If you are like me and are addicted to carbohydrates, I say let’s all tackle this issue head on and conquer our carbohydrates cravings for good!!!
After visiting my parents for dinner a few weeks back, I got there nice and early to offer to lend a hand. I was sent to the pantry to fetch some honey for the great smelling dinner my folks we’re cooking. While in the pantry, there we’re everything you would expect to find in a pantry. However, I noticed an abundance of cookies, potato chips, white bread, oatmeal, and cream cakes to name but a few also hanging out in there.
When I asked my mom if she and dad eat a lot of these things, she replied ”your father doesn’t bother with them so much but I feel hungry in between meals all the time so I just snack on those kinds of things. Of course she eats her regular meals also, but often finds herself hungry therefore snacks on unhealthy foods.
Consuming these types of carbohydrates only make you hungry again within the hour thus leading to the consumption of even more unhealthy snacks. Your body craves more food all throughout the day because your blood sugar shoots up and crashes back down again when eating these types of snacks. The more you crave, the more you eat right? All this ever does is allows your body to actually gain weight and can cause a number of other health issues.
There are a number of things you can do in order to resist these carbohydrate cravings we all get each and every day. The only skills you require are some determination and the will to succeed, couple this by applying the following tips to your lifestyle and your well on your way to conquering these cravings and eating healthy.
Tip 1 – Eat 5 small portioned evenly spaced out meals per day, inclusive of 3 balanced meals plus 2 healthy snacks. By eating 5 meals a day, this fuels your body all throughout the day, speeds up your metabolism, keeps your blood sugar constant and reduces cravings, all of which do everything to aid you in your weight loss goal.
Tip 2 – Throw out all those unhealthy carbohydrates right now! You know the ones I mean, the cookies, the cakes, the potato chips, the white bread etc. They all have to go as they have no nutritional value and only leave you craving more food shortly after consumption.
Tip 3 – In between you 3 healthy balanced meals each day, eat healthy snacks. These can include anything from fruit, raw vegetables (with a healthy dip if required), nuts or protein shakes. During each snack, try to ensure you are consuming a small portion of healthy carbohydrates, fat and protein with each one as these has a positive impact on your body releasing vital nutrients, remove the cravings from your day and give you more energy.
Tip 4 – This needs no real in depth explanation, make sure you drink water like the world depends on it. At least 8 glasses every single day.
Tip 5 – Slow down with the coffee and caffeine in general. We all love our morning cup of coffee, myself included which is absolutely fine. Heck I can’t function throughout the morning without it. However, try to leave it at just 1 maybe 2 cups a day. If your addicted to coffee and are taking in some 4 or 5+ cups every day, then try to cut that down to 2 or 3. Caffeine gives us an instant lift making us more awake and alert to what’s going on around us, but once that initial lift passes, you come crashing back down to earth and low and behold, you crave more caffeine or even carbohydrates.
Tip 6 – Eat healthy foods which give our bodies the nutrients it requires to make us feel really good. Unhealthy foods can make you feel really down, however consuming foods which release ”good” nutrients in to our bodies allow us to feel more upbeat, which in turn makes us feel happier in our lives. Please note, this is a marathon, not a sprint. This will take time and is not the quick fix many of us look for. It is however, a more permanent solution which is ultimately what we are all looking for here. Your body will take time to adjust to the changes in your eating habits and you may even feel a bit down in the first few days or weeks but that WILL pass and in no time at all, you will be feeling fantastic!
Enjoy and good luck guys!!