If you’re feeling like your cravings are controlling you, you’re not alone. Getting control over cravings is something that I’m asked for help with by almost all of my clients.
While there’s all sorts of anecdotes and myths about cravings circulated by word-of-mouth and on the internet, the scientific literature doesn’t have a very thorough understanding of cravings – why we get them or what they mean. So, I’m going to share with you two ways to stop cravings from the literature and two ways that I’ve discovered in my many years of nutrition counselling.
Stop Craving Tip #1: Get More Sleep
This is a surprising cause of cravings. But there is evidence that the more sleep deprived we are, the more we seek out high fat, sugar, and salt foods. So if you want to get rid of cravings, create a plan to get more sleep. What can you take off your “to-do” list? Turn off that screen and hit the hay.
Stop Craving Tip #2: Don’t Go Too Long Without Eating
When our blood sugar drops, we’re driven by our bodies towards high fat, sugar, and salt foods. Did you skip lunch and now you find yourself in the fast food restaurant on the way home from work? It’s because of a biological drive – not a lack of willpower. Don’t try to work against Mother Nature; you won’t succeed. Instead, eat when you’re just starting to get hungry. For most people this is approximately every 4 hours. Now this doesn’t mean all-day grazing. But, it may mean planning and eating a healthy afternoon snack to prevent the afternoon trip to the vending machine.
Stop Craving Tip #3: Increase Protein and Decrease Sugar at Breakfast
I was always a toast with jam for breakfast kind of woman. But I also always craved candy every afternoon. A couple of years ago I switched my breakfast to plain yogurt, usually Greek, topped with hemp hearts and fruit. This winter I’ve been on the overnight oats bandwagon, adding this to my yogurt mixture. I’ve found that my craving for sweets has gone from daily to a couple of times a month. Which is a huge change! Switch up you breakfast and see if it decreases your cravings.
Stop Craving Tip #4: Have Other Tools in Your Emotional Care Toolbox
Often we crave high fat, sugar, and salt foods as a way of numbing our emotions. I became such a cliché after my divorce, literally drowning my sorrows in tubs of ice cream. You don’t need to be a dietitian to know that a couple of tubs a week isn’t healthy. So I decided to create other ways to take care of my emotions. Now I have a lot of tools in my toolbox. Tools like a gratitude practice, yoga, surfing, trail running, art therapy, journaling and the occasional tub of ice cream. Ask yourself the tough question of whether you’re really craving that food because you don’t want to deal with difficult emotions. Take the time to develop alternative tools to take care of yourself.
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