26. Master Your Cravings

Cravings management: I want you to picture a toddler that always gets a candy bar at the store. If you say now, it just throws a fit and you don’t know how to handle it so you give it the candy bar. What this teaches the toddler is that throwing fits works! They get the candy bar. Our brains operate in the same way- what you brain knows is taht even if you say no all it has to do is throw a fit and you will give it the candy bar. What processing cravings does is it teaches you brain that throwing fits for food doesn’t work. How many times will a toddler continue to throw a fit if you finally put your foot down and don’t give it the candy bar? Not too many times. Your brain does not want to waste energy, yuo practice this enough and your cravings will drastically decrease. The activity How it’s designed Morning worksheet: the idea of this activity is to know exactly when your cravings will be popping up and what they will be telling you, the emotions they will be creating. You will also be deciding ahead of time how you will show up when the craving begins. If you are not familiar with the model, as is talked about on this sheet, that’s ok- this is a concept i work a lot on with my clients. Just decide how you want to react when the craving pops up. Hint: not with fear, doubt and overwhelm Ill tell you something that was lifechanging for me and this happened not that long ago. I have worked as head nutritionist for research and development for a food company. Which means a lot of food is around all the time. I manage cravings with the process you are going to learn in this training, but one day i was sitting with several pizzas in front of me and my said to me you have so much discipline. And i realized how you show up to deal with a craving is just as important as properly dealing with it. I realized i show up to cravings very calm. They don’t freak me out like they used to, i don’t need to use willpower or discipline, i am not worried or in doubt that i will eat. I just calmly sit with whatever my brain is telling me and take myself through the 5 step process. Evening worksheet: You need to create a relationship with cravings and emotional eating where they are not something to be scared of, but something to learn from and to move you forward in your weight loss journey. This worksheet is always eye opening for my cleints, they don’t realize how much they learn from and appreciate cravings until they start using this. Daily slips + a jar Fill out a slip each time you process a craving and put it in your jar Challenge yourself to fill the jar Tools you will use I teach my clients to use the 5 step process to go take a craving from 100% desire to eat to 0 desire to eat in real time. THe idea behind this is we get to step outside of the craving and watch our brain throw out the thoughts and emotions without reacting to them. This way we gain control over it, instead of being controlled by it