How to Use Mindfulness to Reduce Cravings

We are rolling into the Bermuda Triangle of food holidays and the sweetest of them all, Halloween, kicks off the craving madness. Just weeks away, the Halloween candy invasion is unescapable. It’s about this time when your sweet-tooth begins to behave more like a sabre-tooth. How can you sooth the savage beast?

Mindfulness vs. Chocolate Cravings

It turns out that exercises in mindfulness have proved very effective in reducing candy cravings. Julien Lacaille, a psychologist at McGill University in Quebec, organized a study to see how mindfulness skills training can reduce chocolate cravings. Her surprisingly positive results were published in the May, 2014 edition of the journal Appetite.

Lacaille enlisted 196 self-proclaimed chocolate fiends for the study and divided them into five groups. Four of the groups received training in specific mindfulness techniques and were directed to practice them for two weeks whenever a chocolate craving arose. Members of the fifth group were told to distract themselves as a way to fend off cravings.

The Mindfulness Trifecta

The three mindfulness techniques used were:

Awareness: Simply noticing one's thoughts, or just noticing the craving.

Acceptance: Not passing judgment on one's thoughts, or noticing the craving and not judging it good or bad in any way.

Disidentification: Distancing oneself from the cravings by thinking of craving-related thoughts as separate from oneself. In other words, the candy craving is actually not real because it is separate from who you are. It’s as if you refuse to own it.

The Crucial Technique

The group that became skilled at practicing the disidentification mindfulness technique, which involved distancing themselves from their craving after acknowledging it, had a significant decrease in chocolate cravings. “They developed less-intense cravings for chocolate because they now perceived it as generally less desirable,” Lacaille said.

As you battle the onslaught of candy cues this month, use disidentification mindfulness to help bolster willpower.

What steps are you taking to stay mindful for the holidays?

How I stopped my ice cream binge.

I have a confession to make. Last Saturday, as I was strolling down the ice cream aisle at the local Harris Teeter, a carton of Blue Bunny white chocolate macadamia nut cookie ice cream called my name. “Pssst, Linda. Over here!” And before I could get around the corner, it had hopped right into my cart.

There was a time in my life when I knew that I couldn’t buy whole cartons of ice cream. I would buy individual ice cream sandwiches or bars so that I could “eat the whole thing” without consuming several thousand calories in one weak moment. But it’s been many years since I even thought about going on an all-out binge, so I figured I was pretty safe.

The ice cream lived happily in my freezer for a few days. I had a small serving on Sunday and another Monday. But by about Wednesday, I could hear it beckoning me at all hours of the day. “One scoop won’t hurt,” the voice said. And the voice of reason replied, “I need to put it in a dish so I won’t be tempted to overeat (advice I frequently share with clients at Hilton Head Health). So I had a small dish and went back to work.

By the next afternoon, the voice got louder. I had my single dish, and then it shouted: “You worked out this morning; you’ve had a hard day; you can eat a light dinner and exercise extra tomorrow; a little bit more won’t hurt….” I finally caved in, snatched it out of the freezer and started eating it right out of the carton—shoveling it in as fast as it could slide down my throat, digging out the special bites of cookie dough and leveling off the top as I went. That’s when the voice of reason said, “STOP!”

Confessions of a Chocoholic

Recently, I was talking with a friend about how much we let food control our lives. I am guilty of snacking on foods when I know I’m not hungry but because I simply feel like I absolutely have to have it. Some of you may already know my weakness is chocolate. It wasn’t until I came to H3 that I realized I was a mild chocoholic. I would get chocolate anything and every time I was sad, happy, stressed, on vacation, thought I needed a vacation and every time in between. I am proud to say that now that I have identified this habit, I have slowly been able to break it.

Don’t get me wrong. It was a long and hard road. I thought I would just be able to eat a little here and there but I’m an all or nothing gal, so if I was going to buy a bag of chocolates I was going to eat them until I couldn’t eat anymore… and to make matters worse, I would encourage my friends to eat them with me (as if that would make it okay).

This friend told me that she decided to take charge of her health because she could. Those words resonated with me. Since I wasn’t able to follow my eating plan, did that mean that I couldn’t take charge of my health? No. I think it meant that I wasn’t willing to yet. And if it did, I just wasn't willing to accept that.

Craving Control: Ride the Waves

Food cravings—intense desires to eat a specific food—come in waves, building in intensity.  If you don’t give in to the craving, it will subside and then gradually build again.  One effective way to manage cravings is to “ride the wave”—distract yourself until the craving passes.  Cravings usually last  no longer than 15-20 minutes.  To manage your cravings, start by delaying the decision to eat for 10 minutes.  During that time, do something that keeps your mind and/or hands occupied: 

- Exercise
- Do a crossword or Sudoku puzzle
- Polish your nails
- Play the piano
- Work in your garden
- Wash your car
- Call a friend
- Take a shower or bath
- Walk your dog
- Organize something
- Send an email
- Clean your house
- Practice tai-chi or yoga
- Knit
- Play solitaire

When the 10 minutes have passed, decide whether you still want to eat that food you are craving.  If so, decide what you will eat (perhaps a lower-fat, lower-calorie version would satisfy your craving) and how much you will eat.   Then measure the appropriate amount and eat slowly and mindfully.