08 Oct How to Prevent Food Cravings
Do you struggle with food cravings? Do you find it so difficult to control what you eat especially at the end of a long, stressful day? It seems then that your will-power is just up and gone, even though you told yourself at the start of the day you were “going to be good”. You ask yourself why?
Over the last ten and a half years one of the biggest challenges my clients struggled with before coming to see me. Perhaps it’s the same for you? You’ve started that many diets and each time you begin with determination and motivation but when those cravings start you just crumble.
You find yourself at the fridge stuffing your face on everything in sight or in the bakery or the supermarket buying chocolate, ice cream, Tim Tams, Oreos and the like and you can’t help yourself but eat the whole lot. Then you beat yourself up afterwards, with all the shame and guilt.
Well I want you to know that it’s not your fault!
You see I’ve done all of that too. I love food and I’m a sugarholic! In my previous profession I was surrounded by food all the time – cakes, biscuits, lollies, chocolates, crackers and cheese, dips, you name it. If it was there I just had to have it, and not just a little bit. No, I had to stuff myself. I just never seemed to feel satisfied or full.
So what’s the secret?
Well you need to understand that we’ve been lied to big time when it comes to what is a healthy diet and especially how to lose weight! Multibillion dollar industries are making huge profits every year with their lies designed to keep us struggling with our weight.
If you were to take a peek behind the scenes at where this information comes from and how these industries hire marketers and psychologists to come up with all sorts of lies to manipulate us, you’d probably be just as shocked as me. And what’s even more shocking is that intelligent people who we trust have been conned or bought out by these industries – people like dieticians, doctors and some nutritionists. What we see and hear in the media is also controlled by these industries in their attempts to protect their gigantic profits.
Marketing Lies and Propaganda
It’s these lies that are setting you up for cravings and the struggle with your weight! But we’ve been brainwashed for so long with these lies that it can be difficult to let go of them all.
If I was to tell you that weight loss is not just about eating a low fat, low calorie diet and exercising more and that this idea is setting you up for failure do you believe me?
If you don’t, you just proved how powerful the brainwashing has been! And no, I’m definitely not saying you’re stupid! These industries are super-powerful and they’ve done a damned good job with their marketing campaigns. It makes me really angry!
But here’s the thing – once you know how to eat and you have alternative ways to manage your emotions than eating, cravings and binges can be a thing of the past for you too! Not only that, you’ll never need to diet again!
It’s Not About Calories!
You see, it’s what you eat that has the biggest impact on how you feel. And it has nothing to do with calories! Because a 100 calorie snack pack of highly processed stuff is going to have a completely different effect than 100 calories of chicken or vegetables or nuts.
It’s all about the quality of the food and the effect it has on your hormones, especially the ones that tell your body to store or burn fat. Now I’m not talking about your female or male hormones, although they can definitely play a part in your weight control.
And it’s most definitely about the effect those foods have on your blood sugar level. This is really important to understand because if you’ve been eating lots of highly processed and fast food every day your body has become so used to running on sugar instead of fat. Not only that, your fat-storing hormone is high, keeping your fat cells locked tight.
And when you eat that “healthy wholegrain diet” that we’ve all been brainwashed with, your blood sugar level is going up and down all day. The problem is that every time it comes down your brain is starving – there’s no sugar and your body fat isn’t available because it’s locked away.
You’re going to feel anxious, irritable, moody, tired and there’s an almighty drive to get your blood sugar up again. It’s that craving! Your brain wants fuel and it wants it now!
So the key to staying feeling great all day and successfully managing your weight without dieting again is to eat in a way that keeps your blood sugar level steady and stable. This means no highs followed by the crashes. And one of the biggest bonuses is that you’ll feel better in so many other ways.
You see when your blood sugar goes too high or too low, your stress hormones also rise. That means you’re going to be more stressed which in turn affects your moods, ability focus, sleep quality and has many other detrimental effects on your health in the short and long term.