If I were to ask you which foods you usually crave, most likely they wouldn’t be foods that are very healthy. I bet they would be ice cream, potato chips, pizza, or something along those lines. Many Ultimate Phitness clients that come to our office for weight-loss have a “craving problem.” But we don’t see it as a problem at all; we see it as a solution.Cravings are overrated. We don’t have to be controlled by them. We don’t have to feel tempted by ice cream, cookies, or 20-ounce prime ribs we crave. Instead, we can be tempted by watermelon, pineapple, oranges or apples; foods like that. Think that sounds crazy? Well it isn’t, and you’ll see why…
Analyzing your habits
When we first sit down and talk with a client about their eating habits, we gather everything we need to know about exactly what they eat and how they eat. The culprit of their weight problem usually boils down to eating foods that are unhealthy or just plain overeating. Then we’ll ask them what fruits and vegetables they like. We’ve yet to come across someone who hates fruit or hates every vegetable under the sun. Let’s look at this from another perspective. Let’s say pineapple is your favorite fruit. Now, if you were sitting with me right now and I gave you a juicy chunk of it, you would enjoy it thoroughly. And you’d want more, right? Of course. Now, let’s say I reached into my refrigerator, whipped out a piece of chocolate cake and said, “choose one.” Most likely you would opt for the pineapple because you just had a teaser-piece, which would make your mind want more. The fact of the matter is this: you enjoy your favorite fruits just as much as you enjoy your favorite junk foods, you just believe otherwise.
Taking the power away from cravings
Again, cravings are overrated. The mere mention of that devilish word always seems to conjure-up images of high calorie, high fat foods, only because these are the foods you are most exposed to in our media driven world. Your subconscious gets accustomed to this and just doesn’t know any better. Change your mind's images and you’ll change what your cravings. Here’s a quick 5 minute mental exercise you can begin doing now to help you start changing the way you crave food...Step 1: Find a comfortable, quiet place where there are no distractions. Begin breathing deeply until you are quite relaxed. Next, count backwards from ten to one, slowly. With each count, imagine that your mind is drifting deeper and deeper.Step 2: After you have finished counting, imagine that you are relaxing by yourself in your favorite place. A secluded beach or a log in the woods will do the trick. Imagine yourself feeling so very relaxed and peaceful.Step 3: Next, imagine a basket full of your favorite fresh picked fruit sitting right next to you. See it clearly in your mind, the color, the feel, everything about that fruit. Imagine taking a bite of that juicy fruit and enjoying it like never before.Step 4: Repeat the following suggestion to yourself 10 times: “From now on, anytime I think of eating, I immediately feel a craving for fruit.”Step 5: Count from 1 to 5, slowly, and when you reach 5 open your eyes.
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