How To Help Work Through Your Cravings To Lose Weight

Seven Helpful Tips To Stop Wanting Junk Food

If you’re anything like me, you love junk food even though you know it’s bad for you. I’ve been craving junk food more and more lately, so I needed some help to work through those cravings. I found this article from Womens Health Mag, and hopefully it’ll help!

Ramp up your resolve
One reason most diets fail is that long-term goals can be deceptively difficult: When the plan is to watch what you eat for the next six months, chugging one caramel latte with whipped cream seems like a minor slip. To avoid that kind of thinking, commit to eating well for a fixed amount of time that you’re 100 percent confident you can manage, even if it’s just a few days.

Find meaningful motivation
If the main purpose of your diet is cosmetic–i.e., to look amazing in boy shorts–you’re unlikely to stick with it for the long haul.

The solution: “Arm yourself with additional motivators,” says Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., of the University of Connecticut. He suggests keeping a daily journal in which you monitor migraines, heartburn, acne, canker sores, and sleep quality in addition to body measurements and the number on the scale.

Move on after a mistake
OK, you overindulged. What’s the next step? “Forget about it,” says James Newman, a nutritionist at Tahlequah City Hospital, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, who followed his own advice to shed 300 pounds. (That’s right, three hundred.) “One meal doesn’t define your diet, so don’t assume that you’ve failed or fallen off the wagon,” he says.

Institute a simple rule: Follow any “cheat” meal with at least five healthy meals and snacks. That ensures that you’ll be eating right more than 80 percent of the time.

Roll out of bed and into the kitchen
Sure, you’ve heard this advice before. But consider that if you sleep for six to eight hours and then skip breakfast, your body is essentially running on fumes by the time you get to work. And that sends you desperately seeking sugar, which is usually pretty easy to find.

The most convenient foods are typically packed with sugar (doughnuts, lattes) or other quickly digested carbohydrates (McMuffins, cinnamon buns). Which brings us to our next strategy.

Restock your shelves
How many times have you driven to the store in the middle of the night to satisfy a craving? Probably not nearly as often as you’ve raided the fridge. You’re more likely to give in to a craving when the object you desire is close at hand. So make sure it’s not: Toss the junk food and restock your cupboard and fridge with almonds and other nuts, cheese, fruit and vegetables, and canned tuna, chicken, and salmon. And do the same at work.

Think like a biochemist

Cookies made with organic cane juice might sound like something your yoga teacher would eat, but they won’t help her fit into her Lycra pants. Junk food by any other name is still junk. Ditto for lots of “health foods” in the granola aisle. “Natural” sweeteners like honey raise blood sugar just like the white stuff.

“If you’re going to eat cookies, accept that you’re deviating from your plan, and then revert to your diet afterward,” Berkowitz says. Kidding yourself will only get you into trouble.

Spot hunger impostors
Have a craving for sweets even though you ate just an hour ago? Imagine sitting down to a large, sizzling steak instead. “If you’re truly hungry, the steak will sound good, and you should eat,” says Richard Feinman, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. “If it doesn’t sound good, your brain is playing tricks on you.”

His advice: Change your environment, which can be as easy as stretching at your desk or turning your attention to a different task.

I think the most important thing I took away from this article is that I really need to start keeping a food journal so I can see the improvements I’m slowly making everyday. I tend to keep a lot of veggies and fruits around the house, so that’s not a problem. I thought it was interesting about admitting you had a bad meal, but then to just move on from it! I’ll probably have to start thinking that way as well. What’d you take away from this?