Do you ever experience hunger cravings? We can assure you that food cravings are not out of the ordinary! In fact, we’d say the majority of our clients and even us coaches have our vices! Whether it’s sweets, chocolate or greasy fast food, we believe the key to tackling cravings is to acknowledge, accept and manage them.
We hope to give you some answers and actionable measures in this article to what we believe is key to tackling food cravings throughout the day.
1. Keep on top of the crave
This can be surprising, but rather than just saying fight the craving, usually we suggest first accepting it. If you rely on willpower alone to get you through, then you may fall short and ultimately feel bad for not keeping to it.
Instead, we recommend resisting the craving for just 30 minutes. Don’t immediately give in to your craving, but agree that you will have it for a small amount of time.
Regardless, you’ve removed the sense of failure that would come from giving in. Plus 50% of the time, the feeling will pass and you can carry on!
2. Understand your hunger
Once accepting that hunger and cravings are something of the norm, it’s then worth recognising whether it is really genuine hunger in the first place. Here’s what it could also be:
- Dehydration will cause signals to the brain that – including false hunger – something to ask yourself, are you drinking enough?
- Poor functioning and lack of quality sleep will influence blood sugar regulation – are you getting enough quality sleep?
- Good quality nutrition with lean protein intake is ideal when it comes to feeling satiated – are you eating enough lean proteins?
Why Consuming Protein Helps You Lose Fat
3. Feelings of restriction in your diet
A common mistake we see people make when trying to lose weight is removing their favourite foods from their diet. There’s a perception that these more desirable foods “will make you fat”.
This couldn’t be further from the truth! Anything that helps you remain consistent with your new eating habits is a keeper, not a drawback.
For most people, we see greater success when there is daily/ weekly food included in their programmed eating plan. For some, this could just be 2 squares of chocolate daily, for others it’s a weekly pizza.
If you implement some of the steps in this article, you should see huge improvements in the management of your cravings thus helping you to reach your physique goals, but making it all a little easier to manage.
Do you feel you need extra guidance with your nutrition to help you reach your goals? Why not consider group coaching with our personal training team? Click HERE to apply for small group coaching and to book your FREE consultation
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