Cravings. They are real. Sometimes they are so real that they start to become a constant, nagging issue in your life. They seem so overwhelming that you literally can’t not eat that very thing at that very moment or you might just die… or something equally as dramatic. But seriously, cravings can make it SO hard to stick to your healthy routine even with the best of intentions.
You try and try to muster up all the will power you have to avoid those cravings, but they seem to get you every time. They always seem to win.
But here’s the thing… it’s about SO much more than willpower. It’s about your biology and what’s going on behind the scenes inside your body that is causing those cravings to be off the charts intense.
If it was just about willpower and saying “no thanks, I’m good” to the 3pm sugar craving, then you’d probably be fine, avoid the chocolate you were eyeing up, move on, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But it’s not. It’s much deeper than that. It’s science.
So yes, do I believe we should all practice some self-discipline when it comes to what we eat? Of course I do. But, I want you to know that your body is wired a certain way, for a reason, and if you are working against your biology it can make it so hard to hold on by sheer will power alone. Instead of working against your body, let’s talk about how you can make it a little easier on yourself by crushing those cravings all together.
Let’s dig into the science behind your cravings for a sec. I think it’s important for you to know what’s going on inside of your body so you can use that information as power to help you make healthy choices and fuel your body well.
The Science.
The most important thing to remember – your body’s main goal is to maintain homeostasis, or a certain equilibrium where everything is as it should be for your body to work at its best. That’s what your body is working towards, day and night. In the simplest of terms, when something goes up, your body works to bring it back down, when something goes down, your body starts working to bring it back up.
Ok, we got that out of the way. Now, what does that have to do with cravings?
Cravings depend largely on carbohydrate intake. Carbs are made of sugar – no matter what kind you are eating or drinking – fruit, soda, pretzels, bread, pasta, cookies, chips, whatever.
So, whether you are craving bread, pasta, pretzels, candy, or cookies, they are all sugar cravings. They all end up as simple sugar once they are broken down.
When we eat carbs (sugar), our blood sugar goes up as a result. When our blood sugar goes up, our body wants to bring it back down to normal (there it goes again with that homeostasis!). So, it releases insulin to do just that. Insulin tells our cells to take the sugar out of our blood and use it, or if it can’t use it all right away, to store it as fat. So, one of insulins big messages to our body is also to store fat.
Side note: When we start to eat excess carbs that our body can’t use right away, we are pumping out a lot of insulin which is always telling our body to store fat rather than burn fat, so we end up spending a lot of time in fat storage mode rather than a fat burning mode, making it harder to lose weight.
Now, here’s where cravings come in. Enter, the blood sugar roller coaster.
You eat something sugary for breakfast like a banana with a granola bar and your blood sugar spikes. Then, insulin is released and your blood sugar drops. Now, your brain is saying… my blood sugar is dropping, gimme more carbs, I want that blood sugar back up, please.
This is the part of the morning where you probably grab a second cup of coffee, see a muffin and can’t resist it and you gobble it up. Blood sugar spikes, then drops a little while later. Time for lunch and you’re starving. You have a sugar-free yogurt, side salad and a clementine. Then, by mid-afternoon you crash hard, you want to eat all the things, and you can’t walk by your co-workers candy without taking a few. You feel like you have no willpower and you are craving sugar, hard. Your brain is literally screaming, GIVE ME CARBSSSSSSS and you are just trying to be “good” and it’s nearly impossible. You get home, munch on a bunch of stuff, finally have dinner and after dinner you can’t stop grazing and eating. You go to bed and then do it all over again.
You, my friend, are on the blood sugar roller coaster. Your blood sugar is spiking and dropping, all day long, your brain is screaming for more sugar, it’s feels nearly impossible to avoid eating all the carbs and drinking all the sweetened beverages and you feel like you have no willpower whatsoever. The good news. It can be stopped. You can get off the ride.
Instead of fighting against your biology and blaming your lack of willpower for your craving issues, start fueling your body the way it needs to be fueled to satisfy you, nourish you, and keep you fuller, longer throughout the day. When your body is happy and fueled properly, those crazy cravings will melt away.
So, specifically, how to you start to crush those cravings? Here’s how.
Top 5 things to do to crush your cravings for good.
1. Don’t start your day with high sugar foods or drinks. This can be hard when you start thinking of all the places it hides at breakfast. Coffee drinks, cereal, breakfast pastries, oatmeal, flavored yogurt, smoothies without the right balance of PHFC, bars, and so on.
2. Fuel your body with PHFC balanced meals all day long. That stands for protein, healthy fat, and high fiber carbs. Eating balanced meals will help take those huge spikes and drops in your blood sugar and turn them into lovely rolling hills. That will lessen the surges of insulin, put you back into fat burning mode rather than fat storing mode, and take you from living with crazy cravings that seem to be running the show to a place where you are back in control of your choices.
3. Focus on High Fiber Carbs. Fiber is so important. Like, so, so important. High fiber carbs rather than processed, refined carbs, help us stay fuller, longer, slowdown that blood sugar spike, provide added nutrients, improve our gut health, help us go to bathroom regularly, and so much more. Focusing on high fiber carbs, like fruits, veggies, and whole grains, also helps crowd out the processed, refined stuff from our diets.
4. Scope out the sneaky sugars. Find where they are hiding in your day. The obvious ones are easy, like candy, baked goods, ice cream, soda. But where else are they hiding? Granola bars, yogurt, juices, smoothies, coffee drinks. Added sugars are everywhere, so be on the lookout!
5. Sleep. This one might seem a little strange, but sleep is the time when our body and brain rests and resets. Our hormones, like those in charge of our hunger and fullness, need to reset in order to send the right messages and for those messages to be received properly all day long. If we aren’t sleeping enough or it’s disrupted, those hormones get all out of whack and can make our cravings that much worse.
If you’re ready to tackle those cravings, stop working against your biology, and start working with your body, then give some of these tricks a try!