Curb your Cravings with Mindfulness

Sometimes those late-night cravings can be our own worst nightmare. For others it is a tricky navigation of what else is going on in your body. It is important to gain a deeper understanding of how cravings work when responding to them in a mindful way.

Attack your cravings with mindfulness:

1. Acknowledge the craving

2. Explore the origin and time

3. Plan to feel empowerment

4. Stop and smell the roses

You have a choice to move forward with fulfilling a craving or explore all your alternative options that can nourish your body even more. It is important to understand when these irritants come forward what it is that sparks their appearance. The point is to not give in, make an educated and empowered decision that works as an alternative for you.

It is quite normal to have cravings and is often a good indication that your body is not necessarily getting all the nutrients that you are seeking. Then again, maybe this has nothing to do with food at all!

A craving represents itself as any message form your body that it’s seeking certain foods to promote well-being and health (e.g. when you crave soup when you’re sick), but these cravings can also subside as a part of your emotional state. It is not uncommon to have a long day and grab for the bag of salty chips or sweet cake before bed. This is a perfect opportunity to be aware of the symptoms you are having once they arise. This indicates a possible imbalance occurring elsewhere in the body and is a perfect opportunity to treat the cause and not overlook the symptoms.

Being mindful of the time, place, and emotional state can help you in exploring the choices that are best for you – if that means eating chocolate that’s great; if that means grabbing for a sweet chunk of pineapple, that’s great also. Maybe that means setting aside some personal time before bed to unwind or in the morning to get ready slowly. You may learn a lot about your body by seeking awareness.

Now, lets read on to find out some tips to curb those crazy cravings.

1. Acknowledge the craving.

When cravings arise, take a moment to acknowledge them and give them a moment to rest. Ignoring the cravings can be challenging, but afterwards you’ll feel more empowered and stronger willed. As part of human nature, we usually grab for the foods that we restrict or label as “off-limits”, by then you’ve ended up preoccupied and feel less self-controlled around them.

In many cases mindfulness and acknowledgement work in fulfilling a craving in a way that is more effective to your well-being rather than actively trying to avoid it and then giving in. The simple act of acknowledging your craving also may help to reduce its power and allow you to disassociate from it.

2. Explore the origin & time.

When combating the origin of the cravings you may find it helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

Does your craving occur during emotions or physical feelings?

Many roles are played in having cravings such as experiencing loneliness, fatigue, boredom, stress, and possibly anxiety. In these cases, we know that food does not solve the problem – it is a treatment for the emotions we are encountering at the exact moment in time.

Although it is a subtle short-term fix, they are not usually lying in our best interest and are a temporary fix. Understanding the origin of the craving can embrace empowerment and help you to pin-point the actual cause which is likely to promote nutritional health and the balance that you are seeking.

There are many physical and emotional plays that determine what goes in and out of our body. The most common emotions are derived from stress and fatigue. When people are fatigued or tired, they not only grab for the unhealthier foods, but they also eat more of those poor dietary choices. Sleep-deprived individuals naturally crave more snacks and consume double the calories over a course of the day.

Leptin and Ghrelin are responsible for the amount consumed by telling our brain and gut when to start eating and when to stop. Leptin is a chemical that subsides in the gut and tells us when to stop eating, ghrelin is what tells the stomach that it’s hungry and to keep eating. When stress (cortisol) releases itself in the body it decreases the amount of leptin produced in the stomach – causes the body to feel full – and increases the amount of ghrelin meaning that you want to keep eating.

Frequent cravings for poor nutritional foods are recognized as a symptom of lack of sleep. Not enough sleep leads to more cortisol production in the body.

The more stressed people are, the more they tend to look for “comfort” foods – leading to weight gain over time. This cycle can have a harmful impact on your life choices. Managing stress efficiently includes activities that decrease fatigue and increase self-care.

Is the craving a highly palatable food?

There is another component that is important when exploring what food, you are craving. Not all foods are created equal. To make an empowered decision about these foods you must first know about certain foods. Highly palatable foods are designed with the intentions of being craved. It’s completely fine to crave these foods, but part of being able to navigate your craving is where your sense of empowerment comes from.

There are variable food sources that we crave like sugar, processed, salty foods when looking for an alternative energy source – research shows that someone who craves sugar is likely to be vulnerable to sleep deprivation. In a sense, you build up a tolerance to sugar – which makes you seek out other concentrated sources or possibly to consumer larger amounts to create that same pleasurable experience that is originally produced.

The food industry is built on the concept of finding a “bliss point” – the perfect combination of sugar, salt, and fat that is made up in processed foods making them difficult to resist. These foods are designed to make consumers crave them. Frequent exposure to these items is likely to increase desire for them. They tend to be higher in fiber, protein, and calories – they lack nutritional benefit and wellness.

Is this craving tied to a routine or habitual habit?

Sometimes people simply desire a food or snack because they’re used to having it at a certain time or place. In other words, you may gravitate towards a food out of routine.10 For example, it’s common for people to feel a drop of energy in the late afternoon and reach for sugary snacks or drinks. Eventually, you may start craving snacks during this time of day simply out of habit. Rather than going on autopilot, take a moment to tune in to your body. A moment of mindfulness may be enough to help you distinguish between craving something out of habit versus craving due to actual hunger or a desire to mindfully and intentionally enjoy a food.

Are the cravings guiding you towards a food that supports nutritional wellness?

I bet you’ve gone out to a favorite restaurant or gone on vacation where you dine out and eat foods rich in calories and come home to find yourself craving highly nutritious foods? This is because your body is attempting to return balance.

Fulfilling a craving also may contribute to your well-being beyond a nutritional standpoint. One example, craving ice cream to enjoy around a family birthday may be a strong relationship with love and happiness. This may be a powerful form of primary food nourishment for some.

3. Plan to feel empowerment.

Rather than feeling controlled by cravings, the empowered approach allows you to be a curious investigator seeking out the best choice for you at the time – don’t forget we’re always changing. Consider cravings as a yardstick to determine if things are out of balance. Whether food will ease that craving or if there’s another form of nourishment your body is seeking, respect and acknowledge your bio-individual cravings as they come up.

Listen to what your body is telling you and enjoy exploring the deeper message that may exist in some of your cravings. Once you acknowledge your craving and determine its origin, you give yourself the power to dis-identify with it and determine how to proceed in a way that is best for you.

4. Stop and smell the roses

Sometimes we cannot stop the cravings from happening and it will continue getting stronger and stronger until it is almost too late. There are many studies that show the powerful strength that comes with the senses. There are things that we can feel empowered over and then there are those that are uncontrollable. Our cravings are fully intact with how we fuel them.

When you are feeling the strong craving come on you can curb it by smelling something “fresh”. Grab for the strawberries that are pre-washed and fresh or an apple. Both are lower in calories and have a greater nutritional value to you. You’ll get full faster from the fiber and not feel bad for making a poor dietary choice. Some research shows that if you smell something sweet like a “chocolate cake” scented candle it only makes the craving worse.

Cravings are something we all experience from time to time. These tips can help you better navigate them when they arise. Pay attention and explore what your body might be telling you. Acknowledge them, nonjudgmental, explore their origin, and proceed from a place of empowerment.

Kick your cravings to the curb by enhancing your variety. Check out some of my low-calorie recipes and navigate your attention to where it matters most by exploring the origin of internal power.

#curbyourcravings #healthylife #empowerment