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Food Cravings Chart - Do You Have Cravings? Here's the Fix!



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I saw this on The Facebook, so it must be true. Right? :) ;)

I think this is an interesting chart--and I might try to apply it when they hit me.

Do you have food cravings/head hunger that you just refuse to feed? I sometimes do. They were worse at the beginning of my journey than they are now. Now, they are mostly little whiny bi*ches that kinda wimper and go away when I ignore them--or feed them with a hard boiled egg or raw veggies without a dip--or a salad with plain evoo and unfiltered acv. But in the early days oh boy, were they doozies! And because I'm very hyperinsulinemic (long history of it), then if I eat a bunch of high glycemic carbs, I get hungrier quicker and my cravings for specific foods start cropping up with irritating regularity.

Experience taught me that each time I feed a craving with the actual food I'm craving, that only reinforces the specific craving as well as the time of day the craving occurs. I do IF and that has taught me that hunger signals and cravings do not continue to build if you do not feed them. They have a cycle and die a quiet death in 20 minutes or less. Often now mine last no more than 5 minutes of so. Also, I always drink a pint of Water before I feed anything and wait 20 minutes. If I'm still hungry, then I give my approved Snacks (see above).

How do you take care of your cravings without caving to them? Does this chart have any merit or veracity?

image.png.c95667e6f6960b61452ab619c50e75ef.png

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I'm teaching myself to ignore the cravings. I'm never really hungry, but I eat out of boredom or emotions still sometimes. Working on it and overcoming it.

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I think it has a lot of merit. It’s part of why we woman crave chocolate around “that time “. At one point I started craving pumpkin seeds during those times. Looked at the label and ding! Ding! Ding! High in magnesium.
I still struggle with evening/late night cravings. If I finally cave I make sure I’m not going over my calories and make a healthy choice. I only WISH mine lasted 20 minutes. I’m doing ALL of the tricks - drink Water and wait, set my intentions, replace my unhealthy habit with a positive activity, journal, brush my teeth and go to bed. But the struggle is real and it’s A. Real. Bear 🐻 

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I tend to have cravings after eating something with artificial sweeteners - even Stevia can set me off. I met with my head witch the other day and we looked at my diet because I'm very narrow in my food choices right now and anything that sniffs of the wrong type of carbs instantly trips me into a Water gain that lasts 4 or 5 days before starting to see the scales go down again. She was concerned that she didn't think the tight hold I have on my eating choices is sustainable... I need to check the water weight thing with my cardiologist - I just hope it's not heart related. But, once I can eliminate the heart thing, I'll just drink loads of dandelion tea and see if that helps.

I hanker back to my Atkins days, when I had no cravings - for me it was 'no carbs, no sugar = no cravings!'... but it won't work now as I can't eat as much fat as I did then as my pouch starts feeling queasy..

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41 minutes ago, Alpaca55 said:

I tend to have cravings after eating something with artificial sweeteners - even Stevia can set me off. I met with my head witch the other day and we looked at my diet because I'm very narrow in my food choices right now and anything that sniffs of the wrong type of carbs instantly trips me into a Water gain that lasts 4 or 5 days before starting to see the scales go down again. She was concerned that she didn't think the tight hold I have on my eating choices is sustainable... I need to check the Water weight thing with my cardiologist - I just hope it's not heart related. But, once I can eliminate the heart thing, I'll just drink loads of dandelion tea and see if that helps.

I hanker back to my Atkins days, when I had no cravings - for me it was 'no carbs, no sugar = no cravings!'... but it won't work now as I can't eat as much fat as I did then as my pouch starts feeling queasy..

I have to agree with you that my cravings were really under control on a day-to-day basis with Atkins. I just couldn't sustain that long term. I really don't care for meat much and love my fruits and veggies.

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5 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

I saw this on The Facebook, so it must be true. Right? :) ;)

I think this is an interesting chart--and I might try to apply it when they hit me.

Do you have food cravings/head hunger that you just refuse to feed? I sometimes do. They were worse at the beginning of my journey than they are now. Now, they are mostly little whiny bi*ches that kinda wimper and go away when I ignore them--or feed them with a hard boiled egg or raw veggies without a dip--or a salad with plain evoo and unfiltered acv. But in the early days oh boy, were they doozies! And because I'm very hyperinsulinemic (long history of it), then if I eat a bunch of high glycemic carbs, I get hungrier quicker and my cravings for specific foods start cropping up with irritating regularity.

Experience taught me that each time I feed a craving with the actual food I'm craving, that only reinforces the specific craving as well as the time of day the craving occurs. I do IF and that has taught me that hunger signals and cravings do not continue to build if you do not feed them. They have a cycle and die a quiet death in 20 minutes or less. Often now mine last no more than 5 minutes of so. Also, I always drink a pint of Water before I feed anything and wait 20 minutes. If I'm still hungry, then I give my approved Snacks (see above).

How do you take care of your cravings without caving to them? Does this chart have any merit or veracity?

image.png.c95667e6f6960b61452ab619c50e75ef.png

Great post!

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
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