Hello! How was the weekend for everyone? I had an awesome school weekend at Integrative Nutrition! I’ll talk about some of the highlights from the weekend and get into one major topic we discussed in class.
On Saturday we had some amazing speakers- Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Healthy Aging, Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health spoke. I was very familiar with him already since I use his Plantidote Mega-Mushroom Face Serum! Good stuff!
We also had a few other speakers: Barry Spears, author of the Zone Diet, Joy Bauer, nutritionist on the Today Show and author of the 90/10 Diet, and Annemarie Colbin, founder of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City. I learned so much from all of the speakers. I will try to do some posts this week about some of the interesting topics we learned about. The highlight of the weekend was when Patricia Moreno came up on stage for some inTensati! I haven’t done inTensati since my challenge in January so I was very excited! It was crazy watching 1,800 people dance and yell the affirmations in the middle of class!
Patricia offered everyone a free inTensati class at Equinox right after school on Saturday! A bunch of people showed up in jeans ready to take the class because they had no idea! Luckily I knew about it so I had my workout gear on. It was an amazing class! I forgot how much I missed it! I found out there is a free class every Tuesday in Queens so I am going to try to go!
I also need to mention that I went for a run in Central Park during my lunch break on Sunday and ran for 35 minutes straight! This is a big deal for me because I haven’t tried to run outside since last summer. I’m pretty sure it was around 3 miles so at least I know I will be able to finish my 5K in June! I can barely walk today but it was still a great run! The best part was seeing a tweet from FitChickintheCity right after the run. It said: “@MissyMaintains just saw you running in CP! You looked great out there!” Thanks Jess!
Okay..onto a more serious topic: cravings and emotional eating! As soon as Annemarie Colbin said she was about to talk about bingeing and emotional eating, the entire class started cheering. It seemed like so many people in the class are still struggling with the issue and could not wait to hear more about it! Annemarie said there are 3 main causes for cravings:
- Addiction
- Imbalance (nutrients and calories)
- Memory/Emotion
1. Addiction: Some examples of cravings from addiction are sugar, caffeine, chocolate, and alcohol. She said it is fine to resist cravings from addiction. Usually you will crave the foods for about a week but then they won’t be tempting much longer.
2. Imbalance: this can occur when people don’t eat enough food or calories. If they don’t eat enough protein, they will most likely crave sweets. The same is true for people who don’t eat enough fat and carbohydrates. A nutrient deficiency will cause cravings. People should not resist these kinds of cravings. It is important to give your body the nutrients it needs.
3. Memory and emotional cravings: they can occur when you are thinking about a food you used to enjoy all of the time as a kid. I know I used to eat Cookies N’ Cream Blizzards from Dairy Queen all of the time as a child. Yes, I still crave them now! She said sometimes when you try this food as an adult, it does not taste as good as when you were a child. This means that the cravings are leaving your system. If you still love this childhood food, it could mean you have an imbalance. I know I still LOVE Blizzards so I guess I have some sort of imbalance!
It is important not to feel guilty when you have a craving. Treat your cravings as information. They could be a hint to tell you if are missing out on certain nutrients in your diet. Pay attention to them. Learning from your cravings and giving in instead of resisting them for a long time will be much more helpful in the long run.
I think this will really stick with me next time a craving arises. Instead of getting mad and frustrated, I will listen to my body and try to figure out the root of the craving. If I think about it right now, I know my biggest craving is gum. I definitely consider my gum cravings to be an addiction. Luckily it is okay to resist this kind of craving. Addiction cravings are supposed to go away after a while. Right now, that seems impossible but I’m sure people who smoke feel the same way! Gum bothers my stomach enough that I should have quit a long time ago! Why do I crave gum? No idea! I just always need to be chewing. It keeps me awake. It tastes good. One of these days I’ll get over it. I also have been trying to figure out what I usually turn to at night when I end up eating a bunch of snacks for no reason after dinner. I crave things like cereal, wraps with chocolate peanut butter and banana, ice cream, etc. I’d say it is almost always some sort of carb or sugar craving. I think having dinner with a lot of protein and maybe some good fat like avocado definitely helps to curb these cravings. Of course mindless snacking is not just about the food. It is very important to just stop for minute and try to figure out what is causing this to happen.
