Beat Food Cravings

health

By Alpro Pharmacy

February 29, 2024

Food craving is an intense desire for a specific food which can be uncontrollable and may cause a person to crave typically unhealthy foods – food cravings are dieter’s arch enemy. It is indeed hard to control cravings for food especially to those who are on diet but with correct plan and strategy, it is not impossible!

1. Set goals with correct mindset

Eating healthy is a lifestyle, never a trend. What triggers you to start on this lifestyle? What are your goals? We eat balanced and nutritious food now so that our body will thank us later but each of us will have our own specific desires. Find your desired aim, write it down in your notebook or diary, share with others about your goals to make you feel extra motivated, be focused on ways to achieve it and one of the ways is to beat the cravings!

With correct mindset and intentions, you will set your heart to it and nothing can stop you – your mindset is your greatest asset!

2. Start planning your meals

Strong mindset need to come with structured planning – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Plan both your main and snacking meals – make sure to include adequate protein and high fiber food mainly the vegetables and fruits. This will make you feel full faster and longer. Another tip is to have your meal in small portion but more frequently, to fill the gap so you and your tummy would not have the extra time to feel that cravings!

3. Adequate hydration

Water is our body fuel – drink plenty of water daily especially in between your meal time to suppress hunger and unwanted cravings. You should aim to drink 8 cups or glasses of fluid a day. Water, low-fat milk and sugar-free drinks, including tea and coffee, all count! Never underestimate the significance of these calorie-free fluid so, start drinking your water now!

4. Stress management

Almost all of us will experience issues and problems in daily life which cause us to feel stress. Stress will induce cravings and binge eating. Hence, watch out for your stress-triggers, try to control the situation by prioritising yourself first – do self-meditation, share your problems with someone you trust, get adequate rest and sleep. If you are stress-free, it will reduce the chance of you having those cravings and binge eating!

5. Keep yourself busy

You tend to get the extra cravings during your free time. So, distract your mind by doing other things. Get yourself a hobby – increase your physical activity, do some gardening, read books, learn new skills during your leisure time. But for some people although they are busy, they might still feel the urge of munching food – you can chew sugar-free chewing gum or crunchy veggies like salad, lettuce or juicy cucumber to avoid eating the unhealthy craved foods.

5. Get professional help

If you are still unable to control the food craving by yourself, do not worry, it is time for you to get help from the professionals like doctors, dieticians and nutritionists. The professionals can offer you non-pharmacology management and pharmacological treatment with safe medications under controlled environment with extra aid and assistance.

You are never alone on this journey – help yourself and let us support you to get the best outcome. Together we can maintain a healthy lifestyle and beat food cravings!