Mindset

One of the first things I say to a new client or anyone who asks what I do (after I say I’m a Personal Trainer!) is that I aim to help my clients gain control over their food and rather than their food (or their food cravings) having control over them. So many people are at the mercy of their food cravings and feel out of control when it comes to controlling their instincts and impulses. My goal is to change that around and work with people to achieve the control they so badly crave. So what is the key to beating your food cravings?

Do You Like Control?

Now here’s an admission about me. I’m a control freak (shock, horror to those that know me well). Food and exercise is an area where I have a lot of control and I love that. Interestingly a lot of my clients also like control, but just feel by ‘giving up’ the foods they want to eat they are losing control and they don’t like that. But I try and flip that narrative to – if you can get control over what you eat, you get control over your weight and health. And what bigger/better control is there than that?

I had someone say me recently ‘If I lose the weight I want to lose, how I am going to celebrate/reward myself if I can’t do it with a takeaway.’ To which I replied (possibly a bit bluntly) ‘The weight loss is the reward. The way you will feel will be the reward. The fact your health risk factors will all be down will be the reward.’ To be clear I’m not against someone having a takeaway if they want one occasionally. My issue was that food was the immediate and only link in their mind to reward. That’s an issue, and an issue a lot of us have. An automatic and intrinsic link between food and reward. If that sounds like you then I would recommend you work towards challenging that belief.

What Not To Focus On (at least not solely)

Most people look exclusively at the obvious when it comes to losing weight. By that I mean what foods they are going to cut out. For example they are going to stop drinking, eating carbs, set a calorie limit, whatever it may be. Don’t get me wrong there obviously needs to be some of this (although I don’t agree with the ‘cutting out totally’ of anything you like). But if this is all you are focusing on you are relying entirely on your willpower. Which unfortunately is why a lot of people fail.

What To Focus On

Your individual process. Your habits and relationships around food. If you can do this you will give yourself a much better chance at sticking with whatever you are doing. Everyone is different, but to give you an example a lot of people have a very impulsive relationship with food. They will suddenly be in the fridge or the kids sweets/chocolate cupboard without planning it or thinking about it.

So my question would be why are you doing that? Is it stress? That could come in many different ways but try to be curious about the circumstances when you lose control with your eating. Is it after a bad day at work? Argument with a friend/partner? Is it at the same time of the day/evening? It may not just be one thing, but it tends to be the same 1 or 2 things for people that cause the problem time and again. So figure out what that is for you.

The only way you can do this is by watching and thinking about your process as it’s happening. Then not only can you see it coming, e.g. I have had a bad day at work, I know that often leads to me raiding the fridge when I get in. So you can be ready for the urge rather than it being a surprise. It also gives you a chance to come up with an alternative plan. E.g. ‘I know that’s what I will be tempted to do so I am going to do something else instead.’ Maybe some exercise (obviously I would say that), or just an activity that you enjoy. So you deal with the stress in a different/much healthier way.

Conclusion – The Key to Beating Your Food Cravings

If you want to create lasting change and find the key to beating your foods cravings, you need to look a little deeper than just which foods you are/aren’t going to eat. Weight starts between the ears, so if you can get a better grasp on that part of the process the rest becomes a whole lot easier.

I have done plenty of previous blog articles with practical tips on how to avoid weight gain at this time of year. For example which snacks to avoid, what behaviours should focus on doing/not doing, etc. I would suggest you read these as well if you haven’t already. But this year I’m going to focus more on a mental strategy that you can employ. I truly believe that if you can accept the imperfection, it will prevent you putting much/if any weight on during December. And more than that it will make your weight loss/weight management journey much more enjoyable and give you a lot more control over it.

Christmas Parties

Most people have more social engagements this time of year. And certainly most people will be with family and friends over Christmas. And understandably you want to let yourself have a little bit of freedom when socialising. But at the same time a lot of people really struggle with not being able to control their food/drink the way they want to and have been doing whilst they have been losing weight. And therefore fear putting weight back on.

