If you have read the post of my failure, you will know that I, too was struggling a LOT with cravings. By now, I think I managed to figure out how to beat them and I hope you will also find this useful.
First to get straight is that all I am saying here is my personal experience, you may not agree, or it may not work for you but I am just telling you how I am doing it and what my thoughts are. Let's get cracking then :)
The conclusion I have come to is that there are probably two types of cravings. One being psychological, the other physiological. To beat the physiological craving, I think, is easier because all you need to do is give your body what it needs. Of course, what you are craving may not be the thing your body needs, so you certainly need to be careful, but here is a link to a fantastic article, that helped me immensely. This was the article that gave me the final push, the one that gave me the answers to all the questions in my 'failure post' and the knowledge to be successful this time. Where else would it be from than Mark's Daily Apple? :D Go on, read it, it will put a lot of things into place for you. :)
The above linked article touches on the psychological craving in point 6 (Stress eating) but it doesn't really offer solutions. I probably have one for you. Now if someone knows what comfort eating is, it's me. Whenever I was stressed, I headed to McDonald's, had a huge meal and then topped it off with a glazed doughnut. No wonder then that in the stressful job I was in, I quickly started putting on weight. But when being stressed was not the only time I would comfort-eat. Sense of achievement? Food as reward. Being happy? Food as celebration. Being sad? Food to cheer me up. Bored? Some cooking and eating will occupy me just fine. For every emotion, there was an excuse for food, it was like eating was the way to express my emotions. Sounds familiar? Read on then.
Even before I came across the Paleo diet, I knew that this comfort eating had to stop or I would be huge in no time. By then I had failed with diets on numerous occasions, first I thought I just had no willpower at all. That made me quite worried because how are you supposed to succeed with a diet without willpower? It seemed impossible. Fortunately however, I was creative enough to say, I don't care about willpower, I will just find another way. And I did. It is called hypnotherapy.
I knew the problem was in my head, and that what I needed to do was to break the link, the automatic association between expressing emotions and food. And I found the perfect way for me to do that in hypnotherapy, it worked like magic.
Now if you have doubts, let me clear up certain things about it and explain what it feels like. First of all, the hypnotherapy that you see 'magicians' do on TV where they get the audience do funny and embarrassing things, is not the thing you experience during a session at all. In fact, hypnotherapy is taught in school to psychology students (at least in Hungary it is, I suppose it must be the same in other countries) and is used a great deal to help people quit smoking and come over phobias (among a lot of other things). It is basically a very intensely focused state of mind that the therapist takes you to. In this state of mind you can concentrate on the problem you have and following the suggestions of the therapist you can change your mindset, you can uncover emotions you did not even know you had. Despite what you might think, you are in control the whole time and you can snap out of this state whenever you want. It is actually quite pleasant, even with the intense emotions you experience (I cried almost all the way through). Depending on how severe your issue is, you may need more or fewer sessions. All it took for me was three sessions, which is really good I think, and it was worth every penny.
So there you are. you can beat your cravings, all you need is some understanding of your body and its needs and some understanding of your mind. Once you have these, it's just a matter of finding out about your food options and daring to be creative and experimental in the kitchen.
Good luck, I hope I could help :)
P.S: I am not an expert in any of the topics covered above, everything you just read is my personal opinions and experiences.
4/07/2012
3/26/2012
Difficulties? What difficulties?
OK, so today is day six, which is still not a very long time into a 'diet' (I don't know a better word, but this just so doesn't feel like a diet) but I have already lost some weight around the tummy. I have no idea how much because I intentionally didn't weigh myself when I started but I can definitely tell some fat has literally just melted off. Soooo encouraging :)
When I told my Mum about my plan and that I was going to eat loads of cashews (I love nuts) whenever I feel like snacking and that I was going to eat as much as I wanted, the first thing that she said was: 'you are going to put on a lot of weight, they are full of calories'. I didn't want to argue because my Mum has very strong opinions about things and there is no chance you will convince her if she doesn't want to be convinced. She doesn't believe in Conventional Wisdom and she doesn't believe in anything drastically different either. Basically what she says all the time is that she doesn't believe anything she is told because in another 5 years she will just be told the exact opposite by the exact same people. Well, I know what she means, there was the thing that salt is unhealthy and then that you have to have salt. There was the thing that you shouldn't eat eggs because of cholesterol and now they say eggs are healthy and there are conflicting opinions about cholesterol, too. It has been the same about chocolate and many other things and now she has taken the stance that she will have what she feels is healthy and that's that. I just wish she would listen more, or read a bit on it but she won't. It's the same kind of resistance I keep finding all around me and it is really really annoying.
On Saturday I was doing the make-up of two young ladies for a party and they kept offering me snacks of crisps and chocolate (yes, the low-cocoa content milk chocolate kind with additives) and sandwiches and looked so taken aback when I refused them all that I found myself trying to explain them about a diet (be it Paleo or the Primal) based on facts of evolution and human genes. Of course they were not interested in health benefits, but instead kept asking: 'What CAN you eat then?!?' As if bread and potatoes and rice and sugar were all there was available and without them you just wouldn't have any choices. 'What do you eat for breakfast?' is another one of my favourites plus the 'What do you eat for dessert?'.
