The question always arises “How can I stop my cravings?” The only time you will stop having cravings is when they are dead! The question is what kind of cravings can I have that will not make me fat. Under a proper nutritional program cravings are the “body” asking you for nutrients to be able to operate normally. The problem is that most of us are not in tune with our body enough to understand what it is that the body is asking. We turn to our minds to respond to the “body needs.” Cravings are needed because it is the only sign the body has to ask for proper nutrition.
The body does not think of food in the same manner as the mind does. The mind sees and accepts food by its given names, e.g. tomatoes, apples, steak, eggs, salad, etc. The body understands food only as “nutrition” and the particular condition that can be corrected with such nutrition. So when the body speaks, it only refers to food as nutrition needed to balance itself.
A good example goes as follows:
The body “knocks” on the mind and says, “I need nutrition, I lack energy”. The mind being creative says, “Oh, the body wants a donut.” So the mind wills the body to grab a donut and start feeding on it. The Body says, “thank you, this is fabulous, some complex carbohydrates!” The body gets a sudden surge of energy and quickly crashes because it has been fed a simple carbohydrate that the body can’t use as fuel and has to store instead of burning it. So the body now on a “sugar low” or decline in blood sugar in the body, it once again knocks on the mind and says… please…I…need…energy… The mind says, GREAT! the body wants another donut, so it proceeds to will the body to grab another donut and start feeding on it.
The body once again excitedly and mistakably says THANK YOU, a complex carbohydrate, as it experiences a rapid increase and subsequent decline of blood sugar in the body (a “sugar crash”) and “insulin spike” and the vicious circle repeats over and over again until the body is too tired from sugar crushes to speak to the mind and shuts down.
That is called a “craving,” so what went wrong with this whole scenario, we need cravings, but they make us tired, irritable, fat, etc.
WHAT DO I DO? When a craving arises, we need to be aware of whether the craving is a mind craving or a body craving. Keeping in mind that the “mind” should always be held suspect and “the body never lies.” We need to understand the particularly important difference between a “true craving” (body craving) or a “craving activated by outside influences” (mind craving). Keeping your nutrition strictly to “only food” will allow you to figure out what the body needs to keep functioning properly.
© Copyright – Hector Sectzer
