HAVE you ever experienced being enslaved by the food you crave for, where those waxy, sticky-sweet kernels and fast food chain menus drive you to the extremes. For sure you seek them everywhere to the extent of stashing them in your desk drawers, refrigerators, etc. and eat them by the pound until you are nauseated, bloated, and utterly ashamed of yourself.
Issues on food and eating habits is rather a personal thing, but we can all think of a food around where good intentions are lost and all control simply vanishes. These are the food we can’t eat in small quantities, the one that sabotage your effort to lose a few pounds, because it turns out to be much more than a snack; it’s a delicious but aggravating symbol of failure and weakness. These are your “trigger foods.”
It is not surprising also that the food we crave for happen to be high-calorie or high-fat, in fact, this may be the reason why we overeat them. Because we crave for it sometimes we think that these are the rich food we can’t have and once we eat one bite of these “bad food,” we think we might as well devour the whole thing.
Having a trigger food doesn’t mean you’re doomed at the mercy of it, because there are ways of kicking your food addiction. When the desire for your trigger food flares, console yourself with the fact that you’ll be able to have it in any day, in this way it will give you the strength to get through your craving without giving in. Setting limits is a perfect strategy to help you have self-control over your food craving.
If your trigger food is wreaking havoc in your diet and the idea of limits does not work, kiss it good-bye, and instead of saying “I’m not allowed to have it”, try to say “This food just doesn’t work for me”, because if you have not been eating your trigger food a long time, chances are you won’t be eating it in the future.
Many trigger food are cravings for a flavour or texture, and if that’s your problem, you can find healthier low-calorie food substitute.
Cravings for some are not just about food because some factors affect craving for food, like stress, boredom, or social pressures to eat. To target your craving for food it is suggested that you keep track on what time craving hits, how you feel emotionally, and what you’re doing and how hungry you really are, and the best thing you can do to avoid craving is to hit the gym instead of the couch.