Do you ever experience the urge and craving for something substantial? Like a massive hamburger with fries, a biscuit with gravy and cheese or a deep dish pizza? When we’re not coming at the cravings from an emotional perspective (think if we are feeling lonely, bored, etc.) and we’re truly craving denser calories, honor those!
I think we get so caught up in oh, I should eat the healthier option or I should only have this salad and then we end up coming home and eating crap because we’re still hungry! You ever experience that? If you follow my blogs you know I’m not big on “cheat days” because that way of thinking typically sets our mind up for binging and restriction belief. (You know, eat good Monday-Friday and then gorge on the weekend and start the process all over again.)
However, if we’re craving something denser and it’s not on a “weekend” who cares, eat it! If not, what do we do? Of course we reach for the eat the healthy thing (because we feel like it’s what we’re supposed to do), feel unsatisfied and then go back and end up eating the food we wanted to begin with right?
Its key for our mental sanity to hone in on what we’re in the mood for, what are cravings are telling us and being in tune with what feels right for us, not what Susie down the street is eating.
I can speak from experience, if we satisfy our desire for higher calorie, higher fat foods it holds us over right? (and yes-I did eat all of that one morning and it was delish!) It cuts off the desire and insatiable need for more. Example: I remember before my wedding I was trying to eat well and aimed for salads when I could. However, I remember one night in particular that I was craving a pizza and opted for a salad instead. That’s not something I typically do, but I did and sure enough when I got home I was still hungry and felt completely unsatisfied so what did I do? Of course I started reaching for candy, cookies and chocolate and woke up feeling like crap. I didn’t judge or berate myself, instead I took that as a learning experience and when I felt that need to eat more I honored that next time. NBD.
If this happens, all good, no need to beat ourselves up and try to restrict the next day or exercise it off because then all that does is jack up our cortisol (think mental/physical stress) and we repeat the cycle all over again.
Next time, want pizza? Do it. Do what feels right for you.
xo,
Kim
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