The Fit Over 40 Podcast by TRINITY
The Fit Over 40 Podcast by TRINITY
Ep 2 – How To Deal With Bad Food Cravings
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INTRODUCTION

Are your attempts to eat healthy diet ruined by bad food cravings?

Well, you’re not alone! We’ve had hundreds of people ask us how to deal with bad food cravings.

In this episode of The Motivation Method Podcast, TRINITY co-founders Rob Birkhead and Ben Hughes tackle this question head-on to give you their top tips, strategies and secrets to beat bad food cravings once and for all!


KEY LESSONS

1. Before You Can Beat The Cravings You Need To Know What’s Causing Them

Bad food cravings can have many causes (often they’re caused by more than one thing).

This list includes:

  • Lack of sleep
  • Stress
  • Boredom
  • Too strict diet
  • Poor food choices
  • Not eating enough
  • Not eating regularly enough

For a lot of people, it will be a combination of ALL the above that’s leading them to have bad food cravings.

Since trying to do all those things at once would be overwhelming and a recipe for disaster, it’s best to start with the most important thing, which brings us on to point #2…


2. It’s Best To Start With A “Hard Reset”

Whilst “everything in moderation” is probably the healthiest diet going, for someone who’s struggling with their weight and with bad food cravings moderation is usually impossible

“Just one biscuit” can too easily become the whole pack!

What we’ve found works much better is to have a period of going “cold turkey”, to get away from the sugary processed foods and snacks and to realise you CAN survive just fine on healthier foods.

The way we do this with our clients is by cutting out the 4 biggest “problem foods”:

  • Wheat
  • Alcohol
  • Dairy
  • Sugar

We call these the WADS foods, and these are the main ingredients in foods we typically crave.

We typically do this reset for 2 weeks, and we call it the Diet Makeover.


3. No One Has Infinite Willpower

To make this “reset” process possible, it’s important to understand what causes you to fall off the wagon.

Having too much flexibility when starting trying to eat healthier often leaves you to rely on willpower – because when does “just a few biscuits” become too many?

What we’ve found works much better is to have some very simple black and white rules to follow.

NO sugar is easier than LESS sugar.

NO alcohol is easier than LESS alcohol (just ask an alcoholic).

When you know you can’t have something at all the decision is easy – it’s a NO!

That means you don’t have to rely on willpower at the beginning and you can learn to believe in yourself to make better choices.


4. Becoming That “Thin” Person Doesn’t Happen Overnight

The fitness celebs all try and sell diet plans which is “their way”. All you need to do is stick to it and you’ll be slim and healthy too.

That sounds great, but it doesn’t really happen in practice!

If you’re used to eating toast or cereal for breakfast, exercising sporadically, not tracking anything you eat and having takeaways twice a week, suddenly trying to live like a fitness-freak daily is a recipe for disaster!

You might be able to keep it up for a few days, but it’s such a dramatic change all at once that it’s impossible to stick to.

What works MUCH better is to change little habits, bit by bit, slowly but surely

Of course, it’s not as sexy or tempting as Davina McCall’s “Toned in 10” quick-fix, but changing your habits bit-by-bit actually works for life, not just for a few weeks!


5. Beating Bad Cravings Requires A Deeper Motivation

When it comes to saying “no” to a naughty treat or a nice glass of wine when you’re craving them, if you have no clear vision for why you’re saying “no”, of course you’re going to crumble and say yes.

Before Ben and Rob set clear motivating goals, they didn’t see any reason not to eat bacon sandwiches and drink beer and cider 5 days a week.

That’s because instant gratification will beat willpower every time if you don’t have a very clear goal and a very clear reason why you want it.

Only when you’ve completed the full goal-setting process we outlined in Episode 1 of the Podcast (and that we run through with every one of our clients) will you have the motivation to combat the cravings head on!


Still struggling to get motivated to
lose weight and tone up?

To help you out we’ll need a little more information from you… click below to complete our 5-Minute Motivation Assessment and we’ll see if we can give you a solution that works for you 🙂

CLICK HERE TO GET HELP >>