How to Kick Cravings in the Ass

by Chris Mason

KAPOW! Goodbye cake! PATOW! See ya ice cream!

I might be an ass-kicking super slayer, but I still fall prey to the same vices all of you do! There is nothing worse than choosing to be on a diet and then being rewarded with cravings galore for everything you promised yourself you'd eschew. As much as it sucks, it's inevitable that once you stop feeding your body things it's used to, your brain will start firing signals the you miss that chemical, be it sugar, dairy, or gluten. 

"I'm hungry!" Your brain will shout even though you've just eaten eggs with mushroom, peppers, and ground beef. 

"Ok, what do you want?" I ask it. 

"Ice cream and cake. OH! OH! A donut!" Your brain pleads.

Just no, people. If you are actually hungry, you need to eat real food. This kind of signal from your brain is just a need to keep putting junk in your face hole because you're going into withdrawal from chemicals that it's used to getting. 

Sadly, the only to stop those signals from firing is to do the hard thing and deprive yourself of those chemicals for long enough for your body to stop insisting that it needs them to go about your day to do.  You might want to try a cleanse to get the ball rolling and then start a regular diet plan that leaves out the things you crave the most except on very special occasions. 

My biggest vice is gluten. I'm might not be intolerant, but I'm certainly addicted to bread and sugar. Gluten fires pleasure signals in the brain that are so intense, they can compare to the pleasure signals you get from doing a drug like cocaine. I was doing a great job on avoiding bread products, but after my vacation, I just couldn't stop. It wasn't like I was binging like I used to at my heaviest, but I absolutely couldn't get through the day without at least a serving of bread. 

The biggest issue with ridding yourself of gluten and therefor easy access to carbs, is that your body is trained to use carbs to generate energy primarily and protein secondarily. When you remove carbs from your diet, you get headaches as your body struggles to break its addiction to gluten and you get fatigued because your body isn't used to focusing on protein as a primary source of energy. This generally lasts a few days dependent on how poorly you were eating before you changed your diet. In my experience, things really turn around after day five.

Another thing that's important when it comes to cravings is understanding what you can have and what your body needs. I learned this the hard way. On my Whole30. Usually when you're on a restrictive diet, there's a lot of "no this/no that" or you can only eat this many calories. Whole30 asks for no processed food, no gluten/grains, no dairy, no legumes, and no sweeteners just to make something more yummy. Nothing should be sweet unless it's naturally so on it's own. It's basically a stricter form of Paleo meant to cleanse the body of toxins for a month. Well I sort of adjusted my Whole30 starting out. I decided to severely limit fruit because I was trying to kick my sugar addiction and that became eating no fruit. I also didn't realize that the body needs sodium to survive so I didn't add any to anything I made for 5 days thinking that low sodium was good, so no sodium was probably better, right?

WRONG.

First of all, I got sick in the first few days like I was describing before. I attributed my dizziness to my body going through the withdrawal and energy redirection process. Turns out it just couldn't function because my blood sugar dropped down as did my sodium. After five days of the diet, I got to work on Friday and after about 30-40 minutes of standing and doing physical work activities where I couldn't sit down every 20 minutes or so, I fainted. So yeah. I should have done a little more research and realized that there's a reason the things I'm not supposed to eat are on the don't eat list and the things I AM supposed to eat are on the EAT THEM NOW OR ELSE YOU DIE list. My cravings for sugar during the fatigue phase probably wouldn't have been as bad if I hadn't forgone fruit after the first day and I probably wouldn't have had that incident at work. When you start on a plan or a cleanse, make sure you are following it to the letter. The people who developed it did so in a specific way because they understand the science of how it's supposed to work. 

I'm only 8 days into my Whole30, but I can tell you right now that not only is my overwhelming craving for bread and sugar gone, but my appetite is just less overwhelming overall. I definitely get hungry but I don't need to eat as much to feel full. 

