KNOWLEDGE

6 Tricks to Curb Your Food Cravings!

February 9, 2015

Indulging yourself in rich chocolate bars, creamy ice cream, and crunchy potato chips; who doesn’t have cravings? More often than not, when we crave for something it’s not even about hunger; we just have to have it! Be it because your sister has been going on and on about her having the best tiramisu in that new café in the city or because someone just posted a picture of a juicy hamburger on path, you have this strong urge to have them, too! This is particularly a problem when you’re in a diet and trying to reduce your intake of fatty and sugary food. Cravings are sometimes irresistible, but with these 6 easy tricks, you can help control your need for midnight munchies and curb your cravings!

#1 Aromatics As Distractions

When you’re craving for something, your head is filled not only with how that food is going to taste in your mouth but also with what it smell like. A professor from Flinders University Australia, Eva Kemps, suggested distracting your thoughts about that food you craved with aromatics. “The smell of jasmine or peppermint can avert your fixation upon your food cravings,” said Kemps. Smelling those aromas can stop you from indulging in chocolates or your other high calorie food favorites.

#2 Mental Vacation

Visualize yourself being in some place other than where you are right now. Imagining that you’re taking a stroll in a calming forest somewhere remote, where you can feast your eyes with all the pretty birds with colorful feathers and enjoying the refreshing smell of pines. John May, PhD from Plymouth University’s Cognition Institute in English say that having a mental vacation for even just 10 minutes can help distract you enough to curb your cravings.

#3 Play games

When the urge to munch strikes, you should try playing games on your gadgets! A study on Elaborated Intrusion Theory (EI) suggests people that play games like Tetris for 3 minutes have a significantly less craving in comparison to those who doesn’t. Give it a try!

#4 Take a photo of your food

When you have uncontrolled cravings, you tend to give in to them and indulge them anyway. But we tend to not remember all the things that go into our mouth and hence it’s so easy for us to go over our calorie intake limit for the day. So, take a photo of everything you eat that day! A study done by the University of Bristol in UK suggests that when you are aware of everything you’ve eaten, you’ll realized that you don’t actually need to eat more and hence it’s easier to discourage yourself from taking a bite from that delicious piece of cake.

#5 Just ignore it!

Just because your brain makes you think you need to have that chocolate fudge cake right now, doesn’t mean you have to give in to that urge! In a particular study done in 2012, a group of people was told to ignore their craving for chocolates. Surprisingly simply ignoring those pesky cravings work just as effective if not more than relaxation techniques!

#6 Take a walk

According to a study, walking for 15 minutes can also help with controlling our cravings. Exercising helps your body relax and reduce the tension, boredom and stress that tend to lead to us giving in to our cravings for unhealthy foods. “Physical activity in a day can help regulate our mood and reduces our urge to snack,” said Hwajung Oh, PhD, a professor from Seoul National University, South Korea.

Originally published on Fimela.com. Translated and edited by Gold's Gym Indonesia.