Cravings

Hey everyone!

As promised this next entry is gonna be all about the cravings! This is a very common problem a lot of people face. I struggled with problem too very many times as before I was successful I had past attempts that failed and cravings was one of the problems that made me fail a lot.

What can cause me to crave?

Boredom
Do you ever find that when you're bored you find yourself eating something? This happens to a lot of people. It happened to me! For some reason you probably find that you want something to do like for example you are at the train station it's 3:30 pm and your train won't be here till 4:00 and you find a vending machine nearby so you decide that you want to buy a bar of chocolate or a pack of chips from the vending machine and eat while you wait and yet you already had a little snack from earlier which might have been an unhealthy one. What I am saying is that you find that eating is something you find that will keep you from feeling bored and you want to feel satisfied from something that tastes amazing. and you look to it at as something to do when really you don't need to eat anything. Food can be such a distraction.

Tip:

• If you ever are in that situation, find something to do, like for example the train station scenario, listen to some music on your Ipod or play games on your phone or read a book. All in all find something to do also drink some water as that might help. You want to keep your mind off food.

Thirst
Cravings could also be a sign that you are thirsty and your body will sometimes confuse it for hunger instead so if you get a lot of cravings it could mean that you don't drink enough water. Make sure you have 8 glasses of water a day. I found that drinking lots of water really helped control my cravings.

Depression
Have you ever found yourself ever eating anything when you were feeling low or upset? This doesn't happen to everyone, as some people don't like eating when they have the blues but some people like to eat their problems away as they seek food as a thing to make them feel better or as a source of comfort. This is also known as emotional eating.

Tips:

•  Think of other things you like other than food. What else makes you happy aside from food or eating? it could be an activity, hobby or sport. 
• You could also speak to your GP or a counselor  to help fix that certain thing that made you upset like lets say, you broke up with your boyfriend or you are going through grief and you find that you are turning to food too much and you are making unhealthy food choices. Hang in there, I know its hard but you really have to fix your problems, life is tough but think of the problems you will face if you continue to eat your problems away. 
• Another thing you could do is yoga or meditation, because that is something that can help make you feel better. I know you might be thinking it sounds too much like a hippy sort of thing, but give it a go it might help. The reason I recommend this is because doing things like meditation can help give you a positive mind I don't know how it works. Meditation doesn't have to be sitting down cross legged and going "om sham ti sham ti oooom" it can also be going for a walk and releasing your thoughts in your mind. I do a lot of walking with my dog and that is the time when I do a lot of thinking to myself. It is also that time where I manage to solve all my personal problems as in I end up thinking of things or ideas for a problem I am having for anything really. Just take a little walk around your neighborhood or park, you don't need to have a dog and see how it works for you. Meditation can also be just sitting down or lying down quietly and taking deep breaths.

All in all Don't look to food as something that will make your problems go away. Its a bit similar to having an addiction to alcohol and drugs. My point is eating is not going to solve your problems as it makes things worse because you are unhappy about a certain thing but in the end you are gonna start being even more unhappy with your weight therefore, creating more problems for yourself. Please do something to solve that problem. I know its hard but remember there is always a solution. 

Too much simple carbs or high GI foods in your diet
Eating too many simple carbs such as chips, lollies/candy, white bread, white pasta or anything with white sugar and white flour will make you crave. If you find that you crave anything sweet most of the time that means your GI levels are very high. I am not saying eliminate those kinds of foods but have them occasionally. please read these two posts if you haven't yet as I address why you should have them less:

http://myweightlossexprience.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/where-do-i-start.html

http://myweightlossexprience.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/how-to-lose-weight-and-eat-properly-on.html

Skipping breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As cliche as that sounds, it is. Skipping breakfast can really give worse cravings throughout the day as you put your body through starvation mode, leaving you to crave. make sure you have a healthy filling 300 calorie breakfast or more or less depending on your own daily intake. That way your body will be more satisfied and you won't crave too much or deprive your body. It will also help speed your metabolism. But what ever you do don't eat a breakfast that is too light or filled with simple carbs because again that will also make you crave.
Have something that has protein like oatmeal, eggs on wholegrain toast or tofu scramble(If you're vegan) I personally found that eating breakfast helped control my cravings.

Not enough sleep
Make sure you have 8 hours of sleep. Studies recently are claiming that lack of sleep may be the cause to junk food cravings. I don't how to explain this very well but try and get some proper sleep and see how it works for you. I found out this information from Women's health magazine as I follow them on facebook.

Near by junk food around your house
This is another thing I found out from women's health magazine but I also sort also knew about this before. If you have any junk food lying around in your house, make sure it's out of site.

Tips:

• Ask who ever you're living with whether its your sibling, husband, boyfriend, room mate or parent to hide their own snacks in their own stash and tell them that leaving it out will tempt you. (I'm sure they won't want you to eat their own goodies anyway!) 
• Don't buy any junk food snacks, buy healthier snacks, when you go grocery shopping.
• Give away all your junk food to friends or family who you know will eat it, instead of eating it your self or throwing it away.

Not enough protein or bulk in your meals
Don't eat too many light meals because having a light meal will make you very unsatisfied that's why a lot of diets that make you eat salad all the time fail, because you just don't feel full. I know that sounds weird but eating a very light breakfast and a very light lunch will make you more hungry.

