On the Code Red Lifestyle™ I teach you to listen to your body, because it’s one of your greatest tools in not only getting, but keeping, your weight off.
Listening to your body’s especially useful in identifying what triggers your cravings.
Most people just notice they have a craving and decide to indulge it.
But when you’re on a mission to lose weight and keep it off, indulging cravings typically drags out the weight loss journey, and may even cause you to gain weight, setting you back.
What triggers a craving isn’t always obvious, so in this post, I’m gonna share both a few common causes of cravings, and a few not-so-common causes.
COMMON CAUSES
Lack of sleep, lack of water, and lack of sodium are all very common causes cravings, particularly sugar cravings. If you find yourself inexplicably craving something–especially something sweet–these are the places to start.
Did you get enough sleep last night?
Did you get in ALL your water?
Are you using Redmond Real Salt on your food, or an approved electrolyte supplement (www.coderedlifestyle.com/shop) in your water?
If any one of these areas are off, cravings are extremely likely to happen.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS CAUSES
If sleep, water, and sodium are 100% taken care of, and you’re still experiencing cravings, here are some not as obvious reasons you might be struggling with food cravings.
First of all, if you’re eating sugary foods and addictive junk foods and beverages, you’re going to crave them the more you consume them. That’s just the effect they have on your body. Switching to real food, in the form of meat, vegetables, nuts, eggs, seeds, seafood, and dietary fat will help you conquer these cravings (in combination with sleep, water, and good-quality salt).
Some cravings are habitual. Meaning, if you’re in the habit of wine and popcorn when you watch Netflix in the evenings, you may crave them even if you’ve just eaten something else!
Cravings can be location-specific. Meaning, you grew up with your parents, being comforted by food, so when you set foot in their house, you feel like eating. It’s accidentally conditioned into you!
Sensory stimulation can cause cravings. Meaning, if you see food in an advertisement, or you smell something that reminds you of something else, like this Rebel:
“I lit a new candle and it smelled super sweet. I started craving a certain sweet breakfast food. I couldn’t figure out why and then I realized the candle smelled like the food I was craving. I blew it out. Cravings stopped!”
This is one reason we don’t allow photos of non-Code Red foods in the Code Red network. That photo of jelly donuts you proudly turned down in the break room may trigger someone!
Finally, just being near food may be enough to trigger cravings, especially if it’s free to you. A lot of people find free food surprisingly tempting, even if it’s food you don’t particularly like!
Next time you experience a food craving, notice what’s going on, and notice how you’re feeling. Certain emotions may even trigger cravings, if you’re used to self-soothing with food.
Awareness is the first step, so start paying attention to what’s happening, or what happened earlier in the day, when you catch yourself craving something.
Did you sleep? Are you behind on your water? All you eating enough high-quality salt?
If so, what else is happening? Were you just watching TV, and a food advertisement came on? Did you smell something? Did you move to a different location?
Once you’re aware of what’s triggering your food cravings, you can make a plan to handle it!
Have you created your free Code Red Lifestyle™ network account yet? If not, here’s how to get your account!
1) On your computer, create your account at www.CodeRedLifestyle.com/App.
2) If you want the network on a mobile device, go to the App Store or Google Play Store and search for Code Red Lifestyle.