Is It Possible To Crave Healthy Food?
Most people understand how people can crave sweet treats and junk food but fail to realize you can also crave healthy food. It’s all about habits and noticing how good you feel after eating healthier food. The trick is first to give up sugar. It’s a real struggle, since sugar is quite addictive. Focus on healthier sweet options, such as fresh fruit. Once you break the sugar habit you’ll start to notice when food has added sugar and even may find it far too sweet for your taste. The key is that the more sugar you eat, the less your taste buds register the sweetness, so by eliminating it from your diet, you’re resetting your taste buds back to normal
Identify why you crave unhealthy food and use the same technique to crave healthier options.
Remember as a kid how you got a special treat, whether it was for doing something special or just a holiday treat, like on Halloween or Christmas. Many positive emotions are tied to unhealthy foods. It was often a special treat to go to a fast food restaurant or get a big bowl of ice cream at night. You now add that to the addictive nature of sugar—to the point where there may be withdrawal symptoms—you can understand why it’s harder to give up junk food.
Instead of focusing on the actual treat, focus on how the food makes you feel.
Some people love to eat healthy foods. Instead of focusing on the sweetness, saltiness, crunchiness or whatever the addictive link, they focus on how they feel after they eat the food. These people tend to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and some even note they feel stuffy and out of sorts if they eat too much junk food.
You can train your brain by eating healthier.
Studies show that you can train your brain to crave healthier foods. One study at Tufts University compared the MRI brain scans of a control group and one that was put on a healthy weight loss diet both before and after the diet. At the start of the study, both groups reacted more positively to junk food and less positively to healthier options. At the end of the six months, the brain scan showed the group on a healthy diet reacted more favorably to foods that were healthier than foods that were unhealthy and the control group remained unchanged.
- Keeping a food diary can help develop healthy food cravings. You’ll be surprised at how different you feel after you eat a healthier option. Most people don’t realize it until they actually focus on their energy level, satisfaction level and overall good feeling for a few hours after a meal.
- When you eat mindfully, you focus on flavor, texture and satisfaction as you take each bite. Many people find that healthier food makes their meal more enjoyable and satisfying.
- Keeping a food diary can also help identify the emotion that goes with the unhealthy food. If you find you eat ice cream when you’re sad or crunchy snacks when you’re angry, deal with the sadness or anger first or find a substitute that’s healthier.
- Identify when you’re full, not just when you’ve cleaned your plate. One suggestion is to eat blindfolded, then quit when you’re full. Another option is to take really small portions and allow yourself seconds or even thirds if you’re still hungry.
For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness
If you’re looking for a definition of superfoods, don’t go to a scientific journal. It’s been used in popular press to indicate the food is packed with nutrition. When people ask me for help at R C Fitness in Houston, TX, about the best type of superfood to help boost their workout, give them more energy or build muscles, there’s no one right answer. In fact, many food choices are healthy and do all those things and more.
Dietary fiber has become the center of many jokes and comedy routines. That’s because it’s associated with the relief of constipation. However, fiber is important for more reasons than that. If you’re trying to shed extra pounds, eating extra fiber can fill you up without adding a lot of extra calories. Not only does it make you feel full quicker, but it also keeps you feeling full longer.
In Houston, TX, I see more and more people over 55 focusing on exercise and diet as a means of staying younger and more viable. While you might think they just run, ride bikes, or do less strenuous exercise, it’s not always true, nor should it be. Actually, weightlifting becomes more important the older you get for a number of reasons. Once past the age of 30, unless you maintain a fitness routine, people start to lose muscle mass. This tendency is called sarcopenia and is part of aging unless you take action to avoid it. Without a program of strength training, sarcopenia can cause a loss of three to five percent of muscle mass every ten years.
You may already exercise or at least understand all the health benefits it offers. People who workout are always looking for ways to make their time working out more productive and provide more benefits to meet their passion for good health and fitness. While having private training has many benefits that any type of one to one program will provide, there’s a lot of benefits from working out in a group that you might not realize.
Whether I see clients personally in Houston, TX, or work with them online, I always hear the same question. “When do my muscles quit getting sore after a workout?” Everyone has had sore muscles at one time or another. The more fit they are, the less frequent and less dramatic the muscle pain is. That’s because people new to fitness have more potential for growth. Don’t give up if you find your muscles hurt the next day. There are quick fixes for sore muscles that can get you back to your workout pain free.
One of the latest methods of working out is LISS cardio. LISS stands for low intensity steady state. Unlike HIIT—high intensity interval training—that alternates the intensity between high intensity and a recovery pace, while attempting to reach 80 to 95% of your maximum heart rate for short periods, LISS is a steady state workout that attempts to maintain a consistent heart rate of approximately 50 to 65 % of heart rate.
If you’ve heard of intermittent fasting—IF—and wanted to try it as a form of weight control, you might get confused because there are so many ways to do it. There are fasts you can do for 24-48 hours when you avoid meals and consume just liquids that have no or few calories like tea, coffee and water, eating regularly at other times or even feasting one healthy foods at least one day. The other type of intermittent fasting is just fasting for a window of time each day. It typically includes fasting for 16 hours and eating in an 8-hour window. The type of intermittent fasting you choose depends on your circumstances and overall health.
Being a mom can be hectic. Leaving little time for yourself. I have clients in Houston, TX, who can barely make it to the gym one day a week and ask for workouts for busy moms to do at home. It’s one of the main reasons I provide the access to online sessions. That allows people to get their workout in shorter sessions throughout the day, like ten minutes each, three times a day or two fifteen minute sessions. That’s right, if your day is hectic, you can break down your workout to short sessions you can fit in between task and do when you take your break. You can even get the kids involved or do the sessions while they nap.
There’s nothing better than eating a cold piece of fruit on a hot day in Houston, TX. In fact, I know people that freeze grapes and snack on them during the hottest day. They’re like Mother Nature’s Popsicle. Fruit is a good option as part of a breakfast. It offers a higher sugar content to get you going, but the fiber slows the glucose entering your blood stream so you always have a constant stream of energy. The fiber also fills you up and keeps you full longer.