Let’s talk cravings.
If you’re trying to live a healthier lifestyle, including more lean proteins, low-carb vegetables, cut out white foods like flour, pasta, rice, sugar for brown foods of the same categories then congratulations. But we’re all human, after all. An overpowering craving will come over you suddenly where you can’t think of anything but a no-no food. You know what I’m talking about.
Your first error was to cut out entirely carbs, sugars and fats. Your body does need them in order to function properly, build muscles, nerves, bones, tissue and so forth. Your body does need a little bit from the sugars and fats categories and when you deny your body carbs for a period of time, that is where sudden and overwhelming cravings come.
When that overpowering craving hits you and you try to double down and deny yourself, the cravings will get worse. As I say in my article, How I lost 41 pounds, just give in. If your every waking thought is that double layer chocolate layer cake with devils fudge icing, pick it up from the store, grab a fork and watch that movie marathon of bad B-Movies. You’re not going to be able to concentrate until then.
There are a lot of pencil-thin fitness fanatics that spout eating a 1/2″x1/2″ square of low-fat, carob “chocolate” to ‘satisfy’ that craving, or a hulking steroid bodybuilder yelling at you to ‘work pas the craving’. These fitness people are at the extreme and I would seriously reconsider calling them healthy. They are so far removed from the average person and have forgotten what it is to be human.
I say give in to the craving and I mean only once. DO NOT pig out ever month or every quarter. What you can do is incorporate a LITTLE of that favorite guilty pleasure into your healthy plan. My cravings are more savory, like spaghetti and a thick, savory meat sauce. That is typically off the menu for a low-carb, low-salt and low-fat health plan for diabetics and heart patients.
That is why I created Simple Healthy Fresh: a way to eat your favorite foods that are more in line with dieticians and nutritionists. I include fat-free ground beef, grated vegetables (usually carrots, sometimes others) and lots of no-salt crushed tomatoes. I pour it over some whole wheat spaghetti, so the fiber count is a bit higher and I add some pungent parmesan and romano grated cheese.
Eat healthy, include some of your favorite guilty pleasures once in a while so that craving monster doesn’t hit you.
Brick ONeil 