Control Cravings
The chocolate is calling me from the fridge! I don’t know what happened: I was doing so well, and then I ended up eating the whole pizza! I can’t walk past the bakers without buying a bun/sausage roll/cake!
There are a few reasons we crave food. But there are also successful ways to stop them controlling you!
REAL OR TRICK HUNGER
We are often tricked into eating when we’re not really hungry. Hunger is either physiological (fuel for survival) or psychological (influenced by sight, smell, stress, social, emotions etc).
A number of hormones and neurotransmitters are at play when we’re talking about hunger, including appetite boosters, appetite suppressors, fullness and even stress indicators. And the problem is distinguishing between the two types of hunger. Have a look at our film “Are You Really Hungry” to start thinking about when you’re eating.
DOPAMINE HIT
Dopamine is our feel good/reward hormone. And we like it! We explain about dopamine in more detail in the article Happiness Craving.
We get a shot of dopamine from sweet foods. And when we eat a lot of sweet foods, we end up needing more of them in order to get the same level of dopamine (reward) as we once received. As we become addicted, this results in less dopamine being generated, so we overeat in attempt to achieve the previous levels of pleasure and reward. What drives us to overeat is our need for this dopamine fix.
BANNING FOODS
As soon as you ban a food from your diet, it is likely to become an obsession. Do you see adverts, pictures, get leaflets on the doormat for your banned food as soon as you’ve told yourself they are off limits?
Many people will say “if I want to lose weight, I’m never going to be able to have anything really nice again”, “I can no longer have my favourite foods”. As soon as the word diet comes to mind, it brings about the emotion of missing out on all our favourite things, and instantly manifesting pictures to the mind of the biscuits, pies, cakes etc. Our minds are clever like that!!
Therefore, what would be better is to not think of them too often, by not reminding ourselves of them at every opportunity. So therefore, no food is off limits. No food is banned. Then you reduce the obsession with them.
By eating mindfully, when you’re hungry and by knowing that your favourite foods are there if you really want them, success is much easier to achieve.
Healthier choices become easier to make because you’ve brought all of this into your awareness. Rather than automatically eating foods you crave, you can take a bit of time to think about whether you really want it.
Attend one of the SmallerKnickers Workshops to understand what drives you to crave certain foods, and take back control.