How to Reduce Cravings So You Can Feel Good, More energised, More Focussed, Less Sensitive To Stress & Less Prone To Weight Gain

It’s 3pm. You’re tired, your concentration is slipping, and you tell yourself, “I’ll just have one.”

One custard cream becomes two. Or maybe it’s chocolate, another coffee or something sweet from the cupboard.

For a moment, you feel better.

Then comes the frustration: “Why do I keep doing this?” You can’t seem to get through the day without coffee, chocolate, sugar, or processed ‘treat’ foods.

Understanding what’s really driving your cravings will help you break and get off the cycle for good. Cravings can have a physical, emotional, habitual and psychological aspect to them.

Once you start recognising your triggers and what your body or emotions may actually need, you can begin making changes that feel more manageable — and build healthier habits without feeling like you’re constantly fighting yourself.

What Could Be Happening When You Have A Craving & Why You Keep Craving Sugar & Carbs

Your body needs a steady supply of energy throughout the day.

When you eat a lot of sugary foods or carbohydrates that are quickly broken down into sugar, your blood sugar can rise quickly (a blood sugar spike). The body then produces insulin to take the excess sugar out of your blood and stores it as fat.

Sometimes, too much of this sugar is packed away, which leads to blood sugar levels dropping too quickly, resulting in tiredness, low mood, a drop in concentration – and cravings.

The cravings are nearly always for sugary foods or starchy carbs; anything the body can quickly convert to sugar to get blood sugar levels up again. So it looks like

Sugary food/starchy carb → blood sugar spike → blood sugar drop → craving → Sugary food/starchy carb → blood sugar spike → blood sugar drop → craving..... it continues.

Eating continually in this way causes a blood sugar rollercoaster, leaving you frequently exhausted, moody, irritable, sensitive to stress, prone to weight gain, and unable to concentrate.

What You Can Do

Avoid this cycle by keeping your blood sugar levels steady so there are no spikes and dips. This is how you will reduce cravings and  you will  feel good, more energised, more focussed/better concentration, be less sensitive to stress & less prone to weight gain, including belly fat. When your blood sugar levels are steady it means your sleep will also be uninterrupted. When your sugar levels dip you may wake up.

How do you do break the cycle? Build meals around whole foods:

• a source of protein with every meal, such as eggs, fish, chicken, tofu, beans, pulses, nuts or seeds (Protein slows down the speed at which sugars are broken down, helping to prevent a blood sugar spike. They also keep you fuller for longer so you don’t feel like snacking)

• plenty of vegetables

• fruit

• wholegrain carbohydrates – brown rice, wholemeal bread with portion control observed

• whole, minimally processed foods

For example, instead of having toast on its own for breakfast, could you add eggs?

Instead of grabbing biscuits when you're hungry in the afternoon, could you have yoghurt and berries.

The result? No blood sugar spikes and crashes which means no or reduced cravings. Simply, you feel more energised as your blood sugar levels are steadier.

To keep this blood sugar steady throughout the day other additional tips include eating regular meals during the day, avoiding snacking between meals, give your body a chance to digest and rest.

Find Your Trigger

Sometimes you're not physically hungry at all.

You've simply developed a pattern.

Think about this:

Trigger → Action → Reward

Maybe every Monday you have a stressful meeting.

Trigger: stressful meeting

Action: grab the biscuits afterwards

Reward: comfort

Or perhaps:

Trigger: 3pm energy slump

Action: chocolate

Reward: quick energy boost

The chocolate isn't necessarily the real problem.

The question is:

What did you actually need at that moment?

Maybe you needed a break.

Maybe you needed food.

Maybe you needed to get outside for ten minutes.

Maybe you were stressed and needed to destress.

Once you identify the trigger, you have more choices about what happens next. Take your time to identify the trigger. Don't be in a rush to do the same thing you've done just because it's quicker.

Eating When You're Stressed or Upset?

Ask what you really need

Food doesn't only satisfy hunger.

Sometimes we eat because we're stressed, bored, lonely, frustrated, anxious or simply exhausted.

That's why telling yourself, “Just stop eating chocolate” may not solve the problem.

If the chocolate has become your way of coping with stress, removing it doesn't remove the stress.

Next time you experience a craving, try asking:

What am I feeling right now?

Use the emotion wheel to help you identify. Take a screenshot so you can use it at anytime and grow your skill in naming your emotion.

Picture Credit: Mental Health Center Kids

When Your Environment Doesn't Help

Keep falling back into the same eating habits?

Try to find how to make the healthier choice easier.

Many environments that you will be in as healthy as they may claim or desire to be may be the very ones that encourage the old habits you're trying to change.

You can try to change the system/set up but that may prove stressful.

So, do what is in your control.

Carry your own lunch and healthy desert to church lunch.

If you know you're likely to reach for biscuits when you're exhausted after work, don't wait until you're exhausted to decide what you'll eat.

Plan ahead.

Keep satisfying foods available.

Prepare tomorrow's lunch tonight.

Take a healthier snack to work if you know you'll need one.

And if there's a food you find particularly difficult to stop eating once you start, consider whether you need to keep large quantities of it within easy reach.

Make the choice you want to make easier to make.

For me, cake can't find it's way into the house. It will be finished the same day because so long as I see it, I will eat it.

Had a bad food day?

Don't turn one choice into a bad week

You ate the cake.

You had the biscuits.

Maybe you ate far more than you intended.

What now?

Carry on.

One choice doesn't have to become:

"I've ruined everything, so I might as well start again on Monday."

Your next meal is another opportunity to make a choice that supports you.

Healthy eating isn't about getting everything right or perfection.

It's about building habits you can return to — even after things don't go according to plan.

When You've Been Trying & Nothing Seems To Work

There may be more to explore.

Rather than giving you another list of foods you “shouldn't” eat, we can look at the bigger picture together.

We can explore:

What's triggering your cravings:

So you can understand why they keep happening instead of blaming yourself for not being disciplined.

When you're most likely to reach for sugar:

So you can recognise your patterns before you automatically reach for the biscuits or chocolate.

What your body or emotions may actually be asking for

So you can start responding to the real need rather than temporarily covering it with food.

What realistic changes could work in your life

So you're not trying to follow a perfect eating plan that doesn't fit your work, family or lifestyle.

The aim is to help you move from:

“Why can't I stop doing this?”

to:

“I understand what's happening — and I know what I can try next.”

If you're struggling with cravings and want to move from “Why can't I stop doing this?”, help is available.

Click here to book a complimentary 15-minute consultation so you can find ways to reduce cravings so you can feel good, more energised, more focussed, less sensitive to stress & less prone to weight gain including belly fat.

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