Cravings

It's no secret, I'm dieting learning to eat healthy by starvation learning more realistic portion sizes with the constant nagging help of the she devil lovely Autumn Calabrese.

It's also no secret that I would commit murder for a freaking Jitters donut right about now. (It's a Sioux City thing. As in, totally worth the trip to Sioux City. For real.)

So, the craving thing. How exactly are you supposed to get over it? Because it SUCKS.

I've read up on it and here's what I've come up with so far:

It's kind of hard to read, but the gist of it is this:

If you want........

Chocolate- eat seeds and veggies and fruit

Sweets- eat fruit, veggies, and nuts

Breads/Pastas- eat leafy greens, nuts, and seeds

Oily/Fatty Foods- eat broccoli, asparagus, and figs

Coffee/Tea- eat Veggies, nuts, celery, and tomatoes

Salty Foods- eat Celery, tomatoes, nuts, and seeds

Soda- eat Broccoli, asparagus, and figs

PMS Cravings- eat Pumpkin seeds, leafy greens, and veggies

Basically, if you want to eat something not on your approved dietary list, just shove fruits, veggies, seeds, and nuts in your mouth because they're obviously a cure all.

I personally am not a huge fan of just NOT eating anything that you crave. Do I think you should go ape on a box of chocolates? Absolutely not. However, I think if you're having a huge craving for chocolate, you should be okay with having a small piece and moving on.

Recently, with this new workout, I've been putting an ungodly amount of chopped, frozen fruit in my water bottle to give it a little flavor, so that when those sudden urges to chow down hit me, I can chug some water and still get some flavor. (Because no one is appeased by just straight H2O. Let's be honest.) After about half an hour, if I'm still feeling really hungry, I'll let myself have a small treat (or more if it's something healthy.)

Which brings us to another way to tell if you're actually hungry, or if you just want to be eating.

Each time you're hungry, and think about grabbing a handful of chips or a cookie, instead, think of preparing a salad. Think of getting out the spinach, slicing cherry tomatoes, slicing a cucumber, etc. If you aren't hungry enough to go through all of that work, you aren't really hungry. (Try it. It's fool proof... Unless you're me. I almost always just grab a small piece of chocolate. Don't be me.)

Basically, dieting learning to eat healthy sucks. You're all a bunch of crazies if you're doing any of this along with me.

However, I cannot express how much I appreciate all of you sticking this journey out with me. In the words of some rando on Pinterest...

Until we sweat again!