How to Beat Your Cravings – Every Time

Maybe your diet was going along swimmingly for days or even weeks. You were sticking to your meal plans, avoiding certain foods, and turning down chocolate, cake and chips.

And then you had a craving for something. Perhaps you just had to have a chocolate bar. Maybe you couldn’t stop thinking about ice-cream.

Whatever it was, you cracked, and you ended up eating rather a lot of all the wrong sorts of things.

So how can you beat your cravings next time? Here are a few “do”s and “don’t”s to try…

1. Don’t Get Too Hungry

If you get very hungry, your will power will be much lower, and your body will crave high-calorie, high-fat foods. To combat hunger:

• Eat smaller meals and have a healthy snack between meals
• Include protein and fiber at every meal to help fill you up
• Learn to recognise your own hunger signals, and have something to eat when you start to feel peckish

Although you should have a good appetite when mealtimes roll around, you shouldn’t feel constantly hungry when you’re on a diet. If you find it hard to tell whether or not you’re hungry, try having a glass of water; sometimes, we mistake thirst for hunger. Bear in mind too that real hunger tends to develop gradually – you don’t suddenly go from feeling fine to feeling ravenous.

2. Do Wait Twenty Minutes

When a craving strikes, make yourself wait at least twenty minutes before giving in. Often, the craving will have gone completely. If you’re finding it really hard to resist, set a timer and promise yourself that if you still want that candy bar or slab of cake when the time goes off, you’ll eat it.

Going for a walk, taking a shower, reading a book, or distracting yourself in some other way are all good tips for taking your mind off cravings. However much it might feel like you need that chocolate cookie, cravings are in the mind.

3. Don’t Deprive Yourself

One trap which many dieters fall into is to ban foods and label them as “naughty”. If you’re subsisting on a bland diet of rice cakes, salad and cottage cheese, no wonder you’re ending up craving something a bit more exciting.

Rather than depriving yourself, recognise that all foods are fine in moderation. Sure, you’ll struggle to lose weight if you’re eating a couple of giant candy bars every day – but the occasional piece of dark chocolate won’t do you any harm, and will probably help you stick to your diet in the long run.

4. Do Ask “What Do I Really Want?”

If your craving is for something fairly unspecified – you just feel the urge to snack and munch – then try to pinpoint what you really want. Unless you’re actually hungry, it probably isn’t food.

Maybe you’re bored. You might be stressed out and wanting comfort, or exhausted and craving sugar. You might feel lonely or sad or fed up, or any number of other things.

Rather than turning to food – which won’t really satisfy you, because it won’t fix the problem – try addressing the issue directly. What can you do to resolve those feelings?

5. Don’t Give Up

Finally, if your cravings do get the better of you, don’t give up! One bad day doesn’t ruin a diet – but letting that day become your excuse to quit does.

Learn from what went wrong (perhaps you let yourself get too hungry, or you bought lots of snack foods into the house and thought you could resist) and use it to help you beat your cravings next time.