We now live in a world where hyperpalatable foods are readily available to us, no matter where you are. The combination of high-sugar and high-fat foods (chocolate, ice cream, baked goods) is incredibly delicious and there is nothing wrong with you if you “crave” these or want to indulge occasionally.
My advice to my clients is always to lean into cravings rather than to resist, I’ll go into how to do that below but to start, let’s make sure you can distinguish the difference between hunger and cravings.
Hunger…
- Is a physiological need for food, often accompanied by symptoms like feelings of empty-ness, a grumbling stomach or being light headed. If what you’re feeling is genuine hunger, these feelings will persist or get worse the longer you go without food.
- Is when, given the chance, you would eat pretty much anything to satisfy it. “If you wouldn’t eat an apple, you’re not truly hungry” – I don’t particularly like this saying but it makes a good point and is a useful when it comes to differentiating hunger from cravings.
Cravings…
- Unlike hunger, cravings will pass with time, usually about 20 minutes. People will often use distraction as a “management technique” for cravings which again, I don’t particularly like because it doesn’t actually give you anything tangible to action. It does hold true though, if you genuinely become distracted upon noticing a craving, you will forget about it. Useful to note.
- Again, unlike hunger, cravings are usually for a specific food or type of food, e.g. “I just want something sweet”. When presented with other options, you’d turn them down because “it’s not what you fancy” – this is a craving.
So, now that we’re all on the same page let’s discuss “leaning” into your cravings.
How Do I Lean into My Cravings?
As I said above, my advice to my clients is always to lean into their cravings rather than trying to resist them. This is because, in most cases, resisting something will only make you want it more and put you at an increased risk of overeating.
Example; Imagine you’re craving chocolate, you’ve been thinking about it all day. You managed to resist it in the office kitchen at work and now you’ve gotten home after a long day, energy is low and you go straight to your pantry cupboard. You’re hungry for dinner but the thought of spending 30 minutes cooking is very unappealing. The first thing you see when you open the cupboard is, you guessed it, chocolate. You hit the “screw it” button and you proceed to eat more than you might like, only to feel pretty crappy afterwards.
I’m sure this won’t sound too dissimilar to what you might have experienced at some point. Which is why, I’m encouraging you to lean in.
Leaning in requires you to recognise that you’re experiencing more cravings this week, whether that’s because you’re on your period or otherwise (there doesn’t have to be a reason) and plan/account for them.
When time of day are you typically experiencing these cravings? What kind of food are you craving?
Plan something in for this time that you know is going to hit the spot.
An improvement on the example above; You’re craving chocolate, based on yesterday you know what you’re typically noticing the cravings most in the afternoon. Instead of having your usual cup of tea and a mandarin at 3pm, you decide that you’re going to have 3 squares of chocolate too. Throughout the day you feel calm, you know you’ve given yourself the flexibility to have what you’re craving and you’re working towards that. 3pm rolls around and you sit and enjoy your snacks mindfully (please), you enjoy them and you move on with your day. You feel proud of your choices.
Voila!
You’ll be surprised to find out that two very similar actions (eating chocolate from the pantry and eating it at work) can elicit two very different responses (feeling like crap vs feeling proud) based on the actions you take/planning you do prior.
How do I account for the extra calories I’m eating?
In short, you don’t. If, on the week of your period you plan for an extra sweet snack. I’d rather you have those 200 extra calories and feel good about your choices than try to resist, overeating (500+ extra calories) and feel like crap.
When you can, just return back to normal but, if you’re a client of mine you know you can be consuming these sorts of foods regularly (which in turn reduced cravings anyway).
If you regularly experience cravings and you’d like some support with this, fill out this form and let me see if I can help 🙂
