"ALL MY CRAVINGS WENT AWAY, AND I LEARNED SO MUCH ABOUT WHY I HAVE THE CRAVINGS I HAVE. MY ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD HAS CHANGED. I HAVE A MUCH HEALTHIER PERSPECTIVE OF MY BODY AND FOOD IN GENERAL" Tonya G.

Cravings often feel frustrating, compulsive and out of control. Like you have no willpower and you and everyone you love is paying the price. Like so many women, you probably are desperately wanting it to be different for yourself but nothing seems to help and you have no idea how to get rid of these cravings and the control they have over you. You might even feel hopeless or frustrated, possibly defeated or ashamed.

With that in mind, we have a very fun and freeing question to ask you.

What if your cravings are not a “will power” issue, what if they aren't really about self-discipline or falling “off the wagon”…again. What then might they all about? What if cravings, at the deeper level, are about something else? What if cravings are messengers trying to get your attention?

Here's what we want you to know:

Cravings are not something to resist and fight against and run from. They are something we want you to lean into.

When you are mindful and ask curious questions you’re able to see more than just that stubborn craving. Asking better questions opens you up to having a completely different framework through which to view your cravings and allows you to relax into them and as strange as it sounds, thank them for showing up to teach you something.

So, because our hope for you is to drop the blame game on your cravings, we put together a 4-Part series to give you some practical yet powerful insight to work WITH your cravings instead of beat yourself up over them. We going to share specifically how this is NOT about will power. Today, let’s start with the nutritional reasons for your cravings.

NUTRITIONAL REASONS FOR YOUR CRAVINGS

When you nourish your body with REAL food, food your body knows how to use, food your body needs, your body can stop sending you crazy talk messages like "EAT MORE! EAT NOW!" Ultimately, food is fuel for your body. It is food for your cells. It gives your body information about how to behave.

Every day, most of us are putting the wrong fuel into our bodies. It may look like food, packaged all pretty with the right buzz words on the front and sitting right at eye-level on a grocery store shelf, but it's most often not high quality REAL food. And let's be honest, if you stop to think about it, you might know this already. When you continue to eat this fake fuel every day, you end up spurting and sputtering with allergies, anxiety, asthma, bloating, brain fog, depression, digestive issues, eczema, fatigue, heart disease, obesity, PMS...and so much more.

You end up frequently hungry, because your body is not satisfied. You may have cravings for a particular food that has a specific nutrient your body is still looking for. You end up overeating more fake food, which keeps the cycle and the cravings going.

HERE'S WHY THIS IS RELEVANT TO YOUR CRAVINGS: From the science perspective, when you eat subpar or fake food--food that not only lack the nutrients your body needs every day, but also has additives that it does not need or know what to do with--your body is not only going to spurt and sputter, at some point, it's going to continue to send you the badgering message, "eat more, eat more, I still don't have what I need! Eat this food because I'm lookin' for thevital nutrients I need, sweet darlin! Eat more of it and more of it!”

This quote from Marc David that sums this up beautifully:

Bottom line #1: NUTRIENT-DEFICIENT FOODS = CRAVINGS

Secondly, are you finding yourself raiding the pantry, the office break room, the candy jar, the fridge for diet coke mid day?? Are you also someone who likes to skip meals or eat low fat? There is a direct correlation between your food choices for breakfast and lunch with your 2pm craving crash. When you bump up the quality of your breakfast and lunch to include nutrient dense meals with proteins and friendly fats, your cravings will often SIGNIFICANTLY decrease. It's that simple. Go ahead and try it. We teach this in our Signature NtF 14 day Cleanse and our upcoming 28 Day Calm Your Cravings course, and we've witnessed cravings greatly decrease and even disappear completely in the hundreds of women we support simply using this one tool.

Bottom line #2: SKIPPING MEALS + LOW FAT, LOW PROTEIN MEALS = CRAZY CRAVINGS

Our Nourish To Flourish INVITATION for you:

NUTRIENT DENSE MEALS with POWERFUL PROTEINS + FRIENDLY FATS = CALMER CRAVINGS

Of course we know there's always more to the story. If your life is full and busy, stressful or over-committed, chances are getting a weekly meal plan organized to create nutrient dense foods is inconsistent. If you come at this with a mindset that fats are bad and make you fat, our message is challenging and possibly confusing.

If you lack confidence in the kitchen or you find it difficult to choose self-care - i.e. taking 15 minutes to sit and savor a breakfast - over the call of duty at work or home with life's demands pulling at you, skipping meals is a common habit.

So we invite you into a supportive community to do this together. We'll be sharing Part 2,3, and 4 to Calming Your Cravings in the days to come. You can also learn more about our upcoming 28 Days To Calm Your Cravings course below. In the meantime, marinate in these ideas and let us know what you think! You can find us on FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM or email us hello@nourishtoflourishsociety.com