Why you’re struggling with cravings and what to do about them
There are physical, emotional and spiritual factors causing your cravings.
In conversations about overeating, I hear a common complaint around food cravings coupled with a sense of confusion and defeat when it comes to controlling them.
Are you frustrated by frequent mental fights "I want to eat this now, but no I shouldn’t" and then you end up eating a lot?
Do you find yourself wanting to eat when you are not hungry?
Those cravings consume you and you wonder why you can’t control them. At the same time, you notice that your cravings are for sweet or savory food. They are seldom for lettuce and broccoli. I totally relate because I was an overeater for 40 years and felt so defeated by my inability to use willpower against my food cravings.
Why the craving?
Your craving is not necessarily related to food
Your cravings may be related to emotional starvation from childhood. You grew up denying your emotions and used food as a substitute for fulfillment.
Your craving may be coming from a deep hole
You have a perpetual emptiness that you struggle to address. So you often long for that food fix that will give you this sense of multi-dimensional fullness.
Food choices matter
Wholesome food such as vegetables and protein reduce your cravings and increase your satiety while processed food manufactured in a factory has a research department that has identified the right mix that makes you want it more and more.
Food scarcity mindset
Your access to food might have been controlled in your childhood and as a result you find yourself suffering from a scarcity mindset with irrational fears around food disappearing and your urge to eat all of it right now because it’s yours and not anybody else’s.
Your pleasure in life right now may be limited to food
The craving is taking you to your refuge from pain, a place you go to seek safety and comfort. Growing up, food was used as your reward so that has wired your brain to crave for certain foods when stressed out.
How to break free from cravings
Change your diet: eat more vegetables and less sugar and flour products. Invest in your health by cooking at home.
Connect to your emotions: recognize and become comfortable with all your emotional states because they will guide you to your unmet needs. Begin to release your suppressed emotions.
Take care of yourself: your needs come first. It’s important that you feel good.
Befriend your body and find harmony from within by connecting and honoring all those parts of you that you have been hiding. When you listen to your insides and discover what makes you feel harmonious, you don’t need to tranquilize yourself with food.
Rest and sleep
Did you know that emotional suppression could be leading you to escape to food? Let me help you create a daily habit of naming your emotions so that you become more curious about your inner world.
Hi, I’m Rouba Chalabi,
I blend food addiction counseling with breathwork to help you heal the root cause of your food and body struggles so that you sustain weightloss.