Cravings can drive you nuts and make you feel ashamed of yourself because you don’t seem to have the willpower to control them. You can be watching TV, and all of a sudden, a commercial advertising a super cheesy delicious-looking pizza restaurant comes on. Suddenly, you feel the urge to eat anything you can find in your fridge that satisfies your craving for cheese or something salty, or you may even put in an order yourself! You just can’t seem to stop your cravings! 

I sometimes feel that way about Kinder chocolates, as they were such a treat to have when I was growing up! You’d think that I’d be able to control myself when the chocolates are around me…but the truth is, I know that if I get my hands on it, I will want to eat the whole chocolate bar! Willpower is not the answer to getting rid of cravings.

Find out why in my post – WHY CAN’T I STAY MOTIVATED TO LOSE WEIGHT?

Your Brain is to Blame for Your Cravings

The more often you reward your brain, the bigger and more often the cravings become.  First, you experience the craving (or the urge), and then you find the food that satisfies that craving (your behavior), then you get the reward (eating the food you wanted). Because you’re rewarding your cravings with the thing that you want at that time, your brain releases dopamine (the pleasure hormone) in your brain. 

5 Common Food Triggers and What They Mean 

Next time you crave junk food, find out what your body is really lacking in and what foods you might incorporate into your diet daily to stop those cravings.

If you’re craving…..

Salt – (potato chips, fried foods) You lack trace minerals. Add to your meals Avocado, pink Himalayan salt or bone broth, Olives, and dark leafy greens.

Sweets – (donuts, candy, ice cream, bread) You need more chromium in your diet. Add to your meals Cinamon, broccoli, mushrooms, and onions.

Chocolate -(chocolate, ice cream, dark chocolate) More magnesium is what your body asks for. Add raw leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, avocado, and spinach to your meals.

READ MY BLOG WHY YOU NEED TO BOOST MAGNESIUM IN MIDLIFE 

Cheese and Dairy – (cheese pizza) You need more essential fatty acids. Add to your meals wild-caught fish, 100% grass-fed beef and lamb, wild game, and pasture-raised eggs. Vegetarian sources contain fewer amounts of essential fatty acids but include ground flaxseed, chia, and hemp seeds.

Red meat – (steak) You lack iron or Vitamin B12. Add to your meals wild-caught fish, 100% grass-fed beef and lamb, bison or venison, swiss chard, and spinach.

When you are craving sweets or salty foods, you are craving fats. This means your diet may be too low in healthy fats like avocado, nuts, seeds, so make sure to include more of those in your daily meals to stop cravings! Other things that can influence cravings include dehydration, lack of electrolytes, night sweats, stress, lack of sleep, or developing a habit of eating junk food. 

Find Your Triggers!

Cravings often are triggered by environmental cues such as sight, smell, taste, location, or who you’re with.

You’re visiting your local bakery to get your weekly loaf of whole-grain bread, and you smell all those wonderful buttery foods calling your name. You tell yourself you can’t leave without buying one or two pastries! 

It’s hard to avoid the cravings when your environment is triggering you to give in to them. It’s important to track those triggers and figure out which ones they are. From there, you adjust your environment and disrupt those triggers that create that cycle.

Grab a journal, notebook or create a Google doc and write down the answers to the questions below: 

• What are you craving? (A specific food? A certain flavor or texture?)
• Where are you? (Note your location and any smells or visual cues—like a restaurant billboard or commercial.)
• What are you doing? (Driving? Working? Watching TV?)
• What are you feeling physically? (Stressed? Lightheaded? Tense?)
• What are you feeling emotionally? (Happy? Cranky? Rushed?)
• What are you thinking? (For instance: “I worked so hard today…I deserve this”)
• Who are you with? (Be very specific.)

Try this exercise consistently for a couple of weeks so you can see what patterns emerge. There will be a pattern – trust me. 

5 Ways To Stop Cravings That Actually Work

To get to the bottom of our triggers and stop cravings, we need to disrupt and change a habit or a pattern that led us to the cravings in the first place. 

#1 Take a pause

Notice your urge to grab that bag of chips even though you know you’re not hungry before you rip it open wait for 5 minutes. This has nothing to do with willpower but that you have a choice to eat the bag of chips or not. This helps you make a rational decision rather than an emotional one.

Ask yourself –  “Am I bored, stressed, or actually hungry?”

Would you eat some chicken and broccoli instead?

These are the kinds of questions you can ask yourself. You may end up still eating the bag of chips. But realize that you didn’t fall into this decision but rather made a choice. Breaking the cravings cycle won’t be perfect. It can be a bit messy and takes practice. But, you waited 5 minutes (high five!) and delayed your cravings to just even think bout it. This is a great practice to start being more mindful about your eating habits.

#2 Choose to get active

Have you noticed that you can work on a project for hours only to forget to eat? Find activities that keep your mind busy instead of circling the fridge for the 5th time to find something that might curb your cravings. If you’re not really hungry, your cravings will go away within 15 – 20 minutes. 

So once you feel a craving, do this instead…

• Going for a run, bike, or walk outside and away from the house
• Playing an instrument 
• Working in your garden
• Calling some friends or family for a chat
• Playing a board game or on the computer.

Do something that occupies your mind to combat the cravings. 

#3 Try Intermittent Fasting

Hunger and cravings come in waves throughout the day, and it helps to understand how that feels. I recommend that healthy clients (those without any pre-existing health conditions) try a fasting experiment. Just for one day, I encourage Intermittent Fasting so they can see what that feels like. Staking out a 14 – 18 hour fasting window, with 2 meals and plenty of water, broth, herbal or green tea to stay hydrated.

When you try this, do you collapse from exhaustion? No.

Do you waste away because of hunger? No.

We are not testing your willpower or denying yourself the foods you crave. But rather reducing the anxiety or urgency around hunger and cravings. 

#4 Eat well-balanced meals during the day

Most cravings occur at night, and overeating is very common. 

You might be skipping breakfast, eating a late lunch of a big salad with dressing on the side and no protein. Dinner is a well-balanced meal rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fats, but you’re still hungry or craving more food. There is no surprise that you’ll be ready for that sneaky snack before bed; what you eat during the day matters in the long run. 

What foods do we need in our diet to balance cravings?

Protein and fats slow the release of sugar into your bloodstream, so when you don’t consume enough of them, your blood sugar can rise and fall at an abnormal rate.

The result? Your body craves quick energy from sugar. 

Eating a balanced meal that includes protein-rich foods, healthy fats, fiber-rich whole grains, some fruits, and vegetables will help curb your cravings and overeating after dinner.  Add lean meats, avocado, beans, nuts, Greek yogurt, eggs, soy products, and chia seeds to your diet to stop cravings.

#5 Giving in to your cravings (really?!) – but there are some conditions

If you want a sneaky snack, you have to go and buy it right before you want it. Not during your weekly shopping trip, but right when the craving hits. Making an effort to drive or walk to the place that has your treat takes time and effort, and you might decide that it’s not worth it.

Do you really want ice cream? Buy high-quality ice cream instead of the low-fat, low-sugar, or low-carb version. Buying lesser-quality snacks will deprive you of the full taste and experience, and you may end up eating more of them well because…they are low on this, that, and the other.  In the end, they are unhealthy, loaded with all kinds of additives and junk, and you still end up craving the real thing!

Stick to the real deal and instead eat slowly, savor every bite, and eat mindfully.

So, when it comes to eating junk food, you have a choice and can disrupt your snacking habit when you catch it. Holding yourself accountable and knowing what causes those cravings and what to do about it is half the battle.

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