Whatever you do…don’t take a bite of that delicious cake! Picture from The Nutrition Post: http://www.thenutritionpost.com/frontpage/dr-ozs-5-ways-to-outsmart-food-cravings.html
They’ll drive you crazy if you don’t control them. But Goddess…you’re always talking about how we can’t deny ourselves. Yes, but when we indulge until it doesn’t feel good, that’s not good either. Like when you’re depressed and eat a whole cookie. You know the giant one you can buy at the mall with all the frosting? You know what your stomach feels like after that. Over indulgence not good.
How do we keep from going over the deep end with cravings and satisfy them at the same time? Willpower. Oh that word makes me want to nap. It is one unfun word. Think about it. Will power is a “test” of your strength to carry out your decisions and plans. The dessert buffet tested my willpower… To me this is a bit dramatic for everyday life. That just sucked all the fun out of the dessert buffet. Instead of enjoying a few bites of deliciousness, it becomes all about the fat, calories and what we should and shouldn’t do. How come we can’t just enjoy those few bites of deliciousness without the guilt and worry interrupting the pleasure?
Conditioning.
We hear about what we should and shouldn’t eat all the time. What we should and shouldn’t do all the time. You know that scientific experiment where they put a little kid all alone in a room with nothing to do? And then the ONE thing they have in the room is a beautiful chocolate chip cookie on a little white plate. Then they tell the poor little thing not to eat the cookie. Then the scientists go into their own little room and watch the little kid watch the cookie. They put on their glasses and pick up their clip board and pens. Then they say things like: Will the child have the “will power” not to eat the cookie? What if we do A B or C to test a different hypothesis? Then they report to whoever. My craving lately has been cup cakes. Can you imagine if they tried the little room experiment with me? This Bitch would give them an earful. Ooohhh…that would be so fun. They would bury the study for not being in “the norm.” The norm is the poor person in the room eating the cookie at some point out of frustration. And it’s not a fair experiment anyway. There is nothing else to do in the room. No reading, not puzzles, no painting, no nothing. So maybe…
We don’t really want the damn cookie or cup cake.
Way to complicate cravings even more, huh? So what is that about? Is it all the noise telling us what we should and shouldn’t do making us want something we don’t? How do we stop the noise? By giving the noise a salute. (Use the finger of your choice.) I think, as a nation, we would shed serious calories, enjoy our food and exercise more if we just focused on how good we felt when we take care of ourselves. For instance, I used to love nachos. All gooey with loads of real guacamole and jalapenos. On my birthday I treated myself to a small nacho at my favorite taco place. Because of my healthier eating habits, I felt awful for the rest of the day. Lethargic, indigestion, heartburn. It took the fun right out of eating it. Figured it out all by myself, too. No will power necessary.
Think of all the things we crave that make us feel like crap. The guy who is a jerk. (That’s our ego not wanting to let a jerk go…we invested! We couldn’t be that wrong about him! He’s so cute!) Hanging out with people that aren’t good for us so we won’t be alone. Like the Faux Girlfriend http://bitchlifestyle.com/2011/01/the-faux-girlfriend/ Loneliness makes us do some unhealthy things. On a small and large scale. So the moral of this little story is do something good for yourself today. And everyday. When you make doing good for yourself into a habit, you crave less of the bad things. Then you start craving more of the really good things! You become more confident and choose what you want with relish and with definite purpose. Enjoyment. What really good things for you would you like, beautiful?
“There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.” Swami Sivananda
Contentment…so much more satisfying sounding than craving…
© S Stevens Life Strategies
I have a few cravings that I get. They normally come in cycles and I know exactly when they come too. Right before the “monthly” it is nothing but sugar, sugar, sugar! The following week I feel horrible for eating all the sugar and decide to make up for it. After that I get on a starch craving. Nothing but mashed potatoes and gravy I want. To make up for the added starch I eat more protein. Now, I do not eat a lot of meat. I get most of my protein in the form of dairy. Finally getting back a wonderful balance of starch, veggie, protein and the occasional sweet the whole cycle get started again. Blah. I tell myself every time I am going to make it, and some months I do. However, there are a few months there I go on a total bender and eat sugar and starch like there is no tomorrow. SIGH.
ON top of all that I then think about the guy I want but can’t have. I write about it, think about it, and even have a good cry about it once a month. Ugg!! Sometimes I think I need a vacation from myself….
Lol, Jacklyn. Don’t you wish sometimes you could “transport” yourself to some luscious tropical island somewhere and just nap in a hammock? I so hear you on the vacation thing.
Love, Goddess