The Simple Process to End Sugar Cravings
Hey Angels and Alphas,
Anyone who has ever tried to achieve weight loss has faced the reality of food and sugar cravings. And that’s completely normal.
While we’re all conditioned to think there’s something inherently wrong with craving sugar, especially the diet culture that’s always like a devil on your shoulder telling you certain foods are bad. Well, newsflash: they’re not.
Craving sugar can be managed somewhat easily by making a few small tweaks in your diet game, your eating patterns, and your mindset.
Let’s talk about each of those tweaks, the science behind them, and how you can use them to reduce or eliminate your own sugar cravings!
#1 EAT REGULARLY
Irregular meal times or skipped meals tend to be one of the biggest reasons we crave sweets. If you go long stretches without eating pretty much anything, skipping breakfast for a quick coffee and then working through your lunch can set you up for cravings in the early afternoon. So the reason you’re getting the craving is physiological.
You’re not giving your body what it needs so it finds the easiest way to let you know to go get it. When you skip meals, you can experience blood sugar drops and that’s a place you don’t want to be in.
Sugar is the quickest way to get out of that danger zone since the body easily turns it into energy. That’s why we crave sugar. All of this can be fixed with a big breakfast or a wholesome lunch.
#2 DON’T IGNORE CARBS
If you’re skimping on carbs but still eating regular meals, you may be noticing you’re still getting cravings for carbs and sweets. This doesn’t mean you’re doing dieting wrong or that carbs are bad. It happens because your body needs carbs! Remember, carbohydrates are not the evil substance that diet culture would like you to believe they are. They’re the body’s preferred source of energy.
If you’re not eating them, even if you have enough protein and fat in your system, you’re still going to experience cravings. The remedy here, if you still want to avoid simple sugars, is to consume complex carb sources including whole grains, peas, beans, oatmeal, potatoes, and more.
Try to aim for complex carb sources that include lots of fiber such as whole grains, potatoes with the skin, and fruits – they promote satiety and keep your blood sugar levels balanced and steady throughout the day so you experience fewer cravings.
#3 YOU STILL NEED (A LITTLE) SUGAR
Many individuals tend to consume too much added sugar which may in some way contribute to the risk of chronic disease. But there are still various physiological and psychological reasons why people crave sweets.
If you deprive yourself of food that you genuinely enjoy, and feel miserable as a result, this sort of beats the purpose of being healthy. In a lot of cases, people tend to overvalue what they can’t have until they finally “cave” in and eat more than they can handle.
Then come the feelings of discomfort, guilt, and deprivation. It’s entirely possible to change courses here! Just remove cake from your “restricted” list completely. At first, you might eat a little bit more than usual, but over time, you’ll stop craving it if you have it available.
You still have to regularly include sweets in your diet if you’re someone who loves them. You can’t just put them in an “off-limits” list and forget about something your body craves.
The bottom line is…
There’s a quick mindset shift to be made where you stop thinking your cravings for sweet and sugary foods needs to be “managed” and “controlled.” Instead, by focusing on giving your body what it needs, you will build a much better relationship with food and you’ll naturally eliminate cravings that often result from deprivation.
Deprivation will always result in something missing from your diet, and if you want to maintain a healthy, balanced, and sustainable diet, you have to make everything available to yourself but stay mindful about the consequences of every decision.
By simply eating at regular, predictable intervals and not depriving yourself of carbohydrates, you can eliminate the majority of reasons why people crave sweet and sugary foods to begin with.
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