Crush The Junk Food Cravings {and a 1200 calorie day}
Day of my weight loss journal, for Bikini prep 2023
Every time I open my spice cupboard, I see a bag of white chocolate chips. I immediately have the thought “I should just grab a small handful of those!” 2018 Amy would just do it without hesitating. 2023 Amy is much more aware of those visually triggering cravings.
There was a study looking at how images of chocolate induced cravings in people. As you probably assumed, they did. Here’s a clip from the article on Pubmed.
Chocolate images induced significant increases in craving, motivated attention and measures of cognitive control. Chocolate odour might potentiate the craving response to visual stimuli, especially in patients with binge-eating.
Pubmed
This is how I weaned off of indulging with every craving.
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. It’s a skill, not will power. I learned I could say not to myself and stop acting like a toddler that needed to be placated with every craving. I would actually keep a tally to practice. There were some days I’d rack up 100 tallies! It would go like this:
- Trigger: I see white chocolate chips in the cupboard.
- Thought: I should eat those chocolate chips.
- Walk Away: I don’t give in, and I walk away.
- Tally! 1 point every time you walk away from the craving, rather than indulge.
It gets easier! The more tally’s I got in the day, the happier I was that I was closer to dominating those thoughts.
But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in losing weight the past few years, is to avoid those craving triggers in the first place. Sometimes you can’t help it. We don’t live in a bubble. But, having visual cues for junk food is some low hanging fruit that might be easy to avoid.
Here’s a few craving triggers that you can avoid to make dieting easier.
- Having junk food in your cupboards that you see every time you open them. (like my white chocolate chips). Either don’t have it in the house, or be willing to shove it into a high, out of sight, out of mind cupboard.
- Scrolling on Instagram with pictures of junk food. You should see my FYP on Instagram (the discover tab)t! It’s full of cookies, cakes, and all things from a bakery. Every time I look at it, I start craving cookies.
- Scrolling Pinterest and seeing all desserts (same reason!)
- Triggering habits: Do you tell yourself you “need something sweet after dinner?” First, avoid the self talk. Tell yourself, you DON’T need dessert after dinner.
- Reading descriptive books or magazines: One post on a book lovers subreddit said, reading books give her cravings. One specific book described food in such detail she couldn’t help but have cravings for the food she was reading about.
- Watching commercials. Seeing Drool worthy cheesy burgers somehow makes you want to go get fast food, even though you KNOW your actual cheeseburger will look nothing like the commercial.
- Grocery shopping on an empty stomach: We’ve all heard this before. If you’re hungry at the grocery store, you’re going to want to buy all the things you shouldn’t buy. And worse, you might even eat a treat in the car, in the parking lot of the grocery store! I have done that TOO many times!
On to yesterday’s meals!
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𝟏𝟒𝟓𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧, 𝟗𝟏 𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐬, 𝟑𝟏 𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐭
1283 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔
Back at it!
I took the weekend off of taking pictures of my meals to finish that 1500 calories meal plan.
But you didn’t miss a thing. The meals were EXACTLY the same every day. Except Easter when I had ham, potatoes, and green salad. I didn’t have dessert though, except for a TINY slice of a chocolate chip caramel cookie bar I made for our Easter dinner.
I didn’t feel deprived though. In 8 weeks I’ll probably make those cookie bars again and then I’ll enjoy them even more! Delayed gratification, #amiright?
- 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓: You guys! Raspberries are a bargain in Utah right now. I buy them every time I shop. So, I had 1/2 cup oats with the Skinny Mixes Caramel sauce and raspberries. Then, 1 egg, 1 cup egg whites, mushrooms and avocado.
- 𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐇: Since I already had opened the avocado, I figured I better keep eating it, because the next day it won’t look great. So, I added Costco Rotisserie chicken to my salad (4 ounces), croutons, cucumbers, carrots, Bolthouse Ranch dressing and parmesan cheese! THIS WAS SO GOOD!
- 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐂𝐊: Protein Ice Cream!! 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 frozen banana and raspberries and whipped cream on top. (always whipped cream on top)
- 𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐑: 5 ounces chicken, asparagus, and MORE AVOCADO. 200 grams cauliflower rice and some light sour cream to mix into the avocado and cauliflower rice. YUMMY (I also later added Nacho Cheddar popcorn seasoning- that photo is on slide 5
I am a little confused with the plans. Is this for the entire week?
That was just what I ate for one day. I have a few 7 day plans though. Check this one out here
https://healthbeet.org/1200-calorie-high-protein-low-carb-diet-plan-with-printable/