Sometimes my body seems to (miraculously) work with me rather than against me. For example, when I’m sick I’ll often crave protein-rich foods — which totally makes sense because your body needs additional protein when you’re sick. So in those cases, I’m like, “Hey, thanks Body! I think I will eat that block of cheese!”
But then there are those other times when I get it in my mind that I absolutely must eat mass amounts of chocolate for no reason whatsoever. I’m sure Dr. Hyman (author of UltraMetabolism, one of our favorite books around the office) could offer some physiological explanation involving insulin and blood-sugar levels, but thoughts of pizza, ice cream, or so much bread you could build a warm, soft house with it tend to take precedence in my mind over analyzing why I might be craving these things.
Why is it that when we get cravings, it’s so hard to think about anything else? My friend Sara captured the situation perfectly in an email the other day:
I’ve decided donuts are my downfall food. Like, I can walk away from a cookie, and ice cream, and a chocolate bar, and Cheetos, and pizza, and tacos, and all that other stuff. A donut, however, I cannot leave. If I do, it’s all I think about. I’m like, “Oh god, why didn’t I eat that donut? I should go back and get that donut. I hope that donut is there. If anyone else ate that donut, I’ll kill them. I hope there was a second donut I didn’t see because then I could have two donuts. No, I should only eat one donut. No, I should only eat half a donut. No, a quarter of the donut. Okay, a quarter of the donut…[eats quarter of donut, walks back to desk]… god that donut was good. Who invented donuts? I love donuts. I really want another quarter of the donut. No one else will eat just a quarter of a donut and donuts get dried out really fast. And I have to walk all the way across the hall for it so I should just do it…[eats second quarter of donut, walks back to desk]…donuts are so good. I love donuts. Every kind of donut. Man, I should get those Old Home donuts that come in the little yellow boxes. Those are always so dense and sweet. I even like it when the powdered sugar gets stuck in your throat…. [eats third quarter of donut, throws last quarter away, walks back to desk]. Donuts are so good. I’m so glad I showed such will power and didn’t eat that last quarter. But that’s such a waste of food, maybe I should have just eaten it [digs last quarter out of trash, eats it]” and so on and so forth. Donuts are the bane of my existence.
It’s like she can read my mind. Seriously, who hasn’t been there? Fortunately, there are things you can do to come out on the other side — ideally, without eating enough sugar to fall into a diabetic coma. Actually, according to research published in the journal Appetite, talking about cravings instead of trying to ignore them is a much more effective way to get over them.
Moral of the story? By writing an inane blog entry about how much I want one of those cupcakes Jamie brought in for Valentine’s Day, I should be able to resist the temptation to eat 10 of them. Yeah … at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
While I’m not sold on this whole “talk therapy” concept, the most efficient way I’ve found to undermine my unhealthy eating habits is to avoid buying any food I don’t want to eat. If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. Simple enough, right? And that works marvelously well— until I’m faced with the free food dilemma. It always appears when I’m hungry, it’s ridiculously unhealthy, and it’s just sitting there in the breakroom or meeting waiting for me to validate its existence. It would be untoward for me not to have just a little something. We ran an article on these “food traps” a while back that has some helpful tips.
Food is one of those things in my life that I’m still wrestling to take greater ownership of: being conscious of the food decisions I’m making, paying attention to how what I eat affects my body, and eating to nourish and energize my body. I’m thinking of doing a sort of “reboot” in this arena, starting off with a detox.
Anyone feel like joining in on a weeklong detox? We can be crabby together. And by crabby, of course I mean “awesomely fulfilled by our amazing new food choices.” In the meantime, I’ll look into a couple different programs and keep you updated about what I find.
