If you really think about it, craving patterns can be traced back to only 2 distinctions: salt and sugar.

Salt:
Chips
Snacks
Butter (bread)
Fried foods

Sugar:
Milo
Chocolate
Ice cream
(and then we have) Alcohol

There are people who have what we call a sweet tooth (sugar cravers), whereas others that prefer savoury foods (salt cravers). Then, there is me, a 'powerful' hybrid whereby I crave both salt and sugar (mainly chocolate!), so that makes me a combination craver or ultimate craver.

So I came up with a list of important guidelines on how to manage cravings:
1) Inculcate a weekly 90% clean 10% cheat diet/1 cheat MEAL per week diet
2) Consume lean protein and leafy vegetables for meals (ie Paleo diet)
3) Take healthy snacks (nuts or fruits) in between meals
4) For salt cravings, take plain nuts or meat
5) For sugar cravings, take fruits
6) For chocolate cravings, wait till cheat MEAL and take milo kosong or indulge in a square of 75% dark chocolate or take quality chocolate ice cream
7) Never practice starvation/fasting for long periods (This intensifies your cravings and slows down your metabolism)
8) Exercise regularly and keep yourself busy during the day, and choose good after-work activities to avoid unneccessary snacking (Watching TV has been shown to encourage snacking)
9) Get a good night's sleep (When the body is tired, it will always crave for sugar as sugar is one of the fastest energy-giver)
10) Stay positive, happy and disciplined in your efforts (even if it looks like you aren't getting results because if you do them constantly, they will definitely pay off in the end!)

What are some of your useful guidelines?

Labels: Nutrition