Cravings. Self Control. Willpower

skinnydream115

Came across an interesting book about willpower and it explains cravings..just kind of interesting and people with binge eating disorder can relate completely!!!

How about a stroll down your local Main Street? Imagine it now: It's a beautiful day, with bright sun and a gentle breeze. The birds in the trees are singing John Lennon's "Imagine," when all of a sudden- BAM! In a bakery display case, there sits the most delectable strawberry cheesecake you have ever seen. A radiant red glaze glistens over its smooth creamy surface. A few carefully placed strawberry slices bring to mind the tat of childhood summers. Before you can say, "Oh wait, I'm on a diet," your feet are moving toward the door, your hand is pulling the handle, and bells chime your tongue- handing, mouth drooling arrival.

What's going on in the brain and body now? A few things. First, your brain is temporarily taken over by the promise of reward. At the sight of that strawberry cheesecake, your brain launches a neurotransmitter called dopamine from the middle of your brain that control your attention, motivation, and action. Those little dopamine messengers tell your brain, "Must get cheesescake NOW, or suffer a fate worse than death." This might explain the near-sutomatic movement of your feet and hands into the bakery.

While all this is happening, your blood sugar drops. As soon as your brain anticipates your mouth's first creamy bite, it releases a neurochemical that tells the body to take up whatever energy is circulating in the bloodstream. The body's logic is this: A slice of cheesecake high in sugar and fat, is going to produce a major spike in the blood sugar. To prevent an unsightly sugar coma and the rare (but never pretty) death by cheesecake, you need to lower the sugar currently in the bloodstream. How kind of the body to look out for you in this way! But this drop in blood sugar can leave you feeling a little shaky and cranky, making you crave the cheesecake even more. Hmmm, sneaky. I don't want to sound like a cheesecake conspiracy theorist, but if it's a contest between the cheesecake and your good intention to diet, I'd say the cheesecake is winning,

But wait! you have a secret weapon: willpower! You remember willpower- the ability to do what really matters, even when its difficult? Right now, what really matters isn't the momentary pleasure of cheesecake molecules hitting your plate. Part of you knows that you have bigger goals. Goals like health, happiness, and fitting into your pants tomorrow. This part of you recognizes that the cheesecake threatens your long-term goals. And so it will do whatever it can to deal with this threat. This is you willpower instinct.

But unlike the saber-toothed tiger(she talked about earlier) the cheesecakes is not the real threat. Think about it: That cheesecake cannot do anything to you, your healthy, or your waistline unless you pick up the fork. That's right: This time, the enemy is within. You don't need to flee the bakery. But you do need to do something about those inner cravings. Yo can't exactly kill a desire, and because the cravings are inside your mind and body, there's no obvious escape. The fight- or- flight stress response, which pushes you toward your most primitive urges, is exactly what you don't need right now. Self-control requires a different approach to self-preservation- one that helps you handle this new threat.