Every person is so unique with a perspective of their own but when it comes to food cravings, every one falls into one of 2 categories. The ones who succumb immediately and the ones who take just a touch longer. The fact of the matter is, every one gives in at some point or the other.
No one can be taught how to control their cravings, but I am just gonna share some of the things that I do to stay away from indulging in something.
Be Proud - say "NO" - I feel so happy and proud to say "No" to my cravings. It feels awesome, not just the first time but every time. It sure does, the "No" means a lot more than just a refusal to something I like. It gives me a sense of power, a control and it feels like "I own you", and trust me it feels awesome. The "No" might stop me from lingering with the taste of a delicious treat, but for how long does it linger, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, that's about it. But the "No" saves me from the guilt that follows which probably lingers in my mind for hours. So if someone offers me something I wouldn't want to eat, I never feel bad to say "NO".
The little things - There are few things that I do to stay away from snacking. These little things might sound silly but trust me, they help. I drink a lot of water/ Green tea, the reason, water is good for everyone and water leaves my tummy full, so I don't feel I need to snack on something. Chewing a sugar free gum, I chew gum all the time cos when I am chewing one, I don't feel like spitting it out or snacking on something else. People have advised me that I could brush my teeth or have a mouth wash every now and then. This way my mouth feels clean and I wouldn't feel like snacking.
Don't Skip Meals - I Never skip a meal, Like how they say, I always "Roll Out of Bed and Into the Kitchen". I consider a good breakfast is a key to a healthy day. Let's say I sleep for 6 hours and then skip breakfast, the body has been fasting for almost 8 to 10 hours and it runs out of essential nutrients and by the time I get to work I am already craving for some sugar. And the first thing that I find would probably be Donuts, Muffins or Cookies. So I never skip breakfast or any meal for that matter.
What are the Triggers - There are a few reasons why we indulge / give into our cravings.
- We are hungry and crave for a late afternoon snack. To avoid this feeling I always stack up my cube with some raw walnuts, almonds, green tea, granola bars, or some fruit. So whenever I am hungry I just don't go around searching for something to eat cos all I would end up finding is a bag of chips or a cookie. I have friends who stack up good eats in their cars so they can take a walk to the car and snack on something healthy.
- We are depressed over something not feeling great and give in to some emotional eating. So when I am feeling low I just chew a gum and listen to music, take my mind off eating. If I could, I would go for a run or workout. Put my emotion off for a while and focus on work etc.
- The Others - people may just offer something that we are unable to resist. I have found this to be the easiest of things to do. I just say "No". But if all the above mentioned triggers go off at the same time, I just indulge and deal with it, I make sure I over compensate by eating smaller portions and working out intensely until I feel better about myself.
Treat yourself every once in a while - I have mentioned about this is in earlier posts as well. I used to, treat myself every once in a while, once a month or so. Gobble up all I would want to eat. This actually helped me in 2 ways. Firstly, I just had to put off my cravings until my next opportunity to treat myself and Secondly it helps my system burn more fat since the system assumes that I would be giving it the same amount of food the following days which I wouldn't be. So all the reserve fat gets used up. But these days I don't do this treating myself any more. Trust me, I don't crave for anything. All I crave for is healthy food/snacks. May be my body or may be my mind got used to it. Now anything that is healthy is what feels tasty to me
Fact - I would be lying if I said it was easy for me. It is tough, lets face it, but all I am saying is "it is doable". We just have to understand that it is extremely difficult to go for a run when it is cold outside or to workout when you all you wanna do is sit and watch TV. We seem to have to drive to workout or go for a run but we fail to a relatively simple thing like saying NO to our cravings.
Running at 8.5 miles/hour for 45 minutes burns about 650 calories but munching on a bag of chips gets us 400 to 500 calories and a $**T load of sodium and fat in a matter of 2 minutes. It is just not worth it.
Moreover, I take lot of pride in Eating Right and I love it. I live for myself, and I always do things that I wanna do and not something to please someone else at least when it comes to eating.
All I can say is I started slowly but started to love what I was doing, I sure was taking control and I found myself Craving Healthy pretty soon. It feels amazing.
