can not punish myself. My sister will also be glad to ask me to do them if I do not cook on Thursday and Sunday. I will use fixed ratio schedule for positive punishment because it is the most efficient schedule. The other part of program just remains the same. I hope it will work well this time.

This is the 15 great reasons to cook at home.
http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/eat_home_and_lose_weight

There are also a lot of website to teach you how to cook, and the pictures are looked so tasty. I hope I can start makine them tomorrow.

Week 3

I plan to cook on Sunday and Thursday, and I can make one or two dishes for two or three days, such as a pot of curry. I will put them in containers and freeze them as Andrea and Lisa said. The negative reinforcement will be that I do not need to clean the kitchen and wash a lot of dishes after I eat. This reinforcement is effective for me because I really do not like to wash dishes. It is very convenience, and I also don’t need to spend much time on it. I will also ask my sister to cook with me, so the cooking time can be enjoyable and interesting. We can decide the menu and share the work together. The positive reinforcement will be closer with my sister and extra cash. My sister and I have seven ages different, so it is a good opportunity to spend time with her. I also can use extra cash to buy some desserts which attract me very much. I will use variable interval for schedule of reinforcement because my behavior will be more resistant to extinction, and it is easier to use a day or a week than a number of meal.

I do not use punishment because I can not really punish myself sometimes. Therefore punishment is useless for me. I find a websit (http://yaniku.com/). It includes lots of home cooking tips that helps me alot.

Week 2

I did not totally follow my plan this week. I went to supermarket on Friday, and I thought I could start on Saturday, but I did not. I went to dinner with family on Saturday. On Sunday, I made spaghetti and salad for dinner that was a good start for me. I was satisfying what I cooked and glad that I took the first step. However, I did not use kitchen again after that. I told myself that I was tired and busy today, so I would do it tomorrow. On the other day, I feel that I was doing something important, so I would think about it later. I think the reason that I keep eating outside is convenient. I can eat the food immediately without doing anything, and I do not need to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen after my meal. I think I should find someone to cook with me that may make it more interesting, or I can start from the easy food that will not take me too much time.

Week 1

My name is Rachel C. I am the first year Mt. Sac student. My major is economic. I am taking Psychology 1A now. The blog is for my project, Behavior Change Blog. This blog will record my behavior change in next seven weeks. The target behavior I plan to modify is eating at home. I think I eat outside too often that is not healthy. Eating at home can improve my cooking skill, save some money, and avoid greasy food. I wil try to cook at least four days a week. I go to super market on Friday, so I can start cooking on Saturday. I will buy frozen food for sure because I usually do not have much time in the morning, and breakfast is the most important meal for a day that I can not skip it. I hope that I can make lunch on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. For the dinner, I may cook on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I wish this plan work well, so I can inccrease the number of time cooking at home.