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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Wednesday Wellness - Food Cravings

What's your number one craving? 
Mine is Dove dark chocolate, followed closely by dark chocolate M&Ms. 

I even bought chocolate swirled fabric and made a chocolate-themed table runner a couple Februaries ago...
Giving in to cravings has gotten me into trouble with the scale though.  I actually feel my best when I stay away from sweets altogether, so I've been retraining my appetite - and that means conquering cravings!

Contrary to popular belief, we don't necessarily crave foods that contain nutrients we lack.  Generally, we crave foods that contain very few nutrients and just plain taste good!  We have to break the habit of reaching for a certain food at a certain time and place.  For instance, when I'm just working at my desk, my mind wanders to food.  But I could eat the very same breakfast, and have a morning full of meetings and suddenly discover its after lunch time and I'm just feeling hungry now.  Take away my usual routine and cues, and the cravings disappear. 

The following story gives a great overview of how we train ourselves to crave and eat certain foods, and how to go about retraining ourselves NOT to reach for our usual snack.    Great advice as we reach the point where New Year's resolutions are beginning to look less and less attractive.  :) 

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