Controlling the Cravings

Here is a summary of my Weight Watchers meeting on August 11, 2009.

97% of women and 68% of men have admitted to having cravings. A craving is a strong desire to eat certain foods. Now this can easily be confused with an urge or a temptation. Cravings are the kind of things that eat away at your brain and all you can think about is eating that particular food.

Cravings can very easily get the best of us so…. here are a few techniques to help you bust down those obnoxious, relentless cravings.

• Distract it: If you think you’re having a craving, do something else for a while. The desire to eat may go away after 10—15 minutes. If it doesn’t, try another
strategy. A great example given was to give yourself a manicure…ha feels great and you can’t eat with wet fingernails.

• Fake it: You may want to eat a version of the food you’re craving that’s lower in POINTS® values.Instead of the chocolate cake try a weight watchers brownie.

• Feed it: If distracting yourselves and faking it doesn’t work, eat a controlled
portion of the food in a controlled setting. Try to avoid going to the restaurant because you will tend to eat a lot more…control it by eating at home.

• Dig deeper: If you become aware of why you’re craving a certain food, your desire for it may subside. For example, you may find it helpful to figure out if you’ve been too restrictive in your eating or if emotions are behind the craving. If feelings are the cause, realize that it’s usually better to face the issue head on.

• Ask what the craving implies: If you mainly crave a particular type of food (sweet, salty, crunchy), you may find it helpful to include foods of that type in your daily eating.A great example given was to eat carrots instead of potato chips to satisfy the crunch.