When you’re trying to lose weight, you need to arm yourself with strategies that can stop cravings for food. However, there are different kinds of cravings, and not all of them can be easily soothed. Below are a few common causes for cravings, and tips for how to make them go away.
Thirst
When you experience a craving for food, you may in fact be thirsty.
Remember that a craving is just your body’s way of getting your attention to communicate a desire for something. Unfortunately, since your body doesn’t speak to you with words, you may misinterpret the signals.
Whenever you experience a strong craving for something, your first thought should be, “Am I thirsty?” Drink a glass of water and wait 10-15 minutes. If the food craving persists, move on to the next possibility.
Vitamin Deficiency
Being deficient in certain vitamins and minerals can trigger food cravings.
For example, being low on iron can cause you to start craving red meat, and magnesium deficiency can trigger cravings for chocolate.
You can stop cravings for food related to vitamin deficiencies by making sure you are getting the full recommended daily servings of all four food groups. Be sure to eat enough vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, dairy and healthy fats. Avoid refined sugars because they will trigger even more sweet cravings.
If you think you may not be getting enough nutrients from food, you’ll want to find a high-quality vitamin supplement and take it every day.
Emotional Cravings
Finally, cravings can be triggered by emotional issues.
These kinds of cravings are far more common than the two described above, but luckily they are easier to identify and stop in their tracks. When you notice that you are craving something, take stock of your emotional state at that moment. Do you feel depressed, anxious, angry, bored, or lonely?
You may be trying to calm unsettled emotions or fill an emotional void with food. If you suspect that may be the case, you can stop cravings for food by finding a way to make yourself feel better without eating. Watch a funny television show that boosts your mood. Call a friend and chat until you feel better. Go for a walk. Write in a journal.
Do anything you can to work through uncomfortable emotions, and the food cravings will fade away easily.
To stop cravings for food, you simply need to identify what the trigger is and take steps to neutralize it.
Most of us equate “cheating” on our diets with failure, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it’s possible to “cheat your way” to a slender, healthy new you – IF you do it right. The most important thing to do is change your perception of what a “cheat” really is.
Right now you may think of cheating as eating something you are not allowed to have – those “forbidden” foods that tempt you oh so much! The problem with making foods completely forbidden is that it will only intensify your desire for them if you know you can’t have them.
Instead, why not change your perception of forbidden foods and instead call them “occasional yummy indulgences” or “treats worth waiting for”? If you know that you can have some of these goodies now and then, you won’t feel such a strong wave of temptation every time you see them, smell them, or hear about them. You’ll know that you can indulge occasionally, so the urgency to have them right now will fade somewhat.
The Challenges
The first big challenge is in not making these cheats a daily occurrence, because that’s what got you into trouble weight-wise in the first place.
Decide ahead of time how often you will cheat.
It’s very feasible to cheat once a week, or twice a month and still continue to lose weight very steadily and easily. Do what would work best for you. If you notice that a weekly cheat slows down your weight loss too much, push it out to every 2 or 3 weeks and see if that works better.
The second challenge is in keeping serving sizes modest. A cheat does NOT have to be a 3-scoop hot fudge sundae with all the fixings. In fact, if you gorge on your treats you will only reinforce the perception that you are out of control and can’t enjoy treats.
On the other hand, if you firmly stick to having just a small serving of whatever goody you wish to enjoy, you will keep reinforcing your perception that you CAN trust yourself with food and you CAN lose weight while still eating foods you enjoy.
Keep in mind that this approach may be more challenging for some people than others. If you have a strong habit of eating for emotional reasons, you may find that cheating becomes a convenient excuse to overdo it and sabotage your weight loss. Not good. If you struggle with this, it might be a better idea to space out the treats more, like once every 3 months.
As you gain better control over your eating habits, you should be able to enjoy a treat now and then without slipping into old destructive habits again.
Almost all of us suffer from insomnia at some point in time.
Insomnia can be transient and related to everyday stressors. It can also become chronic, so that nearly every night you have problems getting to sleep or staying asleep throughout the night.
6 to 10% of the US population suffers from some type of insomnia.
Women experience this condition two times more than men do.
Lack of sleep can lead to serious health problems and consequences including, heart disease and diabetes. It is also a contributing factor to obesity and can increase chances of work and driving related accidents.
Anyone who has ever experienced insomnia or even poor sleep knows that the day after can be pure misery and can affect work, relationships, and social life.
The following are ten ways to help yourself get some sleep and avoid the long-term consequences of sleep deprivation brought on by too many nights without proper sleep:
1. Set a sleep ritual. This means you go through the same behaviors before going to sleep at the same time of night. Rituals train the mind, which regulates the body, and a nightly ritual can go a long way to facilitating a healthy sleep cycle. Your sleep ritual can involve self-care like brushing your hair and teeth, putting on some soothing music, taking a bath with aromatherapy candles, and reading by candle light or even fluffing your pillows before sleeping.
2. Use a white noise machine. White noise machines are all natural methods to elicit sleep and to ensure a healthy sleep pattern. These machines emit white noise to block out extraneous noises that might interfere with your sleep. There are also those that offer the sound of waterfalls, the ocean, or a babbling brook. Choose a sound that appeals to you and go to sleep with that sound playing all night long or just for a half hour to 90 minutes, depending on whether or not your machine has an automatic stop timer.
3. Practice meditation. Many people meditate before going to sleep. Meditation involves having a strong mind-body connection, focusing on your breath, relaxing all of your muscles and calming the mind. When your muscles are relaxed completely, you will have less musculoskeletal pain and will sleep better. Meditation is very effective for reducing anxiety, which is a major contributor to insomnia.
4. Practice hypnosis. Self-hypnosis is similar to meditation except that with self-hypnosis, you will focus on a specific goal, such as getting a calm night’s sleep. You work with your subconscious in order to bring about a state of relaxation conducive to sleep.
5. Drink lavender or chamomile tea. Both of these herbal remedies can help you feel more rested and ready to sleep. Lavender can be drank in tea form, taken as a capsule containing the dried plant components, or used in essential oil form in an aromatherapy diffuser.
6. Try qi gong. Qi gong is an ancient Chinese martial art that involves gentle and graceful movements attached to deep meditation and breathing. This can be learned at a health club or from a home DVD. Just about everyone has the skill it takes to do this soothing form of exercise right before bedtime.
7. Avoid large meals before bedtime. Eating too much before you go to bed can make it uncomfortable to get a full night’s rest. Eat at least 3-4 hours before bedtime, reserving nighttime for a small pre-sleep snack.
8. Practice Tai chi. Tai chi is an ancient Chinese martial art form that has become a popular exercise for better health. It is a bit more stimulating when compared to qi gong but involves similar movements. Tai chi should probably not be done right before bedtime, instead, do tai chi about 4 hours or more before going to sleep.
9. Try passion flower. Passion flower is a well-known herbal sleep aid that can be taken alone or used with other herbal sleep aids. It relaxes the mind and frees it from anxieties that plague your nighttime hours. Take it as a tea or use standardized capsules containing dried passionflower.
10. Practice yoga. Yoga can be a good exercise to do right before bedtime. Yoga involves various poses while concentrating on breathing and mindfulness.
Treating Insomnia With Yoga
There are several poses, which specifically help to induce sleep and aid with insomnia:
Take a yoga class to see if you like it or purchase a yoga DVD. Establish a routine that you can implement as a nightly ritual before retiring to sleep.
