How to Manage Psychological Food Cravings

The ability to tell real hunger from a psychological food craving is one of the keys to sustaining a healthy body weight. Eating in response to a pyschological food craving will lead to overeating and consuming too many calories for your body weight. The following tips will help you not to give in to psychological food cravings.

Instructions

• 1

  Eat small healthy meals and healthy snacks in between meals. This will ward off hunger and keep your blood sugar levels steady. You can tell yourself you are adequately nourished and you don't need to give in to food cravings.

• 2

  Drink eight glasses of water a day. Dehydration can make you feel like you have no energy and make you feel like you need something to eat. Fill up with water and you can stave off hunger, low energy and food cravings.

• 3

  Exercise when you feel a craving for food. If your food craving is out of hunger, you won't be able to exercise for long. If it is a psychological food craving, you will be able to get in a good exercise session, and your food craving will go away when you are five to 10 minutes into your session.

• 4

  Distract yourself when you feel a psychological food craving come on. If you're working on the computer and you start thinking about eating something, change your activity. Read the newspaper, work on a hobby or make a phone call. You will find you forget all about that food craving.

• 5

  Challenge your food craving. Talk to it as if it were a person. Say "I'm stronger than you and I'm not going to give in to you." Tell yourself you're not going to let a little food craving get the best of you and ruin your healthy food plan.

• 6

  Write about your food craving. If you're having a food craving, go to a quiet spot and write about the other feelings you're having along with the desire for food. You may find feelings of loneliness, anger or sadness come up. Explore those feelings. Feelings don't get fixed by food.

• 7

  Change your routine. Keep the lights turned off in the kitchen. Don't eat while you're watching television. Take a new route on the way home so you don't drive by your favorite fast food restaurant. Making simple changes gives you practice to make harder changes like not giving in to psychological food cravings.

• 8

  Substitute a healthy snack for the food you are craving. Keep healthy snacks on hand in your home and your car. Have a piece of fruit or some raw vegetables. If that doesn't satisfy you, you'll know for sure that your craving is certainly pyschological.