What To Do When That Food Craving Strikes

“Much of the satisfying work of life
begins as an experiment;
no experiment is ever
quite a failure.”
Alice Walker

You were following a diet, feeling good about yourself and then suddenly you find yourself eating again. What happened?? A number of situations could have triggered you to give in and go back to your old habits. Please, please do not beat yourself up this is an everyday occurrence among those in the world of dieting. There is a solution.

I remember the time I was on a roll and following a diet for almost two months. The weight was coming off and I was thinking and talking about food all the time. The only problem was I was starving all the time. One day after leaving the diet doctor’s office, I was walking past a bakery and saw all the beautiful cakes, breads and cookies. My mind said, “You are doing such a great job of dieting you can buy only one cookie it can’t hurt. My thoughts had a good time arguing and before I knew it, I was in the bakery ordering a cup of coffee and a dozen cookies. I was too embarrassed to buy only one cook so I bought a dozen with the idea I would bring them home for my husband and daughters. Guess what? The cookies never made it home. The only thing that arrived home was my anger at myself for eating the cookies.

Does this situation sound familiar? Let’s look at what you and I could have done differently in this situation. Acknowledge the thought that you do deserve to treat yourself for all your hard work. Say out loud, “I will eat something later and right now I will go to a bookstore (or something you enjoy doing.) The idea is not to make food an option and find other activities that make you happy. The most important thing is to start that activity right away instead of waiting for later. By enjoying the activity you will forget about the food for the moment.

Following are a list of ideas you could try instead of eating something:

1. Call yourself and leave a message bragging about how you did not buy something to eat and how much weight you have lost.
2. Have your nails done or get a pedicure.
3. Take a long walk and think about the things in your life that you are grateful for.
4. Call a friend and see if they want to meet for coffee in about 10 minutes.
5. Walking down the street make up positive stories about the people you are passing. I love doing this it puts a smile on my face.

Send me an e-mail bragging about the different steps you are taking and what is happening. I love hearing your successes and celebrating with you! I can be reached by leaving a comment on this blog or sending me an email at helen@loveyourselfcoaching.net

If you are struggling with food and have questions please send me an email at helen@loveyourselfcoaching.net or leave a comment on the blog and I will address it in my next article.

Do something nice for yourself today!

Helen