What helps you with cravings?!

They drive me up a wall and I give into them sometimes only to feel guilty when I do. For me it is really hard cause I know I shouldn't be giving in sometimes but I want the food so badly. I guess realizing my feelings in the moment is half the battle.

What advice do you have?

The only craving I really get is for ice cream and I just don't keep it around the house. If the item in question is not within my reach then I am less likely to expend the energy to go and get it at a store. You can also try chewing gum- that has worked for me. Good luck!

Dhani

Realizing that even if I don't satisfy the craving, it will pass. My knee-jerk emotional reaction to a craving is that if I don't have X , I'll sit here wanting X forever. That's not true. Eat it or don't, next week you won't be craving it.

If that doesn't work, I defer it: I let myself have one indulgent meal a month, and I pick whichever thing I was craving the most. I do this on or around the 15th. So if today I really want something, I'll promise myself I can have it then, if I still want it. Usually over the course of the month one craving emerges at the top of the pack as the one I really, really want, and so I have that.

I try and use substitutes. Like if I want an oatmeal cookie, I eat a frozen cinnamon raisin GNU bar, or if I want ice cream, I have a WW ice cream cup or frozen sugar-free jell-O pudding. Or if I just want something sweet, Kettle Korn 100-cal-packs by Orville Reddenbacher. Today my dad was drinking soda -- I went inside and made myself one of the Arizona iced tea stix -- zero calories and with an added lemon wedge, deeeelicious!

When bad cravings sneak up on me (they're becoming much less and less these days), but when they do pop up, I'll slowly suck on and then chew on a couple sugar free vitamin C chewable fruit tabs. They taste like Sweet Tarts. Squashes it for me.

I go scrub a toilet. (Seriously!) Usually whenever I'm really craving something it is because I'm being lazy, or on the verge of boredom. Well, living on a farm, I have absolutely no excuse to be board... SO I get busy. Last week was PMS week and I usually get cravings so guess what I did? I stripped the wallpaper from my kitchen and scrubbed and sanded the walls and gave the ceiling and walls a fresh coat of paint. It looks terrific, and I beat the craving monster. Here in a few minutes after this load of laundry gets dry and folded and put away, I'm off to the garden to pick lettuce and spinach. Sunday afternoons are a little hard on me because it is about the only time we relax as a family. So, it's off to the garden I go.

Work those cravings off. It's a good mind occupy-er, good excercise, and you get some awesome things accomplished.

Lori, you never cease to amaze me. I want to come stay with you on your farm for a bit, bet I would get to goal for sure lol Keep being your wonderful self ♥

Well, i get different kind of cravings.

Before I detoxed off sugar I got cravings for that but now I'm good there. I honestly haven't craved candy etc since the end of February. I won't give in to a craving for candy when i have one, that way lies madness; but I will surely crave some ice cream at some point this summer and I'll use deferrement - "no ice cream now but you can have some when you get together with friends next Thursday" type thing. Save special things for special times and keep them special is my goal.

There's a good 24 hours during PMS that I am craving something, anything, I don't even know what and I wander around the kitchen opening cupboards and appliances just craving craving craving. So far I've used jedi mind tricks and reminded myself I am neither hungry nor deprived, just hormonal and this too shall pass. After 40 years of PMS i've got this one down. I am stronger than my hormones but they still surprise me every darn month.

And I used to get cravings for things like carrots or milk or other healthy things which I always gave in to figuring my body knew something I didn't and I should listen. Since I've gone whole foods and really trying to balance my nutrients I haven't had any of these cravings.