Depriving yourself
You should allow yourself a treat once in a while, its ok to have junk food once in awhile but also remember there are alternatives to junk food like for example kale chips. Or if you crave pizza you can make a pizza using a wholemeal base and use low fat cheese. Or you feel like having fries for dinner make sweet potato fries or cassava fries. Point blank don't ban anything from your diet. Never tell yourself things like "I will never eat junk food again!" or "Goodbye chocolate, goodbye fries, goodbye Mc Donalds!" if you tell your self things like that, you will make yourself crave the food even more! remember it is ok once in awhile. This is a mistake I made ALL the time, and in the end I kept letting myself down and soon I would splurge on those foods, then give up the next day and I would feel soooo guilty! I recently read an article from women's health that explained that food guilt is a bad thing and I found it to be true because in the past before I lost weight and at all these pre attempts to losing weight.

I would lay the law down on my self "No this, no that or don't eat this!" and then guess what I would do this:

 "ok I guess I'll have a little bit"

One minute later

".........Maybe one more"

two seconds later

"OM NOM NOM NOM!"

Another two seconds later

"OH NOOOOOOOOOOO! what have I done! how could I do that!?!.... I... I ruined my diet!"

And the next day I would decide that I should quit because of ruining my diet then I would decide to start again the next day but again didn't commit and then I would decide next week, then it would change to next month.  All because I deprived myself! The more you tell yourself you will cut out something for good the more you will crave it because it will stick in your mind and you end up playing rebel with yourself and soon give in to temptation. I always did this and every time I  ate something unhealthy I would just feel guilty all the friggin' time!

Here is the article in case you want to read it.
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/food-guilt

If you ever had a day where you ate something bad and you regretted it. like lets say it was the day before, move on, don't feel guilty about it just carry on with your plan, just because you ate something bad for lunch or whatever meal or you splurged, it does not mean you should give up, plus a small amount of junk food it not enough to make you gain weight. Heck eating healthy and eating the right amount of calories everyday along with one day splurging will NOT make you gain weight either. It takes time to gain weight so don't worry if you ate a whole bar of chocolate, just carry on eating your proper meals and carry on with your regular exercise and you will be fine. And remember there is NOTHING wrong with having junk food once in a while. Have it, enjoy it, don't feel guilty and move on.  I know its hard to get rid of that feeling, I'll admit I am still struggling to get rid of that feeling since it was only just recently that I found out that food guilt is bad.

Emotional attachment to junk food
Another reason why you might get cravings is because you may have associated a certain food to a particular time in your life where you were very happy and you want to go back into that moment because you feel as though you are stepping back in time. We human beings tend to do that a lot! We do it with smells, objects and especially food! for example you feel like having a chocolate chip cookie because it reminds you of your childhood or you want that cotton candy from the store because it reminds you of the time you went to the fun fair. This is another thing I struggled with personally. I remember I would buy kinder chocolate because it reminded me of when I ate kinder surprise eggs with my cousin as a kid. I would crave twisties because I ate them all the time as a kid. I would also get these mini ice cream chocolate pops from Aldi because they also reminded me of my childhood.

This happens to a lot of people at one point you are like:

"Ah I remember the time when I hung out with my friends and we all ate oreo cookies with milk! Oh the good old times!"

one second later

"Damn it! now I want oreos!"

This is tough I'll admit, but if you ever find your self in that kind of moment remind yourself that you need to stay committed to your goals as in think to yourself "yeah that was a good moment, I really loved those cookies grandma gave me back then, but I can't just eat them now, I made commitment to myself" or "yeah those were good times, but I can't eat this now" or simply be aware that you are attaching yourself emotionally to food and acknowledge that this is part of where your cravings are coming from and admit to yourself that this is a problem as in this is whats sabotaging your plans. You need to move on with your past I am not saying forget your past I mean we all had moments in our lives where we were very happy and it involved a certain food but you always have to remind yourself that you have a goal you want to reach and you don't want anything including THIS emotional attachment to jeopardize you and your plans. Remember there is more to life than food. Focus on today don't focus on what you ate when you were 5 years old in your grandma's house! I mean if the food reminded you of your grandma than it probably isn't the cookies you miss it's her that you miss.

Before I sign off I just want to let you know some more important things.
Don't worry if you are a snacker, because having 5 or 6 small meals a day is actually very good for your metabolism, as you are keeping your body busy.

When you skip meals or starve yourself surprisingly enough you will gain weight all because you have given the metabolism a break and when it goes back to work it behaves very sloppy and all that energy its now storing is being turned into fat instead of being stored somewhere else, because your metabolism is too tired to store it somewhere else! When you skip meals you are actually abusing your metabolism. Think of it as when you have gone on a really long holiday and you've released all your stress and discomfort from work and as soon as you come back from your holiday you find that you have a lot of work to do and you are really not up to it so you start doing things slowly compared to before your holiday where you were more agile and speedy at most of your tasks. Or think of it as waking up in the morning and you are trying to drag yourself out of bed, but you don't want to wake up because you are too tired! This is exactly how your metabolism behaves when you do stuff like yo yo dieting or juicing diets. You are allowed to have snacks everyday, you just have to make sure they are healthy snacks and not high sugary snacks or potato chips and high in calories.

Alright guys I really hope that this post answered any question you had about cravings. This was something I really used to struggle with and I know a lot of people struggle with this sort of issue. Never give up and always believe that you have the power to change yourself for the better.

Love
Alice