All About Cravings + 6 Tips to Help You Conquer Your Cravings

I tend to get a bit “snacky” at night. I’ll do great all day at sticking to my healthy eating plan—protein, water, and fruits and vegetables, and then the sun goes down, and I get a craving for something sweet and, most likely, chocolatey.

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone, and cravings can be tough to deal with. They can also be pretty frustrating if you let them derail the progress you’re making with your health and fitness goals.

What are cravings?

Simply put, cravings are a powerful feeling you get for something, and in this case, a food. Sometimes cravings can be light, and sometimes they can feel like a force to be reckoned with. Some people have cravings for salty foods, others for sweet, some for more fatty foods, and some a combination of any or all three. My #1 craving? Sweet, but not just any sweet. Chocolate. All the chocolate. And if you get cravings, you’re not alone. 90% of people get cravings!

Why do you get cravings?

There are a lot of reasons you can get cravings. See if any of these apply to you + your cravings:

• Feeling sleepy.
• Feeling stressed.
• Feeling both sleepy + stressed. This one is a cravings instigator for me, for sure.
• Boredom.
• Seeing, smelling, or even hearing about a food can cause a craving to hit. What about all those commercials and ads for food in social media? Or driving past a restaurant and smelling what they’re cooking? Or looking at that delicious photo collage above? Those types of things can cause cravings.
• A hormone imbalance, especially with the hormones leptin and serotonin. Another hormone, ghrelin, can cause issues too.
• Hormone fluctuations related to menstrual cycles.
• Lacking a specific nutrient, which can cause your body to crave foods with that nutrient.
• Emotions, which can lead to cravings for comfort foods. Been there, done that!
• Some medications.
• An unknown medical condition, so keep that in mind when a possibly unusual craving hits regularly.
• Pregnancy. Yeah…been there, done that x 4!
• Dehydration. If you’ve got a craving, you might actually just be thirsty.
• Eating highly processed foods, especially those loaded with sugar and fat. Eating these foods can actually intensify your cravings.
• Negative feelings, plain and simple…whether they’re in the moment or based on past experiences.

How Can you conquer cravings?

Actually, you don’t really conquer them, and you’ll probably always have them. So if you think you can totally conquer your cravings, you’re setting yourself up for a cravings conquering failure. But, you can learn how to manage them in healthy ways. Here are 6 tips for managing your cravings:

• Drink some water. Before caving to a craving, drink a glass of water and wait 10-20 minutes to see if that craving goes away. Again, sometimes when you get a craving, you’re actually thirsty, not hungry.
• When you do eat—whether it’s a meal or due to a craving, eat slowly and give your body time to digest that food, which means you’ll probably eat less of that food. Take time to enjoy what you’re eating!
• Portion out just a small amount of whatever you’re craving and eat only that much. Sometimes, this is enough to squelch that craving. If you can’t stop at a small portion, don’t even go there.
• Make sure you’re eating enough protein. Protein is the highest satiating macronutrient, so you’ll feel fuller longer. And it has a lot of other amazing health benefits too!
• Don’t deprive yourself. That often leads to binging.
• Choose a healthier alternative, one that won’t cause you to binge.

Speaking to that last one, here’s one of my favorite cravings crushers:

Blueberries + Chocolate Whipped Cream

• Blueberries are sweet and delicious, AND they’re loaded with nutrients + 4g of fiber/cup.  So eating 1 cup of blueberries satisfies that sweets craving and the fiber helps me feel fuller.
• I discovered this chocolate whipped cream right before Christmas, and since it seemed to be a seasonal thing, I might’ve bought 5 to keep me in stock for as long as possible. It adds a low-calorie amount of chocolatey goodness to the blueberries, which satisfies that chocolate craving as well as the sweet craving. When my chocolate whipped cream is gone, I’ll just replace it with fat-free regular whipped cream.
• And…eating blueberries gets me another serving of fruit for the day while smashing that sweet craving!

Cravings are a way of life. But, when they become an issue, we can find ways to take care of those cravings in healthy ways. What’s your favorite cravings crusher?