Cravings. I've had a lot of them from lunchtime onwards. They creep up silently and, to someone trying to lose weight, often deadly to motivation and diets.
So how do you stop them?
It's hard to. You're essentially stopping yourself from eating the rubbish you are used to eating and replacing it with food youd normally have as garnish; maybe you're even just reducing it: either way your body wants it and so does your mind. Thinking of the things you know is bad for you makes you want them...obviously. eating them releases your feel good drug endorphin, and your brain wants that a lot.
What have I done?
I'll start with breakfast. I've been eating porridge and it's been amazingly good at stopping cravings in the morning. This is because the oats are high in satiety and the almond milk I use also has a high satiety level, so it's low in calories and high in keeping me feeling full for longer. Add blueberries to that and it makes a very tasty and filling breakfast.
Lunch today wasn't great because I had left it in the kitchen at home. However, normally I would have a German ham sandwich on wholemeal seeded bread (wholemeal bread has a greater satiety than white bread and is better for you, having unrefined flour) and an apple, orange and banana. Now, my fruit is not for lunch, they are used as healthy snacks to stop my cravings during the day. I've found that bananas are best and oranges are the least filling. Some days I have a humous pot with veg sticks instead of a sandwich, but that's not as filling and I do have more cravings when I have that. So a tip from me is that, if you are having something very low calorie like salad, have something else that will fill you up. You can have something healthy that's filling, even if it uses a few more calories, because it's worth it instead of having cravings and craving and eating rubbish later. DO NOT SKIP LUNCH. If you go for long periods without food your cravings are exaggerated tenfold and you motivation to stay strong ebbs a lot...I found that out today. Thankfully I have pretty good willpower so was able to resist today. Whether I would be able to resist every day is a big doubt, so a BIG tip is eat regularly throughout the day and don't go for long periods without food.
Dinner is always the biggest time when cravings kick in because, if you have kids, there's going to be some rubbish in the house and therefore temptation. As the evening wears on and you become more tired, cravings sneak in and begin to chat to the side of you that really wants that chocolate bar or packet of crisps. The answer is obvious...eat a healthy snack and, every now and again, give in and have that chocolate bar or packet of crisps. I've found that having the occasional one during the week really helps to stop cravings for them. I don't indulge more than twice a week, but having that indulgence has helped me say no and resist the cravings most of the time by having maybe almonds or a yoghurt.
Also, drinking water when cravings start has also helped me resist my cravings, because if my stomach is full of water, it doesn't want the rubbish snack I think I want.
Those are the ways I have found to resist cravings so far. I'm sure there are more ways, but I'm sure I'll have to find new and inventive ways to stop cravings as the weeks and months pass.
If you have any tips, please feel free to reply to this post or email me.
Thanks for reading.
Stay strong.
Sean.