Handling Cravings

Cravings are the powerful urges we get to eat off-plan foods.  They can be tightly laser-focused on one thing, and we walk around like zombies with our arms out, saying “Pizza… pizza… pizza…”  They can be broader, and we just have an itchy “sweet tooth” or “snackish… crunchy…” feeling.

However your cravings show up, they’re a problem you need to actively address.  Luckily there are lots of things you can do.  Any of them are just ideas.  If something doesn’t work, or doesn’t keep working, try something else.  Experiment until you find the best way to manage yourself given your relationship with food.

Cravings Management Strategies:

– Ignore them until they go away.  This is a “don’t feed the beast” strategy.  Whatever you give energy and attention to increases.  Whatever you ignore will eventually give up and go sulk in a corner.  Quietly.  Which is just how you like that pesky entitled brat.

– Distraction.  If you’re busy doing something else, it’s much harder to fixate on that food you’re not eating.  Get out of the house, do some gardening, whiten your teeth (ever try to eat with those trays in your mouth?), take a sleeping pill and go to bed, exercise, whatever.  Do something that has nothing to do with food.

– Diagnose the problem.  What has prompted this craving?  Did you have too many carbs earlier in the day and now you’re extra hungry?  Did you forget to eat your last meal yesterday and now your body is freaking out because it doesn’t have enough fuel?  Are you failing to get a minimum amount of fat/salt/potassium/etc in your diet and your body is trying to get its nutritional needs met?  Look over your food log.  Ask people on your diet.  Do an internet search for “salt cravings” or whatever and see if there’s an underlying condition.

– Dig into your feelings.  Is there something else going on that’s triggering you to want this food?  Did you just visit your mother and now you want an entire pie?  Is work extra stressful?  Did you just have a fight with your partner?  Are you bored or lonely?  Evaluate how you’re feeling.  Dig deeper.  The more you know about the root causes of your individual desire to eat, the better-equipped you are to control yourself.

– Snack.  So you can’t have bacon right now.  Would a dill pickle give you something to put in your mouth and at least handle the desire for salt?  Different plans will have different allowed snack foods.  Try sugar-free Jello or popsicles, diet soda, pickles, celery sticks, a couple ounces of lean protein, a cheese stick, etc.

– Drink water.  It’s harder to want to eat if you’ve just poured a quart of water into your stomach.

– Pray.  Whether you’re on a formal 12-step program or not, turning it over to a higher power can help many people.

– Use a mantra.  Mine was “That food is not for me.”  I found it surprisingly powerful, especially when confronted with samples in the grocery store or a buffet table.  That food is not for me.  It would calm me right down, reminding me that I did not choose to eat that food available to me.

– Huffing.  I huff a lot of food.  Carbs and sugar smell amazing to me.  But I have discovered that smelling them can be satisfying all by itself.  I can have an enjoyable experience of the food without polluting my body with it.  In fact, I’ve lost the taste for sugar and carbs make me feel like crap, so smelling it has actually become the only way I enjoy these foods.  Try smelling deeply of the food that’s making you crazy and see if that doesn’t alleviate the craving.

– Think dirty thoughts.  Picture the “dirty man hands” that were in that bowl of candy before you came along.  Get a very clear picture in your mind of how often people fail to wash their hands after using the bathroom.  Imagine those dirty hands combing through the buffet food, preparing it in the kitchen, etc.  Know that anyone could have sneezed or coughed on it, and there could be clumps of snot and spit on that apparently delicious item right now.  Still want to eat it?  I thought not.

Play around.  Come up with your own favorite strategies to handle cravings.  They do not have to get the better of you if you don’t let them.