5 Tips to Curb Food Cravings
Sometimes when we eat it is not connected to hunger at all. The process of eating can be used to mask or avoid emotions. Overeating or binge eating can become an addiction that is hard to break. For this reason, you may have many cravings during your cleanse.
There is mounting scientific evidence to suggest that continuous exposure to processed foods that are full of refined sugar, fat and salt can produce a profound difference in how your brain responds to food. We can also be triggered by cues in our environment, such as advertisements, as well as smells and visuals creating a tremendous overwhelming attraction to certain foods.
In addition to all of this, stress can push us to indulge in over eating (or simply eating the wrong food). So what do we do about it? I have listed five simple suggestions for mild to moderate cravings and a few for more extreme (and seemingly unstoppable) cravings.
Learn Mindfulness and Yoga
Stress (especially prolonged chronic stress) whether it comes from your food or environment is toxic, and can lead to feeling sad and hopeless. This can therefore become the driver to looking for food to obliterate these feelings. It is super important to take time to relax and be mindful.
Science now proves that meditation and yoga calm the nervous system and reduce stress. Take 20 minutes to meditate every morning and find a calm yoga practice. FYI. There are some new modern yoga classes like “Power Yoga” that you should probably avoid if looking for a relaxing experience.
Fill yourself up with Healthy Foods
Avoid rushing to the cupboards due to extreme hunger pangs by making sure that you follow a complete balanced detox plan.
The plan you embark on should be filled with healthy foods that will nourish you from the inside out. A lot of the time cravings come from a lack of nutrients and you are actually looking for foods that will fulfil your dietary needs.
Make sure to eat at every mealtime and never skip a meal. When we skip a meal then we are more susceptible to falling into old habits and quickly grabbing something convenient. If you don’t manage to pack your healthy plant based wholefoods, then I suggest you nip down to your local juice bar, or grab a salad.
Avoid Temptation
You know the old saying “out of sight out of mind”, nothing could be more on point when it comes to re-training your mind and body to eat foods that support your life.
Remove Junk Food from your cupboards to avoid temptation. Bingeable foods or beverages should not be in your home while you detox from them.
The top 10 bingeable foods that are also very addictive are cake, cheese, cheeseburgers, chocolate, cookies, crisps/ chips, French fries, ice cream, pizza, and sodas/ fizzy juice. If you can, take the time to remove these from your life a few days prior to taking part in the cleanse, this will help you stop these needless urges.
Make sure to get Enough Sleep
Did you know that sleep deprivation affects your hunger hormones? The hormones ghrelin and leptin are adversely affected when you don’t get enough sleep. This means you will be fighting an uphill battle if you don’t get quality sleep during your cleanse. In addition, when you are detoxing, there are more toxins becoming loose and passing through your body (on their way to being eliminated), these will be processed during your rest and repair mode a.k.a. sleep.
The best time to be sleeping is between 12 midnight and 4am in the morning. So arrange your life, so that you are in deep sleep at these times.
Mix Up your Routines
We are often triggered by certain days of the week or times of the day, or even programs, where we are accustomed to drinking or eating specific foods or drinks.
Make sure to fill up your day with exercise, and helpful activities rather than lying in bed watching TV. Avoid programs that trigger you, at least for the time you are trying to reset yourself with a detox plan. Instead watch films like “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead or “What the Health”, these programs will back up your new lifestyle and encourage you to stick with your healing journey.
There are many other ways to work to remove cravings, especially if they are extreme. In some cases the addiction to toxic food can be so strong, that the only way to curb them is to get some additional support. I would suggest trying the “Yale Addiction Scale: Quiz” to see if you are actually a food addict.
Supportive therapies that can help you out of this rut include Hypnotherapy, Yoga, CBT, Mindfulness, Therapy and Journaling (to name but a few).
In most cases, the addiction to junk food is minor and will be cleansed out during a well-planned out detox protocol like our plan “Juice21” that you can start from the comfort of your own home.