The last tip I have is misdirection. If you're having a craving, it's always best to do something rather than doing nothing. If you just let it sink in with you without acting, it might get the better of you eventually. If you can distract yourself by doing something else, it can sometimes trick the brain into being satisfied because you acted to prevent the temptation from taking hold. For instance, you could go for a 20 minute walk. You could play with a pet. You could drink a big glass of water. You could eat some fruit. You could even play a video game. Do anything that's mentally or physically active that requires that part of the brain that was just yowling at you to give it what it wants to get a life and do something productive with itself. 

How do you handle your cravings? Do you give in and get it out of your system or do you have other things you do to get past the dancing candy unicorns dancing in your brain? Please share any tips you have with your fellow Slayers in the comments!

10 Tips for a Heathy Mind and Body

So much of weight loss and living healthy is about being mentally strong. Food is food, but your choices determine how healthy it is. You have a whole day in front of you and you could just lay around trying to get a perfect play-through of Mass Effect 2 or you could get out there and sweat (and then get your perfect play-through!). It all comes down to how bad you want to reach your goals and what you're willing to sacrifice in order to get what you want.

We're faced with food every day and it can really wear you out when you constantly have to make good choices despite your body craving things that aren't good for you. Fitting in your fitness routine can seem like a real drag and the more excuses you make, the easier it is to make them. If you don't find a way to get your head on straight it can be a slippery slope to derailing your progress. One bad choice can lead to a "well screw it" attitude and before you know it you've been off your game for a week and your pants don't fit.

So how do you get mentally strong? Here are my top ten tips to help you stay in a healthy mindset and keep you on track to get the body you want.

• Make a list of the reasons you want to change your life and the things you won't miss about being unhealthy so that when you waver, you can look at it to remind yourself why you  need to stick it out.
• Make as many choices as you can in the morning before you've depleted your willpower. If you leave stuff till later in the day, you'll be to tired to make the right choice.
• Don't move too fast when you start out. Pick a few new habits to adopt and then add more as you go. If you overwhelm yourself with a super strict regime in the beginning, then you'll run the risk of burning out.
• Level up your cooking! You won't have to wonder what's going in your food if you make it for yourself a majority of the time. It will give you a measure of control and won't leave you dependent on anyone or anything when it comes to your nutrition.
  
• Have a plan. Waffling about with trying to eat healthy when you haven't done research on the different options or methods that you could use can be exhausting. Obviously the knowledge base you've had so far isn't working. Find something you can get excited about!
• Find balance in your exercise and nutrition routine and make sure it works for you. What works for someone else, might not work for you and vice versa. If you get overwhelmed with counting calories, then find a diet where you don't have to worry about that like Atkins or Paleo. If you feel lost without structure, find a program where you're accountable for logging everything you eat so you can learn what it takes to stay on track. If that's what you want, then Weight Watchers or using Fitbit's nutrition planner might be a good fit.
• Learn to forgive yourself. It takes a strong person to keep going despite setbacks but those who learn how to stay positive and keep moving forward are the only ones who will find lasting success.
• Give yourself a break. Find rewards for doing well at your goals that allow you to relax and decompress. It takes a lot of energy and effort to make good choices all the time despite the presence of cake (even if it is a lie!). You need to find ways to release tension (hopefully not by eating treats) so you can stay strong and keep pushing forward. Get a pedicure, make time to watch your favorite show, read a book, plan a fun night out or a weekend excursion to a place you've always wanted to go. Shop for new clothes! Make it personal and the instant gratification of staying on track will speak for itself.
  
• Find a fitness routine you love. It's a lot harder to convince yourself to go lift weights if you hate every second of it. Would you rather run? Would you rather do yoga? Would you rather take kick boxing? Play in a pick-up ice hockey game? Get passionate and make it happen! There's something out there for everyone.
• Have a support system. It's true that no one can make you get healthy until you're ready to embrace that goal for yourself, but surrounding yourself with people whose values and goals align with yours or just those who love you unconditionally can be your saving grace. There will be days when you need to tell someone how much you miss ice cream or how sore you are from doing squats. You want someone who's going to tell you to keep going and not be an enabler who will help you sabotage your hard work. Surround yourself with people whose healthy outlook you admire.

Hopefully these are helpful to you all! If you have any of your own tips for fellow Slayers here at Project Reroll, please leave them in the comments so we can help each other.