Want cake?
We all get cravings for certain foods and sometimes those foods are not the healthiest choices for us.
“My name is Katie and I am a sugar addict. I’ve been clean for 6 hours.”
Sound familiar? I know that I’m not alone.
Once I break the sugar addiction and clean it out of my system, I’m fine. The cravings no longer strangle me with their incessant need and persistent control of my life. I stop dreaming about eating dessert. I stop thinking non-stop about getting my next sugar fix.
But it’s the getting it out of my system that’s the hardest part. Every. Time.
And I get myself under control and then I think that because I’m in control I can have that cookie again. I can have that piece of cake and it won’t spiral me back into my state of sugar addiction, because I am under control.
But once sugared, I lose that control and that monster of sugar cravings takes back over and once again, I have to fight to take control back. To break the cravings. To be in control of my life and my food choices. Again.
Control.
Sugar.
Need.
Repeat.
Want to break your chains of sugar-addiction?
Than stop beating yourself up and stop berating your food. Yes, I’ve a history of food berating. If you have been to my blog before, you know that I like to especially berate and degrade gluten. Oh, how I like to insult grains, especially the gluten ones.
The problem is that when we make some food good and some food bad, we make ourselves good and bad too, based on which evil or blessed foods we choose. And when we do that, we add a whole new dimension to the equation of food choices, because now we punish ourselves with food and we reward ourselves with food. We sabotage ourselves with food by basing our worthiness on our food choices.
The most important thing to recognize is that there is no such thing as bad food, but food that doesn’t make us feel as good as other food. Empowered food choices is not choosing a food because it is “good” or “bad,” these are dichotomies that don’t really exist. Instead, choose food that gives you energy, lifts you up, makes you feel good for the long-term and minimize foods that bring you down, lower your energy, make you sad, make you lethargic and don’t support your energy and health in the long-term. It’s not a question of good or bad, but a question of what do you want to nourish yourself with?
What do you want to nourish yourself with? Because that is something we all deserve. Nourishment. We all deserve to feel our best and food is the key to unlocking a state of truly empowered existence. A state of energy and vitality. What do you choose to unlock your door with?
Next, you need to uncover why you are experiencing these cravings for a specific food in the first place. If you can understand these cravings, you can make a healthier decision for yourself and take steps to control these cravings in the future.
Over the next few articles, we will look at the cause of these different cravings, how you can differentiate which craving it is and what steps to take to support yourself to make the healthiest food choices for yourself.
Got cravings that aren’t feeding your soul? Got cravings that are turning off your spark for life and diminishing your vitality? You aren’t alone. Please share in the comments what you crave. Together we can take back control of our choices.
………. as I eat my Reese’s cup.
🙂 Lynn, dessert isn’t bad in and of itself, just if it controls your life or you NEED sugar.
Katie Bauer recently posted..Want Cake? Got Sugar Cravings? Listen to this…
frozen yogurt….then another, or potato chips
Thanks for sharing Joan! Sorry I missed your comment and this response is so late!
So with some food cravings, it is best to try variations of the food craving to determine what you are craving with it. So with the frozen yogurt, if you consume regular, plain yogurt (no fruit, no sugars, just plain sour yogurt), does it satiate your craving? If not, then it is something unique to the frozen yogurt, probably the sugar.
Another possibility is if you have a food sensitivity to dairy, your body will crave it, because we release endorphins (stress hormones) when we consume a food we have an intolerance to and endorphins feel good and cause an unconscious craving for that endorphin-rush precipitating food!
Another possibility is that you are low in healthy bacteria and your body is craving some probiotic foods. Taking some probiotics can’t hurt or possibly try some other probiotic rich foods (e.g. raw/non-pasteurized/in the refrigerated section sauerkraut, kim chi, komboucha and the like).
And same sort of deal with the potato chips. If you consume potatoes and it doesn’t satiate that need, then it is something else in the potato chips. Fat? Sugar? Crunch? Or fulfilling habit? Or fulfilling a joyful childhood food? Or mindless eating?
Both the foods you mention are fatty foods (or at least yogurt is meant to be before they defat it). Is the frozen yogurt non-fat or low-fat? Since you sometimes crave a second one, it may be that your body is craving fat but there isn’t enough in the yogurt if it is low-fat so you crave another one. And you may crave potato chips because of the fat. This is common and the brain is indicating a need for usually saturated fats or omega 3 essential fatty acids. Try eating a tablespoon of coconut oil or coconut butter or maybe two… How are your cravings then? There is a dangerous, unfortunate fat phobia that we are constantly dealing with. Fat is phat! 🙂 I explain more the fatty food cravings and the benefits of fat in this article: https://www.nourishedhealth.com/fat/
Let us know if you experiment with your cravings and what you discover!
Katie Bauer recently posted..Kick the Crack (aka Sugar) Addiction
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