Craving

Dictionary.com defines the word craving as follows:

Craving:  v. to long for; want greatly; desire eagerly.

Yep, that sounds about right!  The thing about a craving is it can be incredibly intense, so intense that it takes over your world when it hits.  At the moment you are neck deep in a craving, you don't see any way out of it except to give in to it.  You feel like it is gonna last forever, there is no end in sight.  It is like the food you are craving is a mountain in front of your face, and we all know mountains are unmovable, right?

Not necessarily!  While it is true that cravings are intense, it is also true that they don't last forever.  In addition, there are things you can do to prolong a craving, and there are things you can do to knock a craving right to its knees.

A mentor of mine once said, "You can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop it from building a nest in your hair!"  How does that pertain to cravings?  Well, you can't really stop cravings from coming.  They are thoughts that come to you, whether from memories of favorite foods you've eaten in the past, that Burger King commercial you've seen a thousand times, or the smells emanating from your favorite bakery as you pass by.

But what you do with that craving when it comes determines whether it has power over you or not.  If you dwell on that craving, give life to it, savor it, you will undoubtedly end up giving in to it.  On the other hand, if you acknowledge it, but then counter it with a little pep talk about how it would taste good to indulge but it would undo all the hard work you did at exercise class, you can usually talk yourself right out of it.  Go ahead and think about how powerful you felt when you finished that last run or workout in the gym.  Dwell on those successes instead of the smell of a cookie or the sight of a pizza.  If you can distract yourself even for 15 minutes, that is usually long enough for that craving bird to fly on over your head and disappear into the horizon.  Then you can go on about your day feeling confident in your ability to feed yourself on your terms, not Burger King's.

Sincerely,
Tina
The Fitness-Gonna-Be