Stop Overeating: 5 Tips To Stop Food Cravings
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Food cravings can be very intense and can rule our lives. They can also cause us to overeating and emotionally numb ourselves. They seem impossible to overcome, but with the tips in this article, they can be easier to overcome than you think.
1. Eat a balanced diet – Many people find that they experience intense yearnings for food by mid afternoon because simply put they have had a manic morning, skipped breakfast and have only eaten an apple for lunch! These intense yearnings for food then spill over into the evening as your body tries to catch up with calories by searching for calorie dense foods which usually turn out to be the fattiest, heaviest foods around. If you want to avoid these you need to make a motivated effort to get in a proper breakfast, lunch and dinner. Making sure you nourish the body with nutritious foods regularly will stop these.
2. Keep Occupied – A lot of the cravings we experience in the evening tend to be as a result of television watching. TV watching is actually rather dull and often we desire snacks to help us suppress the feelings of boredom. So if you want to avoid them but usually use this time to watch TV and end up vegging out, try doing something different. Find a new hobbie, get creative – paint, learn an instrument, dance, or exercise. Use your evening productively and enjoy it and snacking will be a thing of the past.
3. Help Minimize Them – Sometimes no matter what we do we feel like we just need something in our mouths to take the distraction away from our craved food. You could try chewing gum or sucking on a lollipop to ease the feelings. The more you overcome them and don’t binge on the food you crave, the easier they will be to deal with and less you will need to rely on brushing your teeth and chewing gum to help suppress them.
4. Water – Another thing you can do is drink plenty of water. Some of us confused signals of hunger. What we may very well need is water – so make sure you are hydrated and drink lots before considering eating.
5. Wait It Out – Food fancies don’t really last that long so the best thing to do is wait a while to see if it passes. Of course sitting and waiting will just make you obsess over the food you are wanting and more than likely you will just cave. So prepare a list of things you can do for 15 minutes before you get into this type of situation, and go through the list of activites until it has passed. Spending 15 minutes to get on with housework or going for a walk can really help you beat cravings.
There are plenty of others things you can do to overcome those fake hunger pangs, but this are good starting points. Don’t let food get the better of you. They can be beaten and you don’t have to let them rule your life.
For more cravings tips visit stop food cravings. If you are struggling with emotional eating check out our article how to stop emotional eating and combat cravings for good.