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Anytime you get stressed or anxious, your body starts to have cravings. And when you feed into the cravings, you do feel temporarily better. It's a strong urge. And sometimes just meditating doesn't work especially if you aren't great with meditating. So at that point, you're stuck. It's not easy.
Are there any things you can reasonably do to look at this issue differently? We are in a society where people will just say either do it or tough luck.
I seem to have finally minimized my junk food eating. I cut out added sugars from my diet years ago. And I have a few things in my diet that give me a hint of sweetness, so I rarely crave more. My family had donuts on Saturday while I quite happily grabbed some fruit.
There isn't much else junk-ish in my regular diet either. I used to sometimes cave in and eat cereal straight out of the box, but intermittent fasting seems to have cured that habit (so far). I did cave in and buy a donut and muffin a couple weeks ago, but they were gross. Not even worth it.
The key for me is that I regularly have some sweetness in my every day diet. So I don't feel like I'm missing anything, and I don't crave it because either I just had something or it's coming up soon!
Dark chocolate. Usually day a half serving a day, so 90 calories.
Other than that I don't let it in the house if I'm trying to lose weight. I also make coffee in the morning so I'm not staring at those delicious pastries. Yes, I can still go out and buy it but I have very high success rate in talking myself out doing that versus walking by the kitchen and seeing a bag of potato chips. That things just going to keep calling out to me. I might avoid it the first few times I see it, but eventually I succumb and devour the bag.
Anytime you get stressed or anxious, your body starts to have cravings. And when you feed into the cravings, you do feel temporarily better. It's a strong urge. And sometimes just meditating doesn't work especially if you aren't great with meditating. So at that point, you're stuck. It's not easy.
Are there any things you can reasonably do to look at this issue differently? We are in a society where people will just say either do it or tough luck.
No one said it is easy, especially if you have gotten sucked into the desire/reward cycle for a long time. You desire something because you know from experience you'll get that reward. You'll find all sorts of rationalizations for "earning" that reward. Oh I was extra stressed today so I earned that Burger King Whopper. Oh I was a bit depressed so I'll feel better if I eat a plate of pasta. I didn't eat all day so I can splurge on dinner. You convince yourself that you EARNED the reward even though you haven't.
I find it's better to avoid the starvation extremes...don't have to go there and it's not sustainable. One thing that helps me is to find different forms of the rewards I want. Instead of eating a big handful of milk chocolates (exaggeration) I may allow myself a rock hard dark chocolate sucker instead. A See's Candies chocolate lollipop is less than 100 calories. By the time I've finished it I'm over the urge for that chocolate/sweet thing (or my tongue's tired...those things are TOUGH!). Instead of a can of Coke I mix my own fizzy-somewhat sweet drink from seltzer with a bit of flavoring added instead. Instead of a milkshake I may drink a chilled glass of low fat milk with a small dollop of chocolate syrup added. Ditch the latte for great tasting tea with a bit of milk. The whole thing about substituting low fat low sugar products for higher calorie equivalents. It works. You have to let your taste make the transition but that doesn't take too long.
The one that eludes me is a substitute for a warm creamy artisan Brie
I've found that if it's in the house, I'll eat it, all of it, until it's gone.
So for me the battle field is in the grocery store. That's where I have to exercise self discipline. I'll deliberately look the other way when I pass the Entenmann's display.
It helps to have a shopping list and stick to it. When I'm tempted to buy snacks and sweets, I try to remind myself how expensive it is, both in money terms and in health terms.
Anytime you get stressed or anxious, your body starts to have cravings. And when you feed into the cravings, you do feel temporarily better. It's a strong urge. And sometimes just meditating doesn't work especially if you aren't great with meditating. So at that point, you're stuck. It's not easy.
Are there any things you can reasonably do to look at this issue differently? We are in a society where people will just say either do it or tough luck.
Don't keep it in the house and don't run to get whatever you're craving. It will pass. You do have to allow yourself some sort of a treat or it will never work. The key is moderation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucy_C
I seem to have finally minimized my junk food eating. I cut out added sugars from my diet years ago. And I have a few things in my diet that give me a hint of sweetness, so I rarely crave more. My family had donuts on Saturday while I quite happily grabbed some fruit.
There isn't much else junk-ish in my regular diet either. I used to sometimes cave in and eat cereal straight out of the box, but intermittent fasting seems to have cured that habit (so far). I did cave in and buy a donut and muffin a couple weeks ago, but they were gross. Not even worth it.
The key for me is that I regularly have some sweetness in my every day diet. So I don't feel like I'm missing anything, and I don't crave it because either I just had something or it's coming up soon!
That's where people go wrong, they don't allow themselves to have something to satisfy the need. You found a way around it.
I've found that if it's in the house, I'll eat it, all of it, until it's gone.
So for me the battle field is in the grocery store. That's where I have to exercise self discipline. I'll deliberately look the other way when I pass the Entenmann's display.
It helps to have a shopping list and stick to it. When I'm tempted to buy snacks and sweets, I try to remind myself how expensive it is, both in money terms and in health terms.
That's my "secret," too. Just don't have the stuff around. My sister is one of those people who can buy Girl Scout cookies, eat two, and put the box in the cabinet and forget about. I can't, so I just don't buy Girl Scout cookies. I don't want to live in a world completely devoid of Doritos, so every so often I'll buy a small snack bag and enjoy the heck out of it. Other times I have to remind myself, "I can have those, but not today."
Keeping busy. Afternoons at work are tough for me...I crave junk. The more busy I keep myself with work, the less likely I am to snack.
After dinner is another trigger time for me as well. I still struggle with this a lot and am trying to find a way to completely cut out the night time cravings. I find that if I can hold off for a night or two, it gets easier. But I always cave eventually.
Cravings were basically eliminated when I implemented a weekly cheat day. It allows me to keep things in check. Denial only increases cravings and makes things hard on yourself (at least that's how I feel). I don't call denying things that I truly love to be "effortless" or "good".
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Just stop. Soda was the hardest, but haven't touched it for 15 years now.
Then, I keep some nuts around for when I need a snack. And drink lots of water.
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