A Key to Kick Cravings

I struggled big time with cravings and feeling out of control around food at night and believe me, it wasn’t vegetables or chicken that I wanted. 

I noticed this tendency and figured that to make up for it, I’d just eat less during the day and eat more at night but just try to be more “disciplined.”

Problem solved right?

I’d restrict during the day, feeling proud of myself for being “good” and staying “on track” (more on this topic later).

Night time would roll around and there I was.

Hungry, tired, emotional & stressed. Clearly in a great place to be making decision that were in my best interest…

I’d give in and wake up the next morning feeling crappy as ever, filled with guilt & shame.

I’d swear that I wouldn’t do it again.

I’d even try to eat less that morning or day to make up for it.

Fast forward to the next evening and I was right back where I started.

Stuck in this vicious cycle. 

“But if I don’t hold back then I’ll just end up eating more/too much…”

I believed this so strongly. It took a while for me to shake it and realize how much I was just sabotaging myself and what I wanted by sticking to this belief.

This belief let me to try intermittent fasting for 6 months, thinking this was a genius way to control myself and my food intake... only to find myself unable to stick with it and end up worse off afterwards with the most intense cravings at night that I’d ever had (funny enough this was what I was trying to solve by doing it in the first place).

I had to go against all of this and do the exact opposite - which if you can relate, feels really hard at the time.

Ever notice how when you tell yourself you can’t have something, you end up thinking about it and wanting it MORE?

Your thoughts are POWERFUL. When you start thinking about holding back or restricting food, those thoughts alone affect everything. Whether you are actually deprived or not, the intension/mindset is there and the body can sense that deprivation and threat of not having enough. So fast forward to when the time comes around and you give yourself “permission” to eat something… it is FAR more likely that any and all reason will be left behind.

I know it is tempting to think you are disciplined enough and motivated enough to make this strategy work for you so you can “trick your body” into eating less. Our toxic “diet brain” has been conditioned to think we need to “work for it” and “don’t give in” and we’ve heard no shortage of messages like “when you’re hungry, just drink more water or brush your teeth!”

But what you are really doing is sabotaging your own success, making it even harder to create the meaningful change you want, destroying your relationship with food, placing unnecessary stress on your system, and fighting against your body which just wants to trust that you will give it what it needs… so it can stop fighting back.

This habit does so much more harm than good and if you are someone feeling out of control around food, this is one sure way to add fuel to the fire.

When you are in a state of being restricted and deprived, you will struggle immensely to make decisions that will serve you and your goals well. 

If you give your body what it needs and wants, you will feel so much more capable and empowered in making better decisions for yourself that are aligned with the person that you want to be and will help you get there. Add in some education and understanding about nutrition and food and now your really in a good place to create some positive change!

The thoughts and behaviours that come with food restriction + elimination will fail you time and time again.

Dare to try something else.