[EricAnn]

Hello!

I'm new to the forum, so I do apologize if there is a thread that is already like this. But I just wanted to throw out something that's been working for me for the last couple of months when it comes to cravings.

I've become a very dedicated calorie counter, almost obsessively (I check my "LiveStrong" account before I even think of eating almost every time), and because I know that I need my 2 cheat days a week, I can't surpass 1200 calories the other 5 - that is if I want to continue losing 1-2 pounds a week. Because of that my cravings can be quite intense (I went from eating 2500 calories for over a year while living a very sedentary lifestyle - hence why I gained weight, to 1200 calories and a very active lifestyle almost overnight) and sometimes I mentally feel like I need more food... it's not really a physical feeling. So, what I do, is I go into my calorie "diary" for the next day and add in that craving I have... like sometimes I really crave cheerios (haha, I don't know why), so I put those into my "diary" and just knowing that I will have those tomorrow makes my craving go away. The other part to this as well, is making sure I do actually have those cheerios (or whatever the craving was) the next day so the craving doesn't come back that night. Anyways, I just thought I would share.

Thanks for reading!

E

[lin43]

Thanks for the tip! I think it is really important to satisfy an intense craving. If I try to substitute something "healthier" or lower calorie in lieu of what I'm craving it almost always backfires on me, and I end up eating more than I would have if I had given into the craving.

I'm finding that my having the Calorie Counter app on my phone is really helping me, too, in ways that I never anticipated. I did something like you're describing yesterday, but for the same day. I had to stop by the grocery store before church, and even though I had eaten fruit for breakfast, I had an intense craving for some good bread and cheese. So, I bought a great tasting honey wheat bread and some cheddar cheese. I ate some of both, and entered it into my Calorie Counter app. I was craving that bread almost all day! So, I gave into the craving: Throughout the day, I would slice off a piece of that bread, weigh it, eat it, and enter it into my calorie counter app.. Even though I ate a lot of that bread (had it w/ egg & cheese for lunch, had another slice w/ dinner), I didn't exceed my calorie count. That's what I love about calorie counting: I can give into cravings without blowing it.

I'm also finding that my calorie counter app is encouraging me to move more. I try to get at least one hour of purposeful activity (on good days, two hours is not uncommon) in every day---housekeeping, washing my car, bike riding to a destination, walking to a destination, etc. I like adding those activities into my Calorie Counter app and seeing how that affects my daily totals. I don't really trust those numbers, so I put in my goal weight (140), and it calculates my activity using that (which makes it more trustworthy to me).