Who could resist these?
Cravings…
We all have them, in they come creeping (as Carl Sandburg said) “on little cat feet” , pouncing when you least expect it and leaving you sprawled nearly comatose in your office chair surrounded by mini Peanut Butter Cups. Uh, why no, I don’t have personal experience with that scenario..
Why do we crave what we crave? Why for example, do we so rarely crave things that are good for us?
The answer may be more physiological than we think. Recent research has exposed possible similarities between food addictions and cravings and alcoholism and drug addiction. Both may activate pleasure centers in the brain that are really, really hard to turn off. Really hard, nearly impossible it seems. The jury is out on what REALLY helps; is it moderation, avoidance, distraction…there is even a technique called EFT that claims to help curb cravings.
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Aren’t these pretty..too bad they aren’t M&M’s..
When we crave we can’t control it, we can KNOW that the tomatoes are better for us than the donuts, but that doesn’t keep us from devouring six donuts, even if we know we will feel awful afterwards. Most cravings, almost all, are for junk food; sugar, salt, caffeine..all that nasty stuff you know doesn’t belong in your body but that you put there anyway.
What to do? Succumb to these cravings and overdose on cupcake frosting? Well, I have been known to do that but now I try some other techniques; I drink water, exercise, distract myself, eat something healthy…ANYTHING. I am not one for moderation as I have said before, so I can’t have just ONE.
What about you? What are you craving? How do you work with your cravings and what are your challenges?
Here I am spouting off about cravings: http://s821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/ProjectCUE2010/?action=view¤t=ProjectCUEDay2.mp4
We Have the Mini...We Just Need the Van 
Its funny, because there are certain cravings that I can handle. I remind myself that the food makes me cranky, gassy, bloated or TIRED…. it works consistently for certain food. Typically the fast food chains that I literally CAN’T eat without falling asleep or having a major attitude adjustment – zaxbys, chick fil-a, o’charlies, longhorn… to name a few. I know I can’t eat Lemonheads, white sandwich bread (yuck), too much HFCS and the list goes on…
For some reason corn chips, good bread, butter, good pizza, and chocolate Bryers Ice cream, won’t go away. The corn hurts my belly, and the sweets only after eating corn (sensitivity), but overall they don’t make me feel truly crappy…. is that the catch?
Its also strange how my cravings go in cycles…. I used to cycle through different cravings in my youth, but one of them was Oreos, another french fries. Every few months, that was all I wanted…
I can usually turn down the donut, the cake, the cookies,but only as long as its not free… for some reason free food calls to me and says “you must eat me… now!”
I am a boredom eater. My life is busy, but if I have one second to sit around, I want to eat. I have a harder time during “that time of the month” than I do regularly. I think my stomach is a bottomless pit during that time. I also think there is something to it. Maybe that we need more nutrients, I sometimes crave red meat, or very dense carbs.
ok.. lots of babble.. hope it makes sense.
Wow Wendy, I identify with so much of this. I am totally a boredom or lull eater. Today I ran around like a crazy lady at work and when I finally sat down at 1 pm I wanted FOOD. I was starving and had forgotten lunch and so I grabbed peanut butter and crackers from the break room. The problem with peanut butter is the same one you have with corn chips etc….it really doesn’t make me feel bad. I was reading this article last night about how our cravings are also very social and cultural, so maybe there are rituals associated with those foods that you don’t even realize…like when you watch TV you eat corn chips, or when you go out for margarita’s you eat tortilla chips. I also think bread and pizza are so comforting…and lets face it, they are really good. For me the solution is to not go into tempting situations hungry. I know it sounds counter intuitive but I read that eating a handful of nuts 20 minutes before a tempting meal helps you overdo, and it does seem to work.
And the free food, it’s hard..I do the same thing, perhaps it’s leftover from the starving college student mentality. I try to remind myself that just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s good.
So last night, I had this experience exaclty. For some reason all I wanted to do was baks something sweet like peanut buttercookies or find some chocolate. One of my regualar craving is chocolate, but in general I don’t crave other sweet foods. Last night was the expection and luckily I didn’t have the ingredients in the house to follow through and I found a healthier subsitute. A dark russian bread with rasins and walnuts. I think the bread was made with molasses and the baked rasins were really satisfying and the walnuts provided just the right amount of richness that I no longer wanted or needed to bake thousands of extra calories in my kitchen and then struggle with not eating them all week. So I guess what I am learning is; identify the craving and find a healthier alternative. Ignoring it altogether will eventually backfire.
That is so true Tiffany, I often try to fight and fight and fight the craving and it just doesn’t work and then I give in and am like a mad woman tearing through every available treat I can get my hands on. I think you have the right idea finding healthier alternatives that are satisfying and filling and sort of in the same vein but not so bad for you. I know popcorn is usually a good substitute for my salty cravings, and for some reason eating protein helps me not want sweets.
Oooooooo – pretty doughnuts! It’s interesting about cravings, and I used to have those mad salt or sugar crazies every once in a while. To my surprise, when I went on modified South Beach/Weight Watchers a few months ago, those cravings mostly stopped. Visualizing food ” the size of a deck of cards” seems to have distracted me toward eating a little better. You’re doing great trying to understand your food issues – thumbs up!
Yeah, the deck of cards thing doesn’t seem to work for me, but increasing protein certainly does! I was wickedly stressed today and fighting those cravings was nearly impossible..
Now I am craving those delicious looking donuts 🙂
I know, don’t they look awesome?