Trapped by Food Cravings?
Feeling Trapped by Food Cravings? Get the Facts and Break Free
You’re stuck with no escape. You feel powerless to fight back and can’t imagine a way out. Sound like a bad dream? It might be if you feel trapped by food cravings every day. But you don’t have to be a prisoner in your own body. Get the facts and learn more about managing your food cravings.
Carbs Are Often Misused as Coping Methods
Carbohydrate consumption increases the release of a chemical called serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is involved with body regulation activities like falling asleep, pain management, and controlling moods according to this article from Medical News Today. Imagine the last time you felt really frightened or stressed out. Did you feel some pain, have trouble sleeping, and have a lot of emotions to deal with? Most likely you did. It’s easy to see how a person can get caught up in a cycle of eating to feel better. That’s literally the chemical process that’s taking place in your brain.
A little emotional eating once in a great while is a fairly common human experience. But if eating is your main method of dealing with emotional upset, then food cravings can trap you in a destructive pattern. Get familiar with a few healthy methods of handling stress, pain, and sleep problems. Try taking a quick walk, doing a little deep breathing, or listening to a little bit of your favorite music. Once you separate those activities from food, you’ll find that your cravings aren’t overpowering anymore.
Food Cravings Don’t Happen in a Vacuum
Do you know what makes you crave certain foods more often? Do you crave the same kinds of food at the same time every day? If you use a food diary, you’ll know the answers to these questions. Food diaries can help you understand what’s happen when you eat and all the times you’re thinking about eating.
You may or may not be surprised to learn the most common circumstances around your strongest cravings. Awareness gives you power to decide how to handle a craving before it happens. When you can see the triggers setting up, you can be proactive about managing them instead of always trying to fight them off.
Forbidden Foods Are the Most Irresistible
What happens when you try your hardest NOT to think about a piece of chocolate? It’s the first thing to pop into your mind. And if you’ve been told you can’t have it at all? Even worse. If you have a food intolerance or great difficulty controlling your eating behaviors, you have no choice but to stay away from certain foods. But if you can manage a small indulgence now and then, it’s less of a struggle to answer some cravings now and then.
If you love chocolate and always seem to have a craving at the same time of da, try chocolate covered soy nuts. The chocolate layer is fairly thin and soy nuts are great for you. Want something salty? Try about 6-7 reduced-sodium whole grain crackers. Salt is an acquired taste, and after a while the reduced level of sodium will seem normal to your taste buds. For even better management, use a small cup with proportions clearly measured. Or make sure you have to ask your coworker for your one Hershey’s kiss instead of having them at your desk at work.
Learn More, Manage Food Cravings Better
When you understand your food cravings, it’s easier to live with them. You can respond in creative ways that balance enjoyment and good health. While it may seem like an uphill battle at first, you can make realistic changes over time. In the end, you can break free from the power of food cravings.