subject: Controlling your food cravings: the game of suppression and indulgence [print this page] Nearly everybody gets food urges occasionallyNearly everybody gets food urges occasionally. Research has proven it's a typical phenomenon and is not really something to be embarrassed of. Exactly what appears much less clear is how to proceed when you are getting one. Some people simply give in more often than not, whilst other people feel guilty and not allow themselves the enjoyment of greedily eating what ever non grata piece of food they happened to want. Which method is right? Should you choose fit in to the quite unexclusive membership of cravers, what else could you do next time you catch your self moving in the direction of the refrigerator?
As it usually is with severe and opposing views, the simple truth is someplace in between. To begin with, the current understanding amongst dieticians is that a total suppression of cravings leads in fact to an elevated food consumption later on. You construct a dam about your own urges and at particular stage it can't maintain any more time, which usually then leaves a person at whim of your desires. In scientific terms, the actual suppression of these types of ideas leads to their succeeding hyperaccessiblity. This suggests that attempting to totally disregard your food urges really reinforces all of them, some thing that is actually called "the ironic cognitive process". This particular reinforcement is later on moved to the real food intake, or "rebound eating". Consequently, in contrast to just what several women publications may be telling you diet-wise, giving in on occasion is fine, so long as this particular behaviour is held in check. Will still be essential to not really overindulge, but instead to handle your normal urges in a manner that creates a healthy balance.
In brief, we can place the actual food craving dealing systems within 2 unique strategy groups. The first group comprises "control-based" coping techniques. These techniques suggest a cognitive control of unhealthy food behaviour, not just through controlling the cravings, but additionally by a variety of additional methods, such as not keeping undesirable foods both at home and work, getting rid of your food triggers from sight and so on.
The 2nd group of coping strategies is called "acceptance based". As opposed to the former type, acceptance-based methods do not particularly aim to decrease the amount of cravings or ease the sensation of shame triggered by the actual food cravings. Instead, the concept is to stimulate the actual readiness to accept the experience that cannot be controlled, simultaneously applying behaviour which is advantageous when it comes to preferred goals. Simpler put, one accepts his / 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 controlling your food urges via a much more self-aware as well as determined approach to food kinds high in fat and sugar, there are more strategies that may be necessary sometimes.
Positive thinking
When the Dalai Lama advises to stay away from damaging thoughts and to develop and enhance good states of mind, it is not easy to instantly link that advice to the wold of dieting. However, the leap is probably not that great after all. Investigation shows that food urges 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 actual negative emotional state. Combined with the enslaving nature of the food urges, this is often quite problematic when it comes to overweight and individual health in general.
Luckily, there's a workaround, and the psychologists have been pointing it out all along. If damaging feelings are a trigger of harmful nutritional conduct, it is then feasible to reduce the results of their particular mediation by operating with them directly. Numerous techniques are available, varying from breathing exercises, yoga exercise and meditation to more traditional psychological methods, such as cognitive therapy. Investigation shows that a conscious and savouring strategy to consuming helps handle harmful dietary behaviours and results in weight decrease. In addition, good emotions might initiate other good 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 meals cravings are caused by a complicated interplay in between several elements on both both mental and physical levels. This suggests that techniques of working with them should take this Janus-like character in consideration. The essential information is to maintain things in stability and have a positive frame-of-mind on your self and your life.
Controlling your food cravings: the game of suppression and indulgence
