Cravings: How To Listen To What Your Body Is Telling You.

[Mermaid711 0]

I am not as heavy now as I was when I first joined this forum. And that's because of many things. But one of the most important ones is I improved my snacks as I learned to listen to my body and it's needs.

 

Now before I begin, I AM NOT A CERTIFIED NUTRITIONIST. Before changing your lifestyle, please talk it over with your doc.

 

Cravings are your body's way of telling you it needs something. So here, I will list 3 common cravings and substitutes for them, and a reason as to why it's better.

 

So you're craving some thing. . .:

 

Sweet: You need a quick burst of energy.

What'd you'd normally grab is cookies or a candy bar. However, you can get the same energy without grabbing the sweets. Instead, try making a mini-meal. Take half of a whole-wheat english muffin, put some pizza or spaggetti sauce on it, a relatively thin layer of mozzerella cheese and bake it in a toster oven until the chese is melted.

Why it's better? When you grab the sweets (and trust me, I love me some sweets lol) you get a sugar high, but then you crash. And that is no bueno because then you can't burn off the calories you ate if you're in bed. But when you get the complex carbs in the mini pizza, you get a steady flow of energy instead. There is a lot more to how good a food is for you besides the number of calories. However, if you don't have time to make the pizza, try a bowl of fruit instead. And a small bar of DARK chocolate wouldn't hurt on occasion.

 

Salty: You need sodium.

This time, you might try for a thing of french fries or some potato chips. But these are bad due to the ammount of grease on them. Instead, cut up a cucumber (or other fruit/veggie) and put some salt on it. This is a better alternative for many reasons. Cucumbers have lots of water, to keep the salt from puffing you up. They also have fiber and are not filled with the artery clogging grease either. A small handful of nuts is good too. As a matter of fact, if you're craving sweet and salty, there are some delicious dark-cocoa covered almonds that are okay in small amounts.

 

Creamy and Rich: This could mean a bunch of different things.

Okay. Try yougurt or something like that. This is much better for you than chocolate ice cream (duh) due to the reduced fat and sugar content. There are also sorbets you could try, which are very nice on a summer day. Or, take a piece of whole-wheat toast and spread reduced or fat-free cream cheese on it. These are all better options as opposed to cheesecake and brownies (my personal weeknesses) or that double fudge chocolate icecream. They have far less sugar and the ones that have a high ammount of sugar in them have healthier forms of sugar as opposed to high frutose corn syrup or sucrose.

 

Any other snack ideas? I'd love to hear them.

[truefusion 3]

When you grab the sweets (and trust me, I love me some sweets lol) you get a sugar high, but then you crash. And that is no bueno because then you can't burn off the calories you ate if you're in bed.

Depending on the sweet will determine whether or not any sugar rush with a crash will occur. Take for example chocolate. Chocolate products tend to have a lot of fat in them. The fat will counter any sugar rush. If you drink soda, there is no fat to counter all the sugar. Concerning the mini-pizza idea, the sauce will probably contain all the simple sugars, but the fat from the cheese should counter some of it; the fiber from the whole-wheat muffin may also counter the sugar.
Depending on what time you ate the snack and the snack itself will determine whether or not you fully burn off the calories—but calories are overrated. Calories generate heat for the body. If you are ever feeling cold while others are feeling warm, check your diet for how many calories you are getting. Likewise if you are hot though the air conditioner has conditioned the air in your house to 70°F or below. You can learn to feel cool or hot during certain seasons by managing your calories.

and put some salt on it.

It may be better to mention an adjective for the kind of salt. Sea salt is usually the more widely mentioned alternative to table salt. But sea salt contains more nutrients than table salt, which may better aid the digestion of the salt or product which the salt is placed on.

Try yougurt or something like that.

Plain yogurt—not the kind you see hanging in the diary products side with little peel-able paper-top containers often found in a six-pack—is the better alternative for yogurt, especially if you are worried about the sugar content.

Any other snack ideas? I'd love to hear them.

I've never really craved any genre or general type of food. It has always been specific kinds. However, now-a-days, after getting rid of much of commercially advertised products from my diets, i no longer crave for those things. But i have no snack ideas: i just work with what i have in stock at the time, which are simple things.

[Baniboy 3]

Any other snack ideas? I'd love to hear them.

Sandwich, fruits, yogurt, fruit yogurt, whatever. Idea of melting cheese sounds good as well and I do that quite often. Not with an English muffin tho.