How?...

NuMeN2016
NuMeN2016 Posts: 1 Member
edited November 29 in Food and Nutrition
How did you train your brain to not crave bad food, like pop, fast food and candy?

Replies

  • CassidyScaglione
    CassidyScaglione Posts: 673 Member
    I really didn't. I just have them in appropriate portions now... Although when I was in my late teens I did manage to completely turn myself off Oreo cookies somehow... I used to love them and now I can't stand them. My experiment with phycology.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited February 2016
    NuMeN2016 wrote: »
    How did you train your brain to not crave bad food, like pop, fast food and candy?

    I still eat/drink all those things (diet soda, not regular though) - just much less often and in smaller quantities than I used to. I don't look at "bad" or "good" in terms of individual foods/meals, I look at the context of the entire diet.
  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
    Restrict them for a couple days. The urge goes away and just have them occasionally. Just like breaking a habit basically
  • AdmireDeVoll
    AdmireDeVoll Posts: 46 Member
    I found once i cut them out complelty for a say a couple of weeks, then i was able to eat them in moderation. Its like the more sugar i eat the more sugar i want, my self control is not great but if you don't buy it, you wont eat it. Staying hydrated and drinking my apple cider vinegar concoction seems to help me too.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    I restricted myself to one serving of dessert/sweets per week for the first 5 months or so. Every Sunday I had my treat. Prior to that I had very bad habits when it came to eating immense quantities of that stuff and I needed to change that. I always acted like "this is the last dessert on Earth and if I don't eat as much as I can now I'll never get to have it again." During those 5 months I always knew exactly when I would next get dessert (Sunday) and that seemed to calm my "must eat it all now" thoughts.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I've struggled a lot with this, I tell ya. The real and useful training started when I stopped calling them bad, and then focused on other foods I like, but that are easier to make fit into my calorie goal.
  • MlleKelly
    MlleKelly Posts: 356 Member
    Sugar and caffeine are just as addictive as drugs and alcohol. Seriously. Once you've trained your brain and body to consume them regularly and you've gotten used to the sugar high and caffeine rush, it's just like breaking a drug habit to get it to stop. If you've ever met a serious caffeine addict trying to give it up, they get migraines, shakes, nasty mood swings, etc (I've seen it first hand a close friend and my husband).

    If you want to give it up, you have to make a conscious, hard decision every day, every time you're tempted. Make your willpower stronger than your craving. You may have to change your habits - don't keep candy in your desk at work, avoid the break room with the soda machine/coffee machine/donuts, re-stock your pantry with the good stuff, etc. Every time you crave a Snickers, have a stick of minty gum or pack yourself a piece of fruit (natural sugars, yay!) to nibble on instead. Small changes can lead to big results.

    For me, if I'm experiencing negative side effects from a bad habit (such as drinking too much), I have to go cold turkey because I really struggle with moderation. At the start of the year, I gave up drinking because I was overdoing it several times a week and I honestly couldn't remember the last day I went without having a beverage. I could sit and drink a bottle of wine on a school night and get up the next morning like nothing had happened. I was packing on pounds, sleeping poorly, and was all around kind of miserable. Five weeks later, my husband and I shared a bottle of wine at home while we cooked and ate dinner, and I got SUPER tipsy after just two glasses. That's what I needed to get back to. Now, I don't want to drink every night. When I do have a drink, I can have one or two and say "that's enough".

    Same with sugar and pop. Try small changes. If the small changes don't work, you may have to go big. Go a month without it, then reintroduce it slowly. You may just find that candy is too saccharine and isn't worth the empty calories. Coffee and pop might give you the jitters and keep you from focusing. If that's the case, then you won't even want it any more.

    Good luck!
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