“How can I stop my cravings” if this sounds like you, then keep reading! The topic of cravings is something that I get asked multiple times a day. Cravings are a common occurrence especially for those in caloric deficits or those who may be following stricter dieting guidelines and unfortunately, as women, hormones play a huge roll in cravings and what we crave so there is really no escaping it. Well fear not my lovelies, below I am going to share with you
my top 10 tips on how to keep those cravings under wraps.
- Nutrient deficiency leads to chronic over eating.
When we are deficient in proper nourishment, our bodies will search for minerals, vitamins and macronutrients in other means. Your brain will signal to your body that it needs to eat anything it can get its hands on in order to get nutrients in. In order to fix this, you want to ensure that you are eating your micronutrients; get those veggies in! The more nourished you are, the more satiated you will be and the less you will crave.
- Focus on sleep.
Sleep deprivation will have a similar effect on the body as point number one. When we are over tired our bodies know that highly palatable foods and high sugar foods will provide you will quick surges of energy, so your brain signals for you to eat all the cookies and cake it can find. To combat this, ensure you’re sleeping 7-9 hours a night. Stress has a similar affect so make sure you are practicing de-stress techniques through out your day such as mediation.
3. Use the power of sour. The stimulation of sour foods on the taste buds negates the need for sweet. Sipping on lemon water or apple cider vinegar throughout the day is not only great for your metabolism and digestion but it will stop you craving sugar too,
- Cream of tartar.
Yes I know, this sounds strange but the cream of tartar is both sour and high in potassium. When we are deficient in potassium we will crave sugar. Mix a teaspoon in some water and drink up.
- Happy hormones.
Around our cycle especially, woman tend to crave chocolate and sugary foods. This is normal, however, being a slave to these cravings is not something you have to put up with any longer. Focus on the following to help you stay craving free around your monthlies:
- Sleep - it is essential for hormone health
- Omega 3’s – also essential for proper functioning of hormones
- Add in a magnesium supplement to your diet
- Ensure you’re eating enough healthy fats, especially avocado and salmon as these a perfect for your hormones
- Maca powder helps to stabilize hormones and ease PMS symptoms.
- Balance blood sugar.
When our blood sugar is bouncing around from high carb meals and excessively frequent eating we will experience cravings as our insulin starts to drop again post eating. To fix this, ensure you are having healthy fats and protein with each meal to stabilize your blood sugar and increase your satiety. Adding cinnamon to your meals will also help you to stabilize blood sugar.
- Positive distraction.
Begin to practice mindfulness and self-awareness so that you can become self-aware enough to know the difference between a genuine craving (normally for a healthy food such as steak, berries, nuts etc; looking for a genuine macronutrient) and an emotional, boredom or hormonal craving (normally for processed foods like cake, chocolate, ice-cream). If you are just having a “negative” craving, try to distract yourself; go for a walk, call a friend, clean the house etc. anything to break that train of thought, you’ll find it will pass soon, where as a genuine craving won’t.
- Good gut bacteria.
Ensure you are focusing on gut health daily. If your gut has an imbalance between good gut and bad gut bacteria, you will experience cravings constantly as the bad bacteria feed off sugar. These little microbiomes signal to your brain to eat sugar so that they can be fed, clever huh?! If you focus on gut health and actually avoid sugar, you can kill off these yeast over growths (candida of the gut) by starving them.
- Conditioning cycles.
“I need something sweet after dinner”, or “I always crave something after my lunch”, how many of you have heard your selves saying that? Well guess what the good news is? You don’t need anything. We have simply conditioned ourselves in to these habits, and all we have to do is break this cycle. If you crave something after lunch, go for a walk instead, or do a 5 minute mediation, read a book etc… just something to break the cycle.
- Cold Turkey.
The more we have sweet, the more we will crave it. It is as simple as that. The best way to cure cravings is to avoid sugar and sweet foods all together. It is hard at first but within a week your cravings will be gone as the palate is restored. You’ll also find that you enjoy the sweetness in foods like tomatoes, capsicum and nuts so much more appealing.
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