Food cravings? Read this first!

Food cravings are an inescapable part of the human experience. For those working to change eating habits or improve physical health, cravings pose an obstacle that we have to cope with in the short term and conquer in the long term.

Here are five tips to cope and conquer:

1. Perspective: Cravings inform us, but they don’t direct us. Cravings create the illusion of immediacy like little else. Our bodies rise up in snarling, panicked demand and our natural reaction is to respond before something horrible happens. It feels so real. And it is. Your body is sending you a signal about what it wants right now, and it’s using all its most convincing mechanisms to do so.

In the same way our emotions provide important signals about how we’re feeling without necessarily giving us good direction about how to respond, our cravings aren’t reliable guides for eating behavior.

Cravings are the equivalent of having an overtired toddler in your head. They are not known for their good judgment or spot-on grasp of their deepest needs.  Experienced parents recognize that what the toddler actually needs is often the last thing they ask for. Knowing this going in helps us make better choices in the moment.

2. Discipline: You have to manage it, but you don’t actually have to give in to a craving. In fact, giving in is usually the worst thing we can do. Think about it: if you give in to the overtired toddler every time he or she has a meltdown, you’re encouraging more of the same. It’s like letting the terrorists win.

Cravings feel like a need, but they’re really just a desire. They are lying to you most of the time. Case in point: eating Chinese food. If you’re like me, you’ll eat way too much, feel completely stuffed at the end of it, but then feel ravenous again an hour later. That sensation that feels like hunger is really an overload of insulin in your bloodstream thanks to all the refined carbs in your meal. The worst thing you can do at that point is feed your body more carbs, but that’s exactly what the craving is telling you to do.

Fasting also reveals how cravings work. I’ve participated in a few different types of dietary fasts, from a 28-day water fast to the two-week Daniel Diet to intermittent fasting of various duration. In every case, denying my body of something it’s used to consuming regularly leads to strong cravings and even withdrawal symptoms. Consider caffeine headaches, keto flu and sugar cravings as examples. Our bodies can use cravings to reveal a physical dependency on certain foods or substances. But if we hold out, the symptoms typically fade after a few days, revealing again the craving was a signal, but not a need. The craving demands to be fed, but wisdom tells us the only solution to breaking the dependency is to eliminate the offending substance completely.

3. Wisdom: Invest time to understand the root of your cravings. A healthy dose of knowledge and understanding makes a big difference in dealing with cravings. Sometimes you can learn this from experience, and other times it can help to do a little research. A quick Google search will give you a lot of information to consider (note I said “consider” — remember not everything is true just because it’s on the internet. Abraham Lincoln said that, I think. Use your common sense). ‘

Everybody’s cravings are a little bit different. General hunger may signal one thing, like thirst or stress (or actual hunger), but specific food cravings may be signaling a deficiency in a particular nutrient. For example, I am occasionally anemic and I’ve realized when my body is in need of iron, I crave steak. At times, I’ve experienced extreme thirst despite drinking liters of water. My cravings were telling me my electrolytes were low.

Cravings can also be rooted in emotions. If I’m stressed, I want comfort food — junk food, salty or sweet snacks and a lot of them. The more I indulge this particular drive, the more I associate those kinds of foods with comfort … again, reinforcing the craving problem instead of correcting it. It’s important for me to process that stress in a different, healthy way instead.

Pay attention to your cravings. When do they occur? Is it the same time every day, or a response to emotional stimuli? Are they specific or general? When was the last time you ate? When did you last drink something? Taking time to evaluate the circumstances and the facts surrounding your craving will help you determine how to manage it wisely.

4. Practice: When it comes to cravings, you will perfect whatever you are practicing. We’ve all heard that practice makes perfect. Habits are formed by the consistent repetition of a given behavior in response to a particular stimulus. We typically think of this in the context of intentional practice: practicing the piano, developing an exercise habit or establishing a morning routine, for example. But at its most basic, practice is just another way to look at our actions over time. What we do is what we practice. If we give in to cravings again and again, for whatever reason, we are practicing self-indulgence. If we conquer our craving, we are practicing discipline.

The single best way to conquer cravings for the long haul is to practice overcoming them in the short term, one craving at a time. One of the biggest ways to sabotage your success against cravings is this: “give yourself a break.” Every time I’ve chosen to do something I know I shouldn’t in the name of just giving myself a break, it’s led to greater and greater compromise. Give yourself a real break and ignore all your own excuses. Keeping your choices in line with the results you’re working toward is a whole lot kinder than giving yourself a break at your own expense.

