subject: Taking care of your food demandings: the game of suppression and indulgence [print this page] Nearly everyone gets food urges on occasionNearly everyone gets food urges on occasion. Science has proven this is a typical phenomenon and is not really something to be embarrassed of. What appears much less clear is what to do when you are getting one. Some people simply give in usually, while others feel guilty and not allow themselves the enjoyment of greedily eating what ever non grata piece of food they happened to desire. Which strategy is right? If you do fit in to the quite unexclusive membership of cravers, exactlty what can you do when you catch your self moving in the direction of the refrigerator?
As it usually is with intense and opposing views, the truth is someplace in between. For starters, the current understanding among dieticians is that a complete suppression of cravings leads in fact to an elevated food ingestion soon after. You construct a dam about your own urges and at particular point it cannot keep any more time, which usually then leaves you at mercy of your desires. In scientific terms, the suppression of these types of thoughts leads to their succeeding hyperaccessiblity. This indicates that trying to totally ignore your food urges really reinforces all of them, something that is actually termed "the ironic cognitive process". This reinforcement is later on shifted to the actual food intake, or "rebound eating". Therefore, contrary to just what several women magazines may well be telling you diet-wise, giving in on occasion is fine, as long as this particular behaviour is kept in check. It is still crucial to not overindulge, but instead to handle your natural desires in a fashion that creates a healthy balance.
In brief, we can place the actual food craving dealing systems in 2 distinct strategy groups. The first group comprises "control-based" coping strategies. These strategies suggest a cognitive control of unhealthy food behaviour, not just through suppressing the cravings, but also by an array of additional methods, such as not keeping undesirable foods at home or work, removing your food triggers from sight and so on.
The second group of coping strategies is called "acceptance based". Different to the former type, acceptance-based strategies do not particularly aim to decrease the amount of cravings or alleviate the sensation of guilt triggered by the actual food cravings. Instead, the idea is to stimulate the actual willingness to accept the experience that cannot be controlled, simultaneously implementing behaviour which is beneficial in terms of ideal goals. Simpler put, one accepts his or her current frame of mind, which includes nutritional dispositions; having established this as a strong starting point, one begins regularly working in the direction of envisioned goals and values.
Apart from managing your food cravings by means of a more self-aware as well as calculated approach to food types high in fat and sugar, there are more strategies that might come in handy.
Positive thinking
When the Dalai Lama advises to refrain from negative thoughts and to cultivate and enhance positive states of mind, it is not easy to immediately link that advice to the wold of dieting. However, the leap most likely are not that great after all. Research shows that food yearnings are seriously mediated by our emotions, even on the level of neurological pathways in the brain. Specifically, it is often established that negative emotions such as anger, loneliness, boredom and depression cause increased food intake. While the exact mechanisms at work are not entirely clear, it has been suggested that happiness hormones released with the food intake provides a short-term coping technique with the negative emotional state. Coupled with the enslaving nature of the food urges, sometimes it is quite problematic when it comes to overweight and individual health in general.
Luckily, you will find there's workaround, and the psychologists have been pointing it out all along. If negative emotions are a cause of harmful dietary behaviour, it is then possible to decrease the effects of their mediation by working with them directly. Numerous techniques are available, varying from breathing exercises, yoga and meditation to more conventional psychological methods, such as cognitive therapy. Research shows that a conscious and savouring approach to consuming helps handle unhealthy dietary behaviours and results in weight decrease. In addition, positive emotions may well initiate other positive modifications in personal dispositions and routines, thus resulting in an upward spiral of advantageous change, including nutritional aspects, as another study claims.
Concluding this article we should add, that food cravings are the result of a complicated interplay between several aspects on both physical and mental levels. This implies that techniques of working with them should take this Janus-like nature in consideration. The crucial information is to retain things in balance and have a positive frame-of-mind on oneself and your life.
Taking care of your food demandings: the game of suppression and indulgence
