Chocolate, cookies or pizza… how do you stop those cravings?
You often read about cravings being related to specific deficiencies, such as chocolate cravings being due to a magnesium deficiency. If this were truly the case, we would also crave magnesium-rich foods like spinach, beans or brown rice.
Think of the foods you crave when feeling stressed. Are they carrots and apples? Or chocolate and donuts?
Cravings are often a desire for comfort and self-soothing and are triggered by many things: stress, boredom, seeing food, anxiety, depression, celebration or loneliness.
Cravings are also caused by deprivation and dieting, so don’t deprive yourself from all of the foods you love. Mindful Eating teaches you to eat the foods you love without the fear of weight gain. Simply explained, mindful eating is learning to eat only when hungry and stopping as soon as you are mildly full, fully enjoying the foods you love, savoring each bite.
Cravings are also from repeated exposure to your addictive substance: sugar, salt or fat… or all three. The more you eat it the more you crave it. When you get into a cycle of eating sweets every day, it’s tough to stop.
Substitute cravings with some quick, enjoyable, eating incompatible actions like sipping tea, self massage, taking a power nap, looking at old photos, going for a walk or journal writing. Each time you postpone the craving for 15 minutes, you lessen it’s strength and diminish the habit.
To weaken your cravings, you need to slowly break the habit or pattern. Distracting yourself for 15 minutes each time will move you closer to your new pattern.