Never Crave Naughty Foods Again!

(Another blog post by Marlize Venter and her journey towards creating positive and negative associations with food.)

Good, now that I have your attention, I have a piece of sage wisdom to share with you. Food can.not.be.naughty. According to the Oxford dictionary ‘naughty’ is when a child behaves badly and is not willing to obey. When used in terms of an adult it may mean slightly rude or even a bit risqué. Food can not be naughty.

Food can however be nutritionally dense or nutritionally empty. I have found that the more I eat food that is nutritionally empty, the more I crave the ‘foods’ that will not feed me, but may satisfy my craving for the moment. That satisfaction then has a chain reaction of me feel-ing guilty, then I want to alleviate the feeling of guilt and I do that by eating food that does not nourish me, causing me to feel guilty again. You see how this becomes a vicious circle?

Whenever I eat nutritionally dense food that nourishes my body and supply all the needs it has, I do not suffer the extreme cravings that I used to when I ate food that did not nourish.

What are the conscious changes that you can make towards thinking differently about food?

Remember, food is not a reward

Food is not a reward for achieving a goal. Food is food. It either nourishes or it does not. Food does not relieve your stress. Exercising on the other hand does. Stop thinking about food in an emotional sense. Do not promise yourself a treat when you have eaten clean for a whole week.

Know the effects of food on your body

When I turned forty my body suddenly let me know quite quickly what worked for it and what did not. Suddenly sugar, yeast and white flour caused inflammation in my joints, espe-cially my big toe and I the pain I experienced was sufficient to have me give up bread, and most sugar. I could now see the bigger picture of what certain food items did to me.

I prefer the way that proper nutrition influences my self-talk. Whenever I eat junk food (An-other conundrum because food can not be junk. If something is junk it is not food. Junk gets tossed out.) the effects that it has on my emotional well-being is scary. Whilst being well nourished, always contributes to a more motivated and confident me.

Try this two-step approach when you change the way you think about food.

Step one – Create a strong negative association with unhealthy food

I often experience the following scenario – I go to a clothing store to fit some pants, which in turn makes me look like a sausage stuffed into a casing far too small. This makes my confi-dence take a knock. I immediately crave a melting moment biscuit. I go to the coffee shop at the corner and order a long black, no sugar, and a melting moment.  Momentarily I feel better, until I walk away, past the pair of pants that I just tried on.

So I learnt how to take that melting moment off the pedestal I put it on. I acknowledged that the sugar in the biscuit contributes to making me feel unhealthy, causing me to gain weight, drained my energy, contributes to killing my confidence and lessen my quality of life.

You may ask, “What?  All of that from one melting moment?”

Yes, all of that from one melting moment.

I have just created a strong negative association with the melting moment biscuit.

I have been very successful in this negative association with the lolly isle in my nearest su-permarket. So much so that I am able to avoid it when there, without feeling tempted to buy something.

Step two – Create a positive association with nourishing foods

After a day or so off the clean eating wagon, I find that I actually crave healthy foods. I rel-ish a colourful salad. I enjoy putting homemade peanut-butter on a celery stick. I love mixing a green smoothie in my thermie.

I know that those make me healthy, I know that it gets my metabolism busy and boost my energy. I do feel more confident and I can feel the change in my body after a day or so.

All of that from a salad?

Yes, all of that from a salad.

It will take a week, two at most, for your tastebuds to become acquainted with the new tastes of healthy wholesome foods. Suddenly you will be able to taste the sweetness in a red bell pepper, you will enjoy the buttery taste of an avocado, and you will love the smell of straw-berries.

Immerse yourself into the world of clean eating. There are wonderful farmers’ markets in most places. You can eat wholesome and nutritious food. You however have to plan for this to happen. Start with your pantry, and clear all the junk, stock it with real food.

If you do not know where to start with your nutrition plan, contact Stephen Sharkey at Thrive Fitness.  Do you want to find out more about online training? Follow this link (www.trivefitnessonline.trainerize.com) to read about the online training plans that are availa-ble at Thrive Fitness.