That’s easier said than done, which brings us to the topic of coping strategies. It takes time to build up discipline, cultivate knowledge and perfect your practice. Chances are you’re going to stare down a bunch of cravings in the meantime.

5. Redirect – Don’t just ignore the craving, replace it. Have you ever noticed that Jesus follows up every prohibition with an affirmative? Don’t do this … instead, do this. I love that. He never leaves the negative in your head. He replaces it with a positive you can do instead. For me, redirection is the name of the game when it comes to weathering a craving. This is where it will help to have a sense of what may be triggering your craving. Try some of these:

• Read something. Like a blog post about cravings. The typical craving only lasts 3-5 minutes, so in the time it’s taken you to read this article, your craving could be gone.
• Think it through — ask yourself what’s happening and why. Decide on the best response. If you need to, set a 5-minute timer on your phone to postpone action until you’ve given yourself time to think it through.
• Journaling – if the five-minute thought process leaves you feeling restless, grab a pen and journal your way through it instead to keep your hands busy
• Drink a glass of water
• Make a cup of tea
• Read a Psalm, a Proverb or a short devotional
• Say a prayer – ask God to help you navigate the craving, or pray about anything you might be stressed over
• Meditate
• Change it up – switch to another task, go to another room
• Phone a friend (or write a letter, or send an email)
• Get busy – sweep the floor, wash the dishes, fold some laundry, play with your kids, do something nice for your spouse
• Pretend you actually are an unruly toddler and react the way you wish they would when you tell them no.
• Take a nap – this isn’t always an option, but if it is, consider it. If it isn’t, at least make sure you’re getting a decent night’s sleep. Fatigue and cravings go hand in hand.
• Change your circumstance – if you usually get hungry at night, try skipping your early morning meal in lieu of a snack later in the evening. This isn’t for everyone, but could be useful for intermittent fasters, for example, who are working to confine their food intake to a specific window in the day.
• Decide to delay – rather than denying whatever you’re craving, make a conscious choice to delay it until a more appropriate time. Again, not appropriate every time, but it’s one more way you can own the craving instead of being ruled by it.
• Substitute a healthy snack – be careful with this one, especially if your craving may be stress-related. Stress usually causes us to crave junk and isn’t satisfied with anything less. Feeding stress usually just leads to more overeating later. But if you’re genuinely hungry and looking to tide yourself over until mealtime, a healthy snack could do the trick.

An exception to every rule: When is it OK to just give in? My gut response to this question says that when you give in, you let the terrorists win. But in reality, I know it’s not so simple. This is probably going to look a little different for everyone. Remember the unruly toddler. If you’ve been around an unruly toddler mid-tantrum, you know one size doesn’t fit all. Instead, you respond from a place of guiding principles. They might look something like the following:

1. Don’t reward bad behavior. If the unruly toddler is stomping his or her feet demanding ice cream, you’re probably not going to reward the temper tantrum with a double scoop. It would be encouraging the wrong thing.
2. Meet the underlying need in any circumstance. If your child is in real need of something — food, shelter, protection, a nap, a hug, whatever constitutes genuine need — you address it regardless of the temper tantrum. As parents, we wouldn’t withhold from our children what they need under most circumstances. We would, though, carefully discern the difference between what they’re yelling about and what they actually need. If they’re different, we meet the need, not the want.
3. Redirect, redirect, redirect! A mom of three, grandmother of two, and preschool Sunday School teacher of nearly five decades, my mother is a master at this. Redirecting your attention away from the craving onto something else eliminates the need to give in.
4. Understand the difference between reacting and choice. Apart from the momentary unruly, foot-stomping and screaming, we might choose to give our sweet, little toddler something they like just because they are loved — whether it’s a scoop of ice cream or some quality time or a new book or a trip to the zoo. My point is, absent from a craving situation, you might opt to eat something even if you’d previously craved it, as long as it is a conscious, reasoned choice rather than a momentary reaction. Those choices are a component of freedom, and you own them.

At the end of the day, every craving you experience is an opportunity to practice conquering behaviors. But if you’ve ever heard a 10-year-old on their third day of flute lessons (sorry Mom and Dad), you know practice doesn’t start out anything like perfect. Don’t expect perfection every time. Improvement comes with time and with focused practice. Remember, you’re not in it alone. We’re all practicing right along side you. Give yourself some grace. Good luck!