Are you ready to say sayonara to your cravings for life? Before you dive in, I suggest you read ‘Emotional eating, understanding the problem’ first. The article acts as a first step, by allowing you to identify the root of your cravings and your triggers. When you’re done, head back over here so I can teach you how to tame them permanently!
It’s crucial that you understand the difference between emotional and physical eating for this method to work, but also for every day life. Understanding and and embracing your cravings head on is a vital step in using the technique I am about to share with you!
You’d be surprised how many clients in my clinic spend much of their time battling between what they feel they crave and what they truly want. I’ve noticed that eliminating this battle makes a HUGE difference. Using this technique, my clients learn to fulfil their cravings and avoid the willpower battle altogether.
I call this technique “What Do You Really Want?” and it goes something like this:
Step One: Recognise and accept your cravings. All too often when we get the urge to eat something that we ‘shouldn’t’ we either judge ourselves for being greedy or try to ignore the feeling altogether. I want you to accept that there is something internal that you want, something that you are lacking that your body is asking for, and be okay with that.
Step Two: Pause. Even if only for a minute, breathe deeply and ask yourself “What Do I Really Want?”. Now, the first answer is likely to be something like “I want the ice cream”. That is okay, just acknowledge and accept the initial response. Now take another deep breath and then ask yourself again “What do I really want?”. You may get another answer along the lines of “I told you I want the ice cream…obviously”. So, step three may require some patience.
Step Three: Continue to breath deeply and ask yourself the question “What Do I Really Want?”. Sometimes it takes eight or nine rounds of questioning when you are just starting out with this. Eventually, you will hear your inner voice answer your question. Nine times out of ten, your answer will actually have nothing to do with food.
Here’s an example: My client Amy has just completed my Reinvent programme. One of her big goals was to stop the mindless night time grazing/binging which had caused a lot of weight gain. She was angry with herself for not having the energy to cook herself proper meals, and for eating junk food whist cleaning up once her kids were down. Amy has two preschool aged children and runs her own business from home. Amy was overwhelmed and exhausted, understandably!
Unsurprisingly, when Amy started using this exercise, she started to weed out the real answers – ‘a break’, ‘sleep’, ‘to lie down’. Now I’m not saying once you have the answer to what you really want it’s going to be plain sailing. For Amy we had to look at her schedule and decide what was really important for her, what could go and what help she could enlist so that she had time to look after herself properly. Amy hired a cleaner and decided to put her boys in childcare just one afternoon a week. You wouldn’t believe the difference it made to finally have a little time for herself to rest!
Now, when Amy felt the urge to raid the biscuit tin she would pause, ask “What Do I Really Want?” and she started getting answers like ‘a hot bath’ or ‘a cup of tea and to put my feet up’. So, we made many more changes to Amy’s diet and lifestyle throughout her programme. I taught her how to cook healthy meals in just 5-10 minutes, and how to nourish her body properly to get her energy levels back up. By the end of Reinvent Amy is no longer eating junk food at all because she has the energy and desire to cook simple delicious meals for herself. She understands how to acknowledge her cravings and actually fulfil them by listen to her inner voice!
Will you try this technique for yourself? Would you like to hear more of my mindful eating strategies? Leave a comment or send me an email, I would love to hear from you!
Have you heard about Reinvent?
Reinvent is the ultimate investment in your long term health. Join Reinvent today and change your life forever!! You can now experience all the benefits of working with me for a whole year for one instalment of £247! How would your career, family, and free time look if you had all the energy you needed to make the most of them? If you weren’t being held back by worries about your weight or the painful symptoms of conditions like IBS, hormone imbalance and eczema? For the price of a few takeaways, this is the best health investment one could make for their long term lifestyle.
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