So since I started this blog last Friday and since then have been assaulted with food cravings for horrible things EVERY day. It's like my mind is saying, "so you think I'll give up just cause you're writing a fancy blog? Ha! Take that!" Where "that" means cheese fries, ice cream, chips... anything. Last night I didn't even crave anything specific. Just something bad. I have 2 questions:
1. How the hell am I supposed to stop these cravings especially when they're not even for anything in particular?
I can tell you some things that don't work for stopping the cravings:
The Food Network. I think I'm going to have to quit watching Rachel Ray and Paula Deen for a while. Especially Paula.
Also ineffective: "I'll just eat this instead." Okay yes, pretzels are better than Cheetos, but I just ate way more than I normally would, felt guilty and STILL wanted the Cheetos.
Tonight I actually found something that worked. I told myself I could have what I wanted (tonight it was a bowl of fruity cheerios) if I just waited 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I made myself wait a little more. After 2 hours and a glass of apple juice, I'm craving free!! Take THAT mind.
I'm going to try some other things next:
Distraction- crocheting, crosswords, reading (apparently I'm also ~95 years old)
Exercise- daily walks, runs, or bike rides and if a craving is really bad, maybe a quick set of crunches.
Drinking more H2O- because everyone says it works.
2. Just what the heck is going on with my mind/body anyway?
Tada! Here's my FOUND for the day: Your Brain and Food Cravings. There aren't a lot of pretty articles about mental issues involving cravings, but I came across this one from a Bryn Mawr class! BMC was part of the Bi-college consortium with Haverford College, my alma mater. The author claims that cravings are possibly caused by a mechanism outside of our control, but that surrendering to cravings is something we can control.
The truth is, I didn't find a lot of agreement in the research on the mind's role in cravings. It doesn't seem like we really care why we have them, we just want them gone. I'll keep you updated if I find any better research. Til then, I hope we can all keep the chips in the bag and off the ass.
xoxo,
Jessica
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