When dieting or trying to eat healthier, one of the biggest challenge we face seems to be our cravings. We seem to crave unhealthy processed food and drink; every type of food that goes against our pursuit of fitness. It’s funny how we never tend not to crave the good foods (unless it’s after a weekend of heavy drinking!). It’s like our bodies are self-sabotaging. And they are in a way. One of the reasons we crave food when dieting is that it is natural to store fat. Our bodies don’t want to look like a magazine cover; they do not care for a six pack or a size six dress. Their sole purpose is to survive. We store fat in order to survive times of danger or hunger.
We can also crave foods for emotional purposes such as stress or anxiety. Fat and sugary foods have proven to provide us with a calming effect. Furthermore, we crave junk food not just because they taste good but also because they make us feel good. Junk foods and the like contain sugar and artificial additives that release feel-good chemicals which can mirror addiction. This puts real meaning behind the term chocoholics! Therefore, it is important to recognise we are not craving food, rather, we are craving a feeling.
Our bodies release similar feel good chemicals after a good workout. Exercise is the best way to feel good without the food. I was only ever to overcome cravings was when I was in a full flow of fitness. What I mean by that is that I was so engrossed with exercising and my progress that I was no longer tempted to eat sugary snacks. I had the mindset of: Why should I eat a snack that will taste good for about 30 seconds that can undo all my hard work and progress? This mindset took around 6-8 months to form. It certainly didn’t happen straight away. In fact, the cravings tend to be more tempting when we initially start. Working out every time we crave snacks is not practical. There is no way we are going to swap burping for burpees. But there are some things we can do to overcome cravings.
First of all, we can actually give into cravings. I would actually recommend to people to eat what they want. Complete absentness from our favourite foods is near on impossible! Even monks would struggle with that. As long as you’re exercise and are working hard it will somewhat cancel out the calories you are eating. Of course, this will limit your progress however, it is a good balance and it is sustainable. Hopefully, over time you may find yourself overcoming your cravings. Moreover, we can incorporate our favourite foods into our daily calorie intake. ‘If it fits your Macros’ is a flexible dieting technique that track our macronutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) against our daily calorific intake. We can literally have our cake and eat it!
So, giving into cravings is not the end of the world. I’ve given into these thoughts so many times. However, one interesting observation I noticed was that afterwards I never feel satisfied. One reason for that was I wasn’t full. Junk food doesn’t fill us up and usually. Leave us craving for more. They make us feel good temporally but after a while tiredness can set in and we feel very lethargic. This is also known as the carb coma.
Eating healthy does make us feel good on many different levels. First of all, we can feel that pride of productivity when cooking a healthy nutritious meal. Cooking can be therapeutic, enjoyable, and sociable if we have a partner or family. Not only that, we’re going to feel fuller for longer after eating and likely to feel more energetic and there will be no danger of crashing. Healthy meals can taste good too; they don’t need to be chicken, broccoli, and rice. One option is fake-aways. They are healthy homemade meals that taste (almost) like our favourite takeaway meals at half the calories.
Whatever way we choose to overcome our cravings, it is important to remember that cravings occur naturally. Therefore, we shouldn’t feel weak for experiencing them nor should we feel guilty to succumbing to cravings. One thing I’ve learned through my own experience was that I was never really craving food. It was just a good feeling or a need to destress is what I wanted. If we can recognise this in the moment then it can remove the power of cravings.
So, next time you are craving something, ask yourself: Is it food or thought?
Fitness in Your 30s 