How to reduce food cravings👇👇👍

Life is never perfect and overeating sometimes is completely normal but what to do when will power is not enough?

Here are my top 10 tips to reduce food cravings and stop overeating:

1.Manage your food cues.
Some of the food Cues are:
👀👁Visual- watching adverts or observing people eating.
😴🥴Mental- stress, sleepless night, low mood
🎵Auditory – Music, the sounds we make while eating or the sound of chocolate braking.
👃Olfactory (smelled) – Smell of cake or pizza

All have a powerful effect on appetite!

Image from: https://healthyulstercounty.net

Be aware of eye catching logos or adverts in the middle of your fave program!
Minimize your exposure to food advertising on tv and elsewhere if you can.

💜Notice what takes your attention, acknowledge it and then just let it go! Practice this every day💜

2.Learn to deal with emotions🤯😩🥺
Eating when you are angry or sad, give only temporary pleasure and relief.
Those emotions can return at any time forcing you to eat more and more and eventually this will become a habit hard to brake!
As soon your 🧠 learns that it can get a quick fix, the cycle of addicted behaviour begins!🙅‍♂️

If things go wrong, try not to blame yourself.
Blame and shame are another trigger to eat more.
Forgive yourself and focus on positive changes you can make to be healthier every day.

Image from: https://www.helpguide.org

💜Don’t feed your emotions, feed your body.💜

Make a commitment to reach deep within yourself to find a place of grit and strength. Ask yourself:
Am I happy?
What makes me sad?
How can I change this?
Who can help me with this?

Don’t stop till you find help.

3.Exercise, find time to relax and take care of your sleeping patterns.

“Book appointment with yourself”- plan to relax.Meditation, practising mindfulness and yoga is highly recommended👌👌Walking can be very therapeutic too.
Benefits of exercise are plenty but keep in mind that we exercise to be healthy! Exercising to burn calories because you ate to much is not the best approach😬

Instead of fighting with your cravings after 5pm try to brake that routine with any of your fave activity and remember! It has to be enjoyable! 😻

💜It’s about finding your own ways to cope with the trigger in healthier ways. Think of creating “coping habit” which you can practice every time you feel triggered💜
Meditation could be one of those “coping habits” and this 👇👇app can help you to start https://www.headspace.com/register

4.Shift your focus and don’t believe every thought.
Many of us underestimate the power of thought! Meaning ,those voices in your head trying to convince you that happiness is to “lose weight” ! Unfortunately, if you don’t have a good relationship with food, you will gain all weight back.

💜Our thoughts aren’t facts! Some are helpful, some aren’t 💜

For some people, shifting focus from losing weight to gaining health is better idea than following some kind of temporary diet.
Diets are often to restrictive which may be a one step away from disordered eating!

More about disordered eating here: https://www.eatright.org/health/diseases-and-conditions/eating-disorders/what-is-disordered-eating

5.Practise awareness, mindfulness🙌
Another reason for our imbalance with food and eating is that we've forgotten how to be present as we eat.

Image from: https://www.mysugarfreekitchen.com

We eat mindlessly!

When we eat we think of next task to do, watching tv or engaging in conversation. Mindful eating helps us learn to hear what our body is telling us about hunger and satisfaction.
It helps tune into those internal factors that influence what, how much, and when you eat.
More about mindful eating here: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/mindful-eating

Be aware of the triggers you have, Pay attention, so you know when your trigger happens and when it does, use your “coping habit” to deal with it so you are not turning to food.

6.Stop restrictive dieting.
When we restrict food or completely cut out groups of foods, calling them bad& good ,craving can become more intense which leads to overeating and guild.

Diet industry will always try to sell you idea that abstinence from gluten or sugar will make you feel better but that’s maybe half true. New meal plan will help you control food intake for sure but what we need even more is: FEELING IN CHARGE not just in control!
Practicing mindfulness will help you to achieve that.

7.Find your trigger foods, get rid of all tempting, calorie dense foods that easy to grab and eat. These foods are chips, cookies, pizza, burgers, cakes.Don’t make it easy for yourself to eat them.

💜Eat food close to their natural state💜
Start with balanced meals every day without excluding any food groups and minimise processed foods.
Foods to add to your shopping list are:

👍Dairy foods such as milk, cheese and yogurt
👍Unprocessed meats such as beef, chicken and turkey
👍Omega-3 rich fish such as salmon and mackerel
👍Eggs
👍Fruit and vegetables
👍Nuts such as almonds and walnuts
👍Dark chocolate and seeds
👍Beans and lentils

A new study from Kevin Hall, shows that when consuming processed food diets people ate on average 508 more calories per day😱 which would account for another meal!

8.Try mental game and stop “autopilot eating”.
Before you reach for a snack take a minute to connect with your mind. Ask yourself:
🤔Am I really hungry?
🤔Did I sleep long enough last night?
🤔Would I eat fruit?
🤔Do I need a drink or food?
🤔How long ago I had my last meal?
🤔How am I feeling today?
🤔What would feel helpful now?

Pausing and connecting with inner self can help you recognize the real hunger not “mind hunger” or “eye hunger”

9.Prioritise your sleeping. A good 8h sleep is a must for all of us😴😴
People who don’t get enough sleep eat up to 300 extra calories the next day,compared with those who sleep for eight hours!😇

The more you sleep the less time to eat😄

10.Test each method to see which works best for you. Old habits die hard so be patient and stick with it until you create a good habit!

Which method are you going to test first?
I have already tested few and I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you🥰