cravings, temptations, + appetite challenges
A PreMenstrual Disorder Perspective Podcast to help women know that health is personal and possible. Like, share, and subscribe for more. @adagiofit on IG***Note: these thoughts are in no way to replace your physician. If you have questions, please consult your doctor and professionals for direction before you make any changes in your health. I am not a doctor, just a coach. Also, these podcast may contain information that is sensitive in nature and might be triggering. Please listen with caution. Thank you.***Sign up for a FREE consult at www.adagiofit.com***LISTEN TO THE PODCAST IN A WEB BROWSER AT ADAIGOFIT.COM***Cravings, temptation, and an appetite that just won’t seem to go away. These are some of the biggest struggles people have when going through premenstrual disorders.Broadly speaking, people know which foods are fairly healthy, and which aren’t so healthy. And, when dieting, these people want to lose weight; that’s the reason they’re dieting, after all.So, they know what they want to achieve, and roughly know which foods they should be eating. So why are long term success rates so low?It’s because cravings, temptation, and your appetite eventually wear you down. Once the initial motivation you had begins to wane, it becomes harder to resist these. Your brain doesn’t want you to lose weight.In an evolutionary sense, food was scarce. So, a drive to eat meant greater chances of survival and therefore passing on your genes. The difference now is that food is not scarce. In fact, it’s abundant. We are surrounded by high-calorie, high-reward food, but we still have a brain geared towards survival in a very different environment. This mismatch is a key reason why dieting is so hard.Remove temptation from your environmentClear out tempting foods, don’t keep them in the house. If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. If this isn’t feasible because you live with others and they won’t accept you throwing out the junk, then hide tempting foods instead. Keep them in separate cupboards, away from the ones you usually use. Keep them in opaque containers so you can’t see them. It’s amazing how small changes like this can have a big impact on our behavior.You want to make it harder to eat unhealthy foods. Our brain wants to minimize effort, so increase the effort it takes to make poor choices. For example, having to go to the shops to buy a chocolate bar is a lot more effort than just picking it out of the snack drawer.Willpower is like a muscle, you can only use it a certain amount of times before it’s weakened. So, don’t rely on willpower. Instead, alter your environment so you don’t need to use willpower every time you enter the kitchen.Create an environment that supports your goals, not one that sabotages them.2. Separate eating from other activitiesEat at the dinner table. Don’t eat while watching the TV, or while scrolling through your phone. You want to minimize distractions that take you away from the experience of eating.Eat slowly. Separating eating from other activities will naturally allow you to slow down, focus on your food, and be more mindful when eating. You will feel more full and satisfied after eating in this way.If you stop eating while watching the TV, for example, your brain stops associating food with these activities. If you’re used to watching TV in the evening with a few biscuits, you’ll find you start to think about biscuits when you sit down in front of the TV. Your brain has learned that evening TV = biscuit time and will urge you, through cravings, to continue this habit.If you separate these activities, your brain stops associating them. If you have a rule that you don’t eat in front of the TV,
