Parent Your Cravings

Cravings come from a mixture of habits and hormones and it is part of our nature to answer them. They cause us to seek food and served us to keep us alive. Yay nature!

But now, our food is so available and so processed we have become addicted and our hormones are all out of wack. Cravings feel impossible to ignore.

I like to think of a craving like a toddler screaming in the store for candy. Our automatic desire is to silence the screaming. The quickest way to silence is to give her what she wants. We are doing this because WE are uncomfortable. Unfortunately this just creates more of the same behavior time after time.

We know logically that if we stop rewarding the behavior we will teach her that she doesn't get what she wants when she behaves that way. Eventually she stops having tantrums in the store.

Guess what? This can work with with our cravings too! We just need to learn to parent our cravings.

But how?

The first thing is to slow down and become aware.

When a craving surface we have three choices:

1. Give in (say F*** It!)

2. Resist (use will-power which doesn't work)

3. Sit with the craving (actually allow ourselves to feel the craving all the way through)

When I feel a craving coming on I say....

"Hello! I know you. Come on in.... make yourself comfortable."

I know I won't DIE if the toddler is screaming, no matter how loud she gets.

I don't resist the feeling by diverting my attention.

I don't give in.