1) Are there certain foods you always crave?
2) Do you tend to give into your cravings or resist them?
***Check out my post today on Hollaback Health about great guest blogs!
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Great post!! Those reasons for why we crave foods are dead-on. I would say that for me it’s usually the third one – the emotional bond/memory that goes with certain foods. When I have cravings (like you) it’s generally for sugary or carby foods – cereal, bread, cookies, etc. I think that’s how it is for the majority of people…which, now that I think about it, I’d attribute that to a sugar addiction!
But you know what’s weird? For lunch today I was actually craving protein and saltiness. That’s REALLY unlike me…I usually have a sweet tooth at all times. I made sure to go with my craving, though, and it was delicious =)
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I have sugar cravings all the time! I use to resist them but that leads to binge eating! I TRY to portion control and give in to them but of course, like a human being..I sometimes fail.
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score for the free class!! and double score for free classes every tuesday!! thats a double whams if you ask me
hahaha i saw that tweet and thought it was SO cool
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I crave sugar after dinner too, and even when I try to play around with the calories/macros in the meal, I still end up wanting it. It’s weird, because normally my cravings are spot-on (veggies when I didn’t have many the day before, tofu when I’m low on protein, etc), but after dinner it’s like all sense goes out the window!
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ummmm i always crave [peanut butter!! i think thats a category on its own hahaaa I also love something sweet after i have a savory meal (like dinner!!) even if its some dried fruit or tea with sweetner to feed that craving!
thats so cool about InTensati!!
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That’s so cool.I love Dr.Weil:-)cc
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Patricia Moreno is amazing! I’m so happy you guys got to take a free class with her at Equinox!
You looked like you were in “the zone” when I saw you on Sunday, so I didn’t want to break your stride by yelling out at you. Next time I will. =)
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Thanks for posting this. I’ve been trying to figure out the source of some of my cravings over the past few weeks. This is really helpful and explains why I don’t like certain things as much as I used to.
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this was awesome!
i am always craving things! mostly bread and cheese.
Although i dont give in to my cravings like i used to!
this was awesome!
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Yay for a great run you had! I am trying to run more too, it has never been easy for me, but I really enjoy it when I do! I need to build my endurance up!!!!
Oh when Im stressed out I eat lots of sweets! I try not to, but oh icecream cures it all, lol!!!!
xoxo
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[...] of cravings, check out Missy’s latest post about the reasons why we crave certain foods. It’s quite [...]
What a fun speaker series-I’m jealous!
When I get cravings, I give into them for the most part but try not to go buckwild. I think for me, it’s better to give myself a taste of what I am craving rather than totally pigging out and that helps keep me in check. I usually crave something salty (french fries) or sweet (chocolate)
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Congrats on the run!
Thanks for sharing this info on cravings. I always have cravings and I usually give into them :/ I know that if I let cravings go for too long I’ll overeat on something else because it’s not filling my craving void!
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Congrats on the run!! That’s a lot for me too, as I used to run all the time, but not anymore really.
I can’t believe Joy Bauer spoke to your class! That’s fantastic. I think she’s awesome, and a lot like me with her motto of “everything in moderation”. I love it.
I don’t really get cravings TOO often, but when I do, I ALWAYS eat the food I am craving! This is what prevents me from having too many cravings in the first place.
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This is really interesting because I’ve definitely had more sugar cravings since going “flexitarian”! Hmm.
I don’t think I’m ever not going to crave pizza, though. Maybe I am vitamin D(elicious) deficient?
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Oh my goodness, I have some sort of craving at least once or twice a day!!! It’s usually something that is reeeeeeally bad for me like chocolate or french fries. I generally give in… which is probably why I have weight issues. You gave me the advise to get up and take a walk when I’m having these cravings. Great advise! I haven’t run into the opportunity where I’ve needed to use it just yet, but I’m hoping it will work for me whenever I need to put that action into play.
Great post Missy!
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[...] of cravings, check out Missy’s latest post about the reasons why we crave certain foods. It’s quite [...]