The best way – the BEST way – to completely overhaul the way you look, the way you feel, and your overall health and wellness (physically as well as mentally) is to completely clean up the food you eat and the fuel that you put into your body.
Unfortunately (has absolutely EVERYONE can attest) doing that – abandoning your favorite foods, those salty snacks and sugary sweets – can be almost impossible, especially if you don’t have a little bit of help to give you the edge that allows you to push past cravings and lead the kind of healthy lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.
Getting of course what it comes to your new healthy eating habits for a week or two is one thing. You’re able to rely on the excitement of building a new you to push you past your initial cravings, and you’re able to rely on your new mindset to push you past the ones that are a little bit tougher to fight back against.
But sooner or later, the craving monster gets us all, if we haven’t sufficiently armored ourselves against it and take advantage of all the different tips and tricks we included below to help you get the home and beat back cravings once and for all.
Each one of these strategies has proven to be wildly effective no matter what kind of healthy eating lifestyle you’re going to pursue in the future. So, dive into all the inside information that we can share with you below, and you’ll find it becomes a lot easier (though never effortless) to eliminate cravings from your life once and for all.
Make the most of these tips and tricks today, and you’ll be a much happier, a much healthier and a much more confident you are going forward and more never must answer to the craving monster ever again!
Let’s dig right in.
Better Understand the Craving Monster Before Doing Anything Else
It is going to be impossible for you to successfully fight back against any cravings unless you know exactly what those cravings are going to be moving forward. And believe it or not, though the overwhelming majority of people out there would be able to tell you exactly what they think they are big cravings are, most of them have absolutely no idea what they are going to be craving at 3 AM 21 days into a brand-new healthy eating lifestyle.
Therefore, it is so critically important to really try to understand the craving monster and what that is for you specifically. Are you a salty treat kind of guy or more of a sugary sweet kind of gal? Are there specific foods, specific types of foods, or specific “oddball” cravings that you find yourself reaching for more often than anything else? Have you ever had an out of the blue craving that you just can’t explain, but one that was more powerful than any other?
Each one of these answers is going to be able to help you better understand exactly what you’re fighting back against Kelly and will provide you with the inside information you need to win the war against cravings from here on out.
Time Your Meals and Your Snacks
The overwhelming majority of folks out there that are really struggling with a new healthy eating lifestyle struggle not because they don’t have any willpower or because they aren’t really committed to change, but instead because they have trained themselves to become “grazers” – the kind of folks that eat a little bit here and they are all throughout the day without even really thinking about it.
One of the best ways to prepare yourself for a life without cravings is to simply you eliminate the ability for you to eat all day long even if you had wanted to. Create a program that allows you to eat your main meals at right around the same time every day and burn that into a brand-new habit, but is sure to set aside certain blocks of times throughout the day that allows you to snack on healthier options.
This approach will make sure that you feel plenty fall throughout the day but also will help you to avoid reaching for snacks absentmindedly, the kinds of snacks that would have set you back from all your weight loss or fitness goals.
Clean House When It Comes to Getting Rid of Junk Food
In the same vein as the tip above, you’re going to want to do absolutely everything you can to really “autopilot” your ability to say goodbye to cravings once and for all – and that means throwing out ALL of the junk food that you have in your house so that you aren’t even kind of attempted to reach for one of those bad snacks going forward.
This is one of the hardest and most challenging things for most folks to do, not only from a physical standpoint (getting rid of your favorite foods is just something that most people aren’t prepared for) but also something that’s quite challenging from a mental standpoint as well. There’s going to be moments of indecision, moments of fear, and moments where you feel like you just can’t get rid of absolutely everything. Push past those, commit to your new healthy eating lifestyle and get rid of any of the “poison” that would otherwise push you off course.
Drown Your Cravings with Plenty of Water
The overwhelming majority of the times that we think we feel hungry we really are just thirsty, and simply don’t recognize the signs any longer. So because we think we’re hungry (when we really aren’t) and of reaching for those salty snacks or sugary treats, crush just as many of them as humanly possible – usually until we feel that we’ve gone too far – and completely ignore the fact that our bodies are dehydrated and are practically begging for water.
