Help to Stop Constant Food Cravings
Why is it so hard to say no to burgers and cheese fries and chicken strips as well as refined carbohydrates such as most breads, (we love our bread products!), pastries (think freshly baked cinammon rolls you can smell in the malls), sugary treats (almost everything a coffee shop sells!) and nachos (oh, those excessively salty foods). To continue with Dr. David Kessler’s explanations, there are some real scientific reasons for this. All these flavors hit full force. Health-sapping sugar, salt and fat, plus additives such as hydrolyzed vegetable protein, ratchet up taste far beyond what you’d find in nature. Texture can also tantalize. Processed foods are engineered for optimal “MOUTH FEEL”, whether crunchy, creamy or gooey. These fun-to-eat qualities can quickly override your better judgment. Plus…..these foods are super easy to eat! No bones, no pits, no peels, just instant gratification. Do we stand a chance? Can we fight back? I think we can.
Here is one idea to try: preparing food in advance. We certainly live in a “fast-forward” world. We prepare for work. We prepare our kids for school. These preparations are not MUST be prepared with clean presentable clothes, homework done, cell phones charged, gas in car. The list goes on. We go grocery shopping, but are we just buying more fast foods? Preparing foods in advance takes time, but the payoff can be huge. Buying fresh chicken, fish, eggs and other lean proteins and then cooking them ahead of time will mean that on a busy week night there are healthy options for quick ‘heat and eat’ meals. Buying fresh vegetables and cutting them up ahead of time makes having salads or steamed veggies or soups easy to prepare and quickly available.
I really don’t like cutting up salad ingredients, but I do like eating salad so I would rather spend the time to cut everything up at once (say, on a Sunday morning or afternoon) than doing it every night before dinner. Bake a whole chicken (or two); this is great for leftovers such as chicken salad or chicken enchiladas or tacos. Grill fish and any leftovers can be made into fish tacos, or sandwich spread. Cook hard-boiled eggs and eat individually as a snack or make egg salad and keep in a sealed container to eat any time during the week. Make meatloaf and have sandwiches or just eat plain. Make a batch of spaghetti or lasagne and eat leftovers later in the week.
Good luck. I know you can do it.
