| Today we’re going to learn about “cravings.” Do you know what a “craving” really is? Let’s be sure we know. You have a “craving” for some kind of food. Let’s say it’s chocolate or ice cream or something salty or something that just tastes good to you. All you know is that you have to put the food that you “crave” in your mouth as soon as you can. It’s driving you crazy because you don’t have it right then. Wait a minute. You weigh 30 pounds more than you want to. You would love to weigh less but you have this “craving” that you simply have to satisfy. You can’t explain it but you absolutely must have the food that you “crave.” So you go get some of that food and you put it in your mouth and taste it, chew it and swallow it. You just ate five pieces of candy or lots of potato chips of a bowl of ice cream or whatever it was you “craved.” You feel a lot better now. You’re kind of at peace. But what have you done? You have sabotaged your desire to weigh 30 pounds less. All week long you’ve been very careful about what you ate and now you blow the whole deal on a spur of the minute “craving.” The whole week ruined. Now you have to start all over. You hate what you did but you simply had to do it. You feel foolish. You feel weak. You wish you’d never given in to your “craving.” Have you ever thought about what a “craving” really is? Keep in mind that you didn’t want the food in your system. That would cause you to gain weight. You just wanted it in your mouth. You ate that food because you felt an emotional need to put that food in your mouth. You call your emotional need to put food in your mouth a ”craving.” You can call it whatever you like but you really didn’t have a choice. You had to put it the food in your mouth. Logically, you knew that eating what you ate was something you really didn’t want to do. But you really had no control over what you felt you had to do. You had to satisfy that “craving” or emotional need. Logic is never going to overcome an emotional need. What you’re going to do is eliminate emotional need for food. You’re going to eliminate your “cravings.” You’re going to free yourself from them. You’re going to start by gaining an emotional understanding of your “cravings” for food. The next time you feel a “craving” don’t eat the food you have a “craving” for. See how you feel. Wait as long as you can before you eat the food. Stick you’re your feelings as long as you can. It may cause you to be a little anxious at first but it is important that you experience what your “cravings” really are. You know you don’t have to eat the food for nourishment. You just feel you have to put the food in your mouth. “Cravings” are really only another way of saying that you are attempting to satisfy your emotional needs with food. Sooner or later you’re going to put the food you feel you “crave” in your mouth. But don’t eat the food until you experience how you feel when you don’t satisfy your “cravings.” After you do this a few times you will see that food is only food. That’s all it’s ever been. You are just giving it an emotional component. You will learn that you no longer have to do that. |