All or Nothing Mentality

A lot of people have an ‘all or nothing’ mentality when you comes to health and fitness. So the mind tells you something like ‘I am out of control with all these parties/social engagements, I’m going to put weight on anyway, I might as well forget about it till January and just eat/drink whatever I want for now.’ In a way this mentality gives you back the control. By giving yourself permission to not worry about your weight and accepting the inevitable weight gain you eliminate the failure you feel when we try and don’t succeed. But that approach will most likely come at a cost in terms of weight gain.

Of course for most people it is impossible to totally eliminate the part of them that really doesn’t want to put a load of weight back on. So even if you are telling yourself ‘it doesn’t matter, I will sort it out in January,’ most people will still be feeling guilty/bad about what they have eaten/drank and be dreading that January weigh in far in advance. So if this is you, I would argue you are not really even enjoying the treats anyway despite what you may be trying to convince yourself.

Striving for perfection

This is the other end of the scale. You either don’t go to any social engagements or don’t indulge in any treats when you are there. I would argue this is not a healthy strategy either. You are either cutting yourself off from any treats, which is not a long term solution in terms of learning moderation and living your life. Or much more likely you will fail to live up to these high expectations of yourself and fall off the wagon. Except instead of being accepting of it, as you would be if you allowed yourself a little freedom in advance, you will feel like you have failed. And most likely lose motivation to continue being healthy thereafter.

Accept The Imperfection

What we should really strive for is accepting the imperfection. By this I mean accept that it is okay to try to be healthy most of the time but still enjoy the social engagements. To accept that you may get on the scales in January and it goes up a couple pounds. And that is okay and NOT FAILURE. You have enjoyed yourself with friends and family over Christmas and can undo that weight gain in a week. Your good habits are still largely intact and it won’t be difficult to get back into your regime.

As opposed to if you just eat and drink whatever you see in December and put on 7-10 pounds. (Yes I have seen this more than once). Then you have a much bigger task to lose the weight. You will most likely feel pretty down about the weight gain and your ‘failure’ to control your impulses the previous month. This typically leads to some pretty negative self-talk, which is not a productive place to be in terms of getting motivated to move forward. You have also broken your good habits which makes it much more difficult to change them back again.

Hopefully you can see the difference in the 3 scenarios. And maybe you can identify some of the traits I have discussed in yourself. Self-awareness is incredibly important in weight management. If we know what are tendencies and mental processes are we can start to put things in place to cope with them and counteract them if necessary. As opposed to just being reactionary and letting your emotional response lead your decision making rather than your brain.

Conclusion – Accept The Imperfection

Of course this is all easier said than done, but set yourself the goal of accepting the imperfection this December. If you have a lot of social engagements accept that this MAY lead to a slight weight gain by January. And be okay with that. Accept it. Enjoy yourself whilst practising moderation. Focus on controlling the rest of the month when you are not socialising as best you can. I.e. keep eating plenty of protein, keep eating your normal meals, keep snacks healthy, drink plenty of water etc. If you do this you will have a much easier task in January, you should be able to actually enjoy the social engagements more guilt free, and you are still in control.

Your cortisol levels control a lot of things in your body. One of them being your metabolism which is why there is such a strong link between cortisol levels and weight management. In short the better regulated your cortisol levels are the easier you will find it to manage your weight. But are cortisol levels just luck or genetic? Or can you ‘sort out’ your cortisol levels?

Can I Control My Cortisol Levels?

There are lots of supplements you can try. Magnesium being one option particularly if you have trouble sleeping and think your cortisol levels might be the reason. But essentially supplements can only make a small impact (at best) on your cortisol levels.

What you really need to think about is when/why you are stressed and how you can go about changing that. Of course we all want (and I agree it would certainly be easier) if there was some magic supplement you could take that would totally sort of your cortisol levels. But like with any supplement it is not, on its own, ‘the solution.’

There are 3 main steps to take to ‘sort out’ your cortisol levels. The 3 ‘A’s.’