Thankfully, though, by recognizing that this is a problem in the first place you’re going to be able to resolve the issue instantly effectively and permanently from here on out but you’re also going to learn a great way to push past cravings once and for all as well.
You see, water (plenty of it) can eliminate our feelings of hunger completely and can wash away any of the crazy cravings that we may have been really looking forward to. You’re not only going to be able to hydrate your body and help yourself get a lot healthier in the process by drinking more water throughout the day, but you’re also going to be able to kill off surprise cravings as they present themselves.
Stack Up on Sticks of Gum
If you are used to reaching for cravings all the time now, and if you have almost trained your body to get your hands on some snacks that aren’t the best for you whenever you feel like snacking throughout the day, you’re going to have a bit of a tough time getting rid of those kinds of habits unless you effectively replace them with something else that won’t throw off your healthy eating lifestyle. That’s where good old-fashioned chewing gum comes into play.
Sometimes it’s real, easy to curb a craving just by popping a piece of gum into your mouth and chewing away. There’s just a little bit of sugar in most gum to help you fix sweet cravings, and the mere act of chewing gum is usually enough to set back any real temptations that might have otherwise run you right off course.
Chewing gum is one of the most powerful habit builders there are, as well as one of the most effective tools for those that are looking to break habits that aren’t at all that beneficial. There’s a reason why folks that are looking to give up smoking once and for all take to chewing gum, and you’ll be able to enjoy those same kinds of benefits when you’re looking to abandon salts, sugar, and excess fat.
Brush Your Teeth when You Feel a Craving Coming On
One of the most effective ways to shut down surprise cravings whenever they present themselves throughout the day is to simply take a little bit of time to pop into a bathroom somewhere and just brush your teeth. This is going to do two different things at the exact same time.
For starters, it’s a going to allow you to completely distract your conscious mind and your subconscious so that you aren’t any longer thinking about the cravings that you have consumed with just a few moments ago, Secondly, you’re going to be able to completely clean your teeth (which is never a bad thing), but you’re also going to “poison” the taste of most unhealthy snacks if you do decide to cave into the pressure that these cravings cause.This will help retrain your mind and your body to give up on these kinds of foods altogether – creating a real win-win for you!
Swing Into Action when You Feel Cravings Coming On
Using your cravings sensations for unhealthy foods as a bit of a “dog whistle” to exercise is one of the smartest things you can do to eliminate cravings altogether but also to help your body become a lot healthier along the way as well.
If you’re starting to feel cravings for sugary stacks, salty foods, more fatty fried food that you know is it going to do your body any good, lace up your sneakers and go for a quick walk or run, pound out some quick push-ups, or pump out a little bit of core and abdominal work to really reinforce your new healthy lifestyle.
This kind of approach is going to rewire your mind and your body to no longer fear cravings but instead embrace them when they happen as they will trigger your mind and body into action so that you push through workout programs and exercise that gives you the health boosting results you’re after without you caving into cravings at all.
Plan for a Craving Car Crash Ahead of Time
At the end of the day, it’s going to be impossible (IMPOSSIBLE) for you to give up on your favorite foods completely and thinking anything else is 100% irrational. But there’s power in understanding that you are eventually going to cave in to pressure from time to time, and instead of resisting this set-in stone fact of human nature you understand, embrace, and plan for these kinds of problems.
Give yourself a single day each month to eat pretty much anything and everything you like, but make sure that it’s at least 30 days away from when you start your new healthy eating lifestyle. This allows you to enjoy all of your favorite foods still, but also make sure that you aren’t ever going just to reach for them anytime you’d like absentmindedly.
Now you’re going to be scheduled your cheat days, schedule your cravings, and it might even help you to enjoy better and even respect these kinds of “bad” foods for what they are. It will help you save yourself from running completely off the rails of your new healthy eating lifestyle without forcing you to sacrifice your favorite snacks forever.
Closing Thoughts
At the end of the day, there are always going to be some different things you can do to fight back against cravings – some of them more effective than others. But by taking advantage of all the tips and tricks that we outlined above and using them in combination with one another you’re going to be able to fight back against these cravings without devastating your long-term health and diet plans.
It’s going to take a commitment to improving your diet and your lifestyle, but it can be accomplished and with a lot less effort than a lot of people makes it out to be.
