Unhooking Cravings

Cravings sabotage our nutrition programs, efforts to reverse chronic disease, and weight loss plans.  Cravings make us feel out of control, defeat us, and can mentally make us feel like we are not fixable.

I acknowledge all those feelings that cravings create, AND, I offer you an alternate view and path to use to make you healthier.

First off - cravings have a biological root.  They are not the result of your weakness, lack of self control, or self sabotaging.  The body actually becomes addicted to foods: sugar and bread are  two common examples.  

Interestingly, foods that are inflammation inducers prompt the body to create antibodies to them as part of your immune response.  Knowing that dairy, for example, inflames you, you avoid dairy.  But the presence of these dairy antibodies circulating in your body actually triggers a desire for the enemy, so your cravings for ice cream, lattes, and cheese increase.

Understanding the biological root of cravings is important for two reasons.  Firstly, it underscores that there is nothing wrong with you, your body is functioning well and correctly.  Secondly, it guides us in addressing cravings.
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Realizing that they are basically well worn food pathways that your body has come to expect, the most successful approach is to create new pathways and walk down the well-worn path less and less frequently until it all but disappears. 

Here is a quick outline of how to get started in unhooking cravings that are not supportive of your wellbeing.

1. Space out your consumption. Lessen the frequency of indulging the craving.  If you indulge daily, then go for every other day.  This way you practice new habits, thus creating a new pathway, but you know that the next day you can have that thing you crave. 
2. Distract. If your craving strikes at particular times of day or after certain situations, practice doing something that distracts you from the craving.  If staying in the kitchen after dinner, triggers you.  Practice getting ready for bed immediately after dinner, or taking a walk outside, or always calling your family after dinner, or brushing your teeth. Create distractions unrelated to the cravings.
3. Reduce. If you crave nuts and find yourself eating a handful at a time, start reducing the serving size.  Instead of a handful, take just a few. If it’s a cupcake - eat half and throw the rest away. 
4. Replace. Experiment with substitutes that meet the craving with being less detrimental to your health.  So if it’s soda, begin to replace some of what you would drink with sparkling, no sugar drinks.  Week by week lessening the number of sodas, replacing them with flavored seltzers.
5. Create new pathways. The distract, reduce, replace tactics are creating new pathways and loosening the biological draw to certain foods.  At the same time, you can create new food addictions that are aligned with your health goals.  For example, I love cucumbers.  Last summer when I wanted a snack, I created the habit of going into the garden and picking a few cucumbers.  By the end of the season, I had a new craving - one for cucumbers. This has carried over through the winter. Maybe it’s the habit of salad for lunch versus a burger.  Experiment.
6. Be patient. Our biology changes, but not overnight.  Be patient with yourself. Each effort to create a new pathway is like laying a brick on a new path.  With each different choice a brick is laid and a new pathway begins to appear. Likewise, the less and less you follow a craving the more that biological pathway fades - this is particularly true of sugar and carb cravings.
7. Think long term. Forge your future.  Definitely kick starting yourself, but follow that up with a commitment to long term change.  Not giving up and not thinking yourself wrong - this is the key to changing your biology.

with love,
Jules
xo