An important step towards starting to get control over your eating habits, food intake and weight loss is being able to differentiate between having cravings and experiencing hunger.

When your body needs nutrients to keep going and for energy you experience hunger. You will typically experience some sort of physical cue as a signal that you are running low on “fuel”. You may experience drowsiness, headaches or a lightheaded feeling. Feeling irritable or having a short attention span can also be caused by hunger.

Basically your body is trying to tell you that you need to recharge with food and healthy nutrients to keep it going.

A craving, however, is more of a desire for a specific food or taste. When you feel like you need to have something to feel better or you won’t be satisfied until you have it, it more often that not is a craving. Cravings are most often created by emotional needs as well; you have a bad day- eating chocolate perks you up, you have a good day- eating chocolate is your reward, your having a normal day- eating chocolate will make it better!

Cravings are also almost always for foods that are really not that good for you but satisfy that naughty “sweet tooth” or “carb tooth” you are harbouring in your mouth.

It’s a reward-like result when you satisfy that craving, but almost always results in feelings of guilt or disappointment for having caved in.

So how do we start telling the difference between actual hunger and those demanding cravings?

Start by trying to have nutritionally balanced meals when you start to feel hunger, or a need to eat. Eat slowly so you recognize when your stomach is sending your brain those “I’m full” signals earlier and before you have over eaten and get that uncomfortable stuffed feeling. By eating a balanced meal you will be satisfying all of your body’s nutritional needs. Having met these needs you will start to experience less cravings.

Start cutting down on your craving snacks or indulgences. When you have let yourself cave into that sugar tooth, for example, your body eventually becomes adjusted to consuming higher amounts of sugar. If you stop indulging it you start to experience strong urges to eat anything sweet in order to fight off the sugar “withdrawal”. You can also try eating healthier sweet alternatives to satiate those needs by eating fruits, blueberries, etc. By cutting back and eventually eliminating them all together you will re-educate your body and start to have fewer cravings.

Ever thought it’d be possible to “crave” cherry tomatoes instead of cookies? It is! That’s why I brought some for lunch today J

~Rian