Craving Control Strategies
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
You are not your cravings.
It is likely that you have struggled with cravings. It is one of the major stumbling blocks of changing how we eat or drink. Learning how to move through and manage them, versus just trying to “run” from them will go a long way towards achieving long term goals.
It may feel like your day is filled with cravings. This is not true - once you learn how to identify them, you will see that they come and go. They are often a learned response to a particular cue or trigger (a treat at 3 pm, dessert after dinner, chips with lunch, a cocktail on Friday night). When a substance or experience lights up the pleasure center of our brain and we repeat it, the brain becomes accustomed to it and is prompted to seek more of the substance - hence the thoughts about the need for particular things - NOW.
I am all for managing cravings by taking a walk, drinking hot tea or a glass of water, or distracting yourself somehow. This can be helpful in the moment - the problem with this is that it is a short term solution and can leave us feeling frustrated because it does not get to the bottom of the problem.
Instead, try these strategies:
Understand that your cravings are not YOU. They are simply thoughts coming from your brain and they are LOUD. You can name your cravings - I like to call mine Miss Bossy. When the thoughts encouraging me to eat cookies come up I can say to myself - oh, there’s Miss Bossy - I know what she is all about.
Take a minute to think about what prompted the craving. Is it how you are feeling (bored, tired, stressed) or is it because of a cue like the time of day, or a particular situation? Or maybe it is a little bit of both. Getting clear about the sequence of “events” in your brain can help as you move towards controlling the cravings.
Finally, and most important - sit with it. How do you feel? Uncomfortable, agitated, somewhat desperate? Probably. Is your brain screaming at you to eat or drink the thing, that you will die if you do not? Likely. It’s okay - the craving will pass - picture it as a wave - it comes in, rises, and then recedes. Take deep breaths and try to pay objective attention to what your thoughts are. The long term goal is to sit through the whole feeling until it passes. But, because this is easier said than done, start by just recognizing the thoughts and sitting with them for a couple of minutes, and gradually increase over time.
This works not only at the outset of a craving, but also at deciding if you want more of something. If one glass of wine is good, and the craving comes up for the second, I can wait, take a few minutes, and then consciously DECIDE what I want to to do next.
Our thoughts are powerful and once we learn how to “see” them we can change them. White knuckling through cravings and feeling like a failure is no way to live. Nothing will change overnight - you must give the process time, and it is likely that you will still get cravings…but instead of giving in to them, you will simply experience them as a temporary state of mind. Try it and get curious about what happens.
