Food Cravings

A lot of diets base their approach on deprivation and guilt. The food we crave such as creamy chocolate, salty chips, sweet candy are 'bad' foods that are to be avoided-and that's it, those are the 'rules' of the weight-loss game. This is unrealistic, and anyone who has followed a diet that guilts, shames and teaches you nothing about why you crave these foods, knows that after about 2 weeks you find yourself elbows-deep in bags of junk and feeling like sh*t. You learn absolutely nothing, but that you are a failure according to some book.

Now gather all that shame, guilt, and misery and throw it out- along with the diet books. Instead, lets UNDERSTAND our food cravings.

Food cravings are actually wonderful signals for what is going on it our lives. There are some important questions to first ask yourself and meditate with before trying to cut out the junk.

-How is the love and affection between you and your mate? (Remember, sex and love and affection are different things- discover your health balance).

-How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? What are your first thoughts about? Are they positive and motivating, or depressing and overwhelming?

-What is the source of your negative/lonely/shameful/dull thoughts and feelings. (Allow yourself the time to meditate with this, the important thing is that you begin to question your thoughts and learn about the beliefs you have about who you are, how people treat you, how YOU treat you and about your life).

-How is your mind when you are eating the junk foods? Are you calm and at peace with yourself? Are you in the moment? How are you feeling afterwards?

Now lets understand some clues food cravings are suggesting to us- the mind work is half of it, but now we need to rev up your body with foods that will battle the cravings!

-Depending on junk foods for quick energy makes cravings worse. Every time you eat you send messages to your body teaching it how to function. Essentially, every time you eat you are training your body to either work for you, or against you.

-Food cravings signify a lack of nutrients in the body.

-Cravings for sugary and carbohydrate foods signify a lack of essential nutrients, especially essential fatty acids.
What to do: Supplement with 1 tbs flax oil 2 times a day, or high quality cod liver oil and within days you'll restore proper EFA levels.

-Cravings for salty foods may signify low sodium levels, low mineral levels, and dehydration.
What to do: if you are dehydrated, drink warm water (that has been boiled) throughout the day for 2 weeks. Do not add anything to the water! This wil hydrate you faster than any other way.
Incorporate seaweeds into your diet. Seaweeds are high in mineral content and are so good for you! There are plenty of seaweed salad recipes online. My favorite is adding Dulse to my salads- it is salty and 2 tbs of small bits is great with tomato and avocado. I buy mine at Whole Foods.

-Chocolate cravings signify vit-B and/ or magnesium deficiency.
What to do: Supplement with Vit-B and flax oil to restore essential fatty acid levels, especially if you are a vegetarian. I love using Nutritional Yeast in place of parmesan cheese. It is high in protein and Vit-B. I buy mine bulk at Whole Foods.
*Remember, dark, organic, fair trade chocolate does have it's health benefits. So enjoy it once a week or so if it is something you love!

Anything can be eaten in moderation, which means you do not abuse the food and use it to aid emotional sorrows, fears, or as a saboteur. Food is love, so enjoy it!

to discovering the meaning behind your food cravings,
Krista.