I mean, have you ever thought about it? Why is it that you need to have dessert after a meal or why should you have cereal or bread for breakfast? It's all just habits, a cultural thing, it's not a necessity. Your body doesn't need them, so there is no reason at all apart from the fact that that is what you are used to. Try without them for a few days, maybe two weeks and you will realise you do not actually miss them at all!
Another 'set back' people find themselves facing when first thinking about a diet without processed food is that they will have to slave in the kitchen for ages every day and prepare their food in advance for the whole day to take with them and how much effort and planning and thinking has to go into food and they feel like all their life will just have to centre around food.
One of the biggest surprises for me has been that this is actually not true! In fact, it's the exact opposite. OK, you will not be able to just grab a sandwich quickly from the supermarket on the way or a chocolate muffin at the station when waiting for your train in the morning, but... There is a huge BUT! Instead of food being a centre of your life, it becomes secondary because you are just simply not hungry that often. You do not feel the need for that muffin or sandwich at all. And when you are hungry, food can still wait because you do not get dizzy or lightheaded and there isn't that awful urge to stuff anything just remotely edible into your mouth. It's OK to skip a meal or hardly eat anything for a day. You will make it up to your body later when you have a chance to put your hands on something that is actually nutritious. And even cooking time I have found easy to reduce. Just think about it. How much time does it take to make a salad? 10 minutes? 15? Surely not more than that.
Let me just tell you this: today I had a breakfast of bacon and eggs and a little cheddar and radishes at around 9 am. I didn't eat anything else apart from an apple until 5 pm. And I was FINE! Yes, I started to feel hungry at around 3 (that's when the apple got eaten) but it really wasn't that difficult to keep on going until dinner was ready (I chose to cook something other than a salad, so it took about an hour). And I didn't have any dessert, and I don't mind. So get over your panic about 'no bread' and start getting creative in the kitchen. :)
When I told my Mum about my plan and that I was going to eat loads of cashews (I love nuts) whenever I feel like snacking and that I was going to eat as much as I wanted, the first thing that she said was: 'you are going to put on a lot of weight, they are full of calories'. I didn't want to argue because my Mum has very strong opinions about things and there is no chance you will convince her if she doesn't want to be convinced. She doesn't believe in Conventional Wisdom and she doesn't believe in anything drastically different either. Basically what she says all the time is that she doesn't believe anything she is told because in another 5 years she will just be told the exact opposite by the exact same people. Well, I know what she means, there was the thing that salt is unhealthy and then that you have to have salt. There was the thing that you shouldn't eat eggs because of cholesterol and now they say eggs are healthy and there are conflicting opinions about cholesterol, too. It has been the same about chocolate and many other things and now she has taken the stance that she will have what she feels is healthy and that's that. I just wish she would listen more, or read a bit on it but she won't. It's the same kind of resistance I keep finding all around me and it is really really annoying.
On Saturday I was doing the make-up of two young ladies for a party and they kept offering me snacks of crisps and chocolate (yes, the low-cocoa content milk chocolate kind with additives) and sandwiches and looked so taken aback when I refused them all that I found myself trying to explain them about a diet (be it Paleo or the Primal) based on facts of evolution and human genes. Of course they were not interested in health benefits, but instead kept asking: 'What CAN you eat then?!?' As if bread and potatoes and rice and sugar were all there was available and without them you just wouldn't have any choices. 'What do you eat for breakfast?' is another one of my favourites plus the 'What do you eat for dessert?'.
I mean, have you ever thought about it? Why is it that you need to have dessert after a meal or why should you have cereal or bread for breakfast? It's all just habits, a cultural thing, it's not a necessity. Your body doesn't need them, so there is no reason at all apart from the fact that that is what you are used to. Try without them for a few days, maybe two weeks and you will realise you do not actually miss them at all! Another 'set back' people find themselves facing when first thinking about a diet without processed food is that they will have to slave in the kitchen for ages every day and prepare their food in advance for the whole day to take with them and how much effort and planning and thinking has to go into food and they feel like all their life will just have to centre around food.
One of the biggest surprises for me has been that this is actually not true! In fact, it's the exact opposite. OK, you will not be able to just grab a sandwich quickly from the supermarket on the way or a chocolate muffin at the station when waiting for your train in the morning, but... There is a huge BUT! Instead of food being a centre of your life, it becomes secondary because you are just simply not hungry that often. You do not feel the need for that muffin or sandwich at all. And when you are hungry, food can still wait because you do not get dizzy or lightheaded and there isn't that awful urge to stuff anything just remotely edible into your mouth. It's OK to skip a meal or hardly eat anything for a day. You will make it up to your body later when you have a chance to put your hands on something that is actually nutritious. And even cooking time I have found easy to reduce. Just think about it. How much time does it take to make a salad? 10 minutes? 15? Surely not more than that.
Let me just tell you this: today I had a breakfast of bacon and eggs and a little cheddar and radishes at around 9 am. I didn't eat anything else apart from an apple until 5 pm. And I was FINE! Yes, I started to feel hungry at around 3 (that's when the apple got eaten) but it really wasn't that difficult to keep on going until dinner was ready (I chose to cook something other than a salad, so it took about an hour). And I didn't have any dessert, and I don't mind. So get over your panic about 'no bread' and start getting creative in the kitchen. :)
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