How to overcome cravings

There are various cues and triggers that lead us to eat. Most often these are associations that have built up over time that become strengthened further each time we perform the actions together.

For example, if you constantly snack on the couch in the evening while watching TV you’ll have built up a an association where performing that action triggers hunger for specific types of foods.

Inside the brain, a cue or trigger actually manifests as chemical change that signals the expectation of reward and the stronger that association, the more intense the reaction will be.

Heroin users will actually experience chemical changes in the brain BEFORE administering the drug because of the strong associations between the ritualistic preparation of the drug and the euphoria to follow.

When it comes to cravings, changes in your brain will start the second you hit the couch and set in motion the cravings to follow.

So if you’re trying to overcome cravings there are a couple things worthy of attention here.

1) If you always give in to your cravings you’ll only continue to strengthen that association. When you give in you make it worse for the next time.

So, as hard as it is, you need to avoid caving in to cravings because each time you do that you’ll weaken the association between that cue and food. Each time you win one battle you are one step closer to winning the war.

2) Rather than battling your cravings with your willpower (not a great challenge to undertake when you’re exhausted at the end of a long day), it is often easiest to just avoid the cues and triggers in the first place.

If you find yourself snacking at night on the couch try going to bed instead of staying up until all hours watching the idiot box. Or if having certain foods in the house is a trigger for you, get them out of the house….or at least put them out of sight.

Find out what your cues and triggers are and manage them accordingly. But most importantly, don’t give in.