1/Acceptance

You have to be willing to accept that stress and lifestyle factors are the main reason your cortisol levels are out of whack. And you need to accept this is what needs to be examined and ultimately changed if you want to sort out your cortisol levels.

2/ Awareness

By this essentially I mean ‘catch’ yourself when you are getting and feeling stressed. Just being aware that is it happening and noting it is a huge step in the right direction. Most people just go through life without ever thinking about it. You will probably notice that there are triggers or a pattern to your stress levels. It will likely be the same things that set off the stress response time and time again.

3/ Action

To be clear you are never going to eliminate stress from your life completely. Nor would you want to or need to. But once you identify what you main triggers are you can put a plan into place to address them. For example you may identify there are particular people in your life that make you feel stressed. Or it may be certain situations such as work deadlines, meetings, driving…It’s different for everyone obviously so going back to step 2 you will just have to observe yourself to begin with and see when/where the triggers are.

You will be amazed at how simply being aware of these situations alone with reduce your stress response. You can observe yourself getting or potentially getting stressed and automatically you will get a ‘calm down’ response’ from your body.

There are lots of others options for you in terms of taking action. My favourite is a simple deep breathing exercise. When we are stressed and/or panic slightly most people don’t breathe fully or properly. See for yourself if you your breathing gets short and shallow. Deep, slow breathing on the other hand calms the nervous system. So breathe in slowly through your nose deeply into your chest and stomach. And then hold the breath for a second then breathe out really slowly, actively relaxing everything as you do so. You can do this exercise when you feel the stress coming on, and just as a general daily habit to help keep your stress levels at a generally lower level.

Conclusion – Can You ‘Sort Out’ Your Cortisol Levels?

The short answer is yes. But it’s not going to be as easy as just popping a pill I’m afraid. Your responses with not change overnight, and therefore neither will your cortisol levels. Like any other skill it will take time and practice. It’s just like fitness training, it takes consistency to improve and achieve your goals. So stick with the 3 steps above and over time you will reap the rewards. The calmer you can be generally throughout the day, the more your cortisol levels will be regulated and the easier it will be to lose weight/keep the weight off (and the better you are likely to sleep!)

Most of us know the basics about endorphins. They are released during exercise and basically make us feel better, more energised, happier etc afterwards. But some people seem to get these positive benefits a lot more than others. So how do endorphins work exactly? Do you need to do any particular type of exercise or exercise in a certain way to make sure you release them?

What are endorphins?

They are tiny neurochemicals released by your body. They are produced by the central nervous system and the pituitary gland. Endorphins act on the opiate receptors in the brain and basically increase pleasure and reduce pain. Hence giving you an overall sense of happiness and well-being when they are released.

What can endorphins help with?

They have been shown to help alleviate depression. Which is a big part of the reason why anyone suffering from mental health issues or depression is encouraged to exercise more. Studies show they also play a vital role in reducing stress and anxiety. They make you feel more positive, optimistic and boost your self-esteem. Endorphins can also help with weight management. Obviously exercise burns calories, but more than that studies actually shown they help to regulate appetite.

Can I do anything to produce more of them?

We all naturally produce different levels of them, but you can do certain things to maximise your production of them.
1/ Most importantly, exercise regularly. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of exercise you actually do in terms of endorphin production.
2/Certain foods such as dark chocolate and spicy foods have been shown to increase endorphin production.
3/ Do things/hobbies that you enjoy and much as you can.
4/ Sniff vanilla or lavender. Certain aromas have been shown to lift your mood.
5/ Try taking ginseng. Has been shown to help with fatigue and stress.
6/ Laugh as much as you can. One study found children laugh an average on 300 times a day, adults only 5! So try to have a laugh whenever you can it will trigger release of endorphins.

Conclusion – How Do Endorphins Work?

Try doing as many of the things above as you can to boost your endorphin levels. Don’t worry if someone you know feels ‘amazing’ after exercise and you don’t. We all have different natural levels of endorphin production. Exercise is the most effective method of boosting it, but I guess I would say that!

Visit the main page of my website here; Complete Fitness 4 Life – Personal Training Pembury and Tunbridge Wells.