When working with clients, the most common challenge I hear about in the efforts to follow a healthy diet is cravings. It’s different for everyone and can vary from having a lack of energy mid-afternoon and craving sugary sweets for a quick boost or mindless grazing in the pantry after dinner until bed time. Sometimes people crave things in response to stress or certain events such as wanting to have popcorn at the movies. But every single one of these people have this in common as well-they want the cravings to go away.
I can identify with all of these scenarios. Because I grew up on the Standard American Diet (aka SAD diet), I developed many kinds of cravings, so much so that I had to have something sweet after every meal. Through my work today, I’ve since learned that cravings are a sign that our body is deficient in necessary nutrients or sometimes it’s as severe as a candida overgrowth. There are very specific strategies to overcome cravings, but I want to give you an easy plan to take on to conquer your cravings, for good.
I became pregnant with Addison almost three years ago, and have either been pregnant or nursing since then (I know, that’s kinda crazy, but that’s for another blog post). Although I cleaned up my diet fifteen years ago, I have still had cravings for a piece of dark chocolate most evenings or a bowl of cereal as a snack sometimes. I had to work at not eating many other things but was able to do so because of my commitment to my diet. However, once I had Elise earlier this year, all of my cravings went away. All of them. It was the weirdest thing.
I almost thought something was wrong with me to not even have an inkling for some dark chocolate now and again. But then it hit me-the reason why my cravings went away was because I’d been eating so cleanly for the past three years! I supplement with a high quality multivitamin every day, I add concentrated powdered green vegetables to my smoothies every day AND I eat a ton of plants every day on top of that. My body is getting all the nutrients it needs so it’s not craving for anything.
Although it has been hard to avoid certain foods in the effort to protect my little girls, it sure has been worth it. It is SO freeing not to have to try to not eat something if that makes sense. Anyway, if you have cravings you’d like to overcome, I say go cold turkey! Meaning, if you really want to do this, go all in and eat clean as much as humanly possible. It doesn’t mean you can’t have things you really enjoy once in awhile, but really work on that being here and there and not every day. Give it a try and let me know what has worked for you!
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