Ways to help you cut the cravings

When you’re making the transition from eating sugar and other items you crave to eating more of a whole foods based diet, it can be a shock to the system, and you have probably experienced some cravings. Sugar is all around us, everywhere we turn. So, to cut the habit of eating it and stop the cravings, you’ll need some strategies.

Plan Your Meals

When it comes to real success on any diet, the only way is to make sure that you will have that success is to have a plan in place so that you aren’t tempted to immediately abandon your diet when you feel as if you’re being tested. That means that you should have some foods that you can grab and go along with the main dishes that you plan to eat. That way if you find yourself feeling weak and hungry, you already have some meals that are available to you. Having easy, go to items like prepped and chopped veggies, nuts, cheese or hard boiled eggs is a great way to eat something nutritious and filling without reaching for the sugary snacks.

Drink More Water

One of the fastest and best tips when dealing with cravings or hunger is to just drink a glass of water. Hydration is important for your health and helps your body send signals you are full. Liquids like water can fill up your stomach temporarily and give you some peace while you are figuring out what to do. Studies have shown that drinking a glass of water before a meal can even help you to lose weight because it helps you to become more aware of your satiety and will aid in digestion.

Avoid Getting Overly Hungry

If you are the type to skip meals that can spell disaster for a new and big change in your diet. When you make this kind of alteration to the way you eat, there will be major things that you find are different with how you process the food and how long it stays in your system. A lot of people only find success with a whole foods diet because they have gotten used to a schedule where they eat multiple times a day. Cravings that come from being hungry can be very dangerous to your clean eating plan and lead to making rash decisions. When you get too hungry you are more tempted to eat whatever is available and typically overeat.

Plan for Three Days

Our brain lives on sugar, or glucose. When you are cutting sugar from your diet you will most likely crave it for a few days as your body depletes its sugar stores. This transition to deplete the glucose stores will take at least three days. If you know this and know there is some light at the end of the tunnel of the cravings fading, it will make the transition of reducing your sugar intake more tolerable.

 Emily Countryman is a board-certified health coach and owner of Ideal Wellness located at 2639 172nd St NE Suite 104 in Smokey Point/Marysville. She can be reached online at www.idealwellness.com or [email protected].