Cravings and urges for foods are a part of the human experience. But when you are trying to lose weight and urges for crave-worthy foods come up, this can cause problems for your weight loss. Below I’m going to teach you how to be a cravings hero instead of a weight loss zero.
Acknowledge the craving
When you have a craving, the first step to being a cravings hero is to acknowledge it. You can’t step up to be the hero until you know there is a problem. Acknowledging it isn’t hard. All you have to do is say to yourself “I’m having a craving for some chocolate” or “I’m having an urge to eat potato chips.”
Acknowledging this thought it key to bringing your awareness to the situation. It helps you to start slowing down your thoughts and engaging your logical brain. There is nothing right or wrong about having a craving. It’s something that happens. Sometimes the simple act of acknowledging it and telling yourself this is normal is enough to take the pressure off.
Change the scenery
Yes, go somewhere else. You can make allowing a craving to pass much easier on yourself when you leave the area where you first felt that craving. Often our cravings happen in the kitchen. Take a three minute walk to the mailbox, go to your bedroom or any other part of the house.
Changing the scenery gives you the time and space to consider how you want to react to that craving. It is difficult to think through your choice when the food item that triggered the craving is staring you in the face. Taking just a few minutes to go somewhere else gives you the opportunity to reset and think through how you want to respond.
This is normal and temporary
Often the biggest frustration about cravings is that we don’t think they should be happening. We want to pick a diet plan and stick to it perfectly without any bumps or hiccups. But that’s not real life. Bumps, hiccups and cravings are all a part of the game. You can take a lot of pressure and frustration off your weight loss journey by simply accepting that this a normal part of the process.
After you remind yourself that cravings are normal, remind yourself that they are also temporary. They do not last forever. Cravings don’t just going away by giving into them. There have been many times where I have wanted some potato chips or chocolate and didn’t have any in the house. I was too lazy to go to the store and get them so I just went without it. And guess what? Eventually I stopped thinking about it and moved on. The craving went away.
You’re in control
Whether it feels like or not, you are always in control. If you decide to eat the food or not, you did so because you decided to. This is a beautiful thing. It’s not the delicious looking slice of cake that made you eat it. It wasn’t the bag of popcorn that moved your hand up to your mouth. You always get to decide and take action.
There is no right decision either. You can decide to eat it, decide to plan for it another time or decide not to eat it at all. Those choices are available to you. Consider your weight loss goal and how each decision will affect it. As long as you like your reasons then go for it! On my weight loss journey, no foods were off limits but I made a food plan each day and if the craving food wasn’t on the plan, I didn’t eat it. I would choose to write my craving food on my plan for the next day as a way to keep my promise to myself that day but also acknowledge that if I wanted something and I could truly have it when it was planned for.
Celebrate it
Eating food is a pleasurable activity. When we say no to cravings because we “shouldn’t” it can feel like punishment or restriction, which is not pleasurable at all. If you decide to eat the food but followed the process above, that’s something to celebrate! If you decided to plan for the craving food for another time and delay gratification to be more intentional in your choice, another great celebration. If you decided not to eat the food now or later, wonderful!
In any of these situations, you are becoming more aware and intentional in your choices and that is something to celebrate!
Your coach,
Andrea