How do I control food cravings?

Managing food cravings is a simple but difficult process.

In my experience, I have seen that most often when an individual makes a emotional judgment and gives into eating when they are not hungry it is often do to temporarily losing sight of their goal(s) and/or continuation of habits.

Try these tips for controlling food cravings:

1. Develop a mantra. Something like: "I feed my body and my needs, not my taste buds."  
2. Ask yourself questions like:  "Why am I going to eat this?  Is it because I actually want it and need it or am I re-actively responding to an immediate desire?"
3. Keep focused on your goal.  Post it in sight at work and at home and refer to it often.
4. Drink a glass of water to slow the decision making process down.  Water can make you feel a little fuller AND it will give you something to do while deciding if you are actually going to give in to your cravings.
5. Fully understand and "own" that you are in a learning process.  You learned to react in a certain way to cravings, now, you must UNlearn that method and replace it with something else.
6. Relax.  One poor decision does not make goal attainment impossible.  Give the decision its' proper weight (pun intended) and calm down, reset your thinking as to not compound your mistakes.
   

To your health,
Robert J DeVito
Innovation Fitness Solutions