The Key to Beating Your Food Cravings

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.