A couple of nights ago, I had a craving for a 72% cocoa dark chocolate bar with peppermint bites and completely craved. Ate the whole damn thing (41 g of carbs) in one sitting! I didn't even like it very much yet I continued to chomp until the bar was gone. What the hell? What cues set this off? Was I bored because I had to wait outside for the bus? Disappointed because I didn't have enough money to buy a book on writing I wanted at Barnes & Nobles or was it a food "reward" for having actually lost 2 lbs since I last weighed myself?
More than likely, this chain of events got set into motion by a combination of all of the things mentioned above. After all what leads to a craving is often more complex then people realize. And, if you want to deal with one, you've got to look at ALL the cues involved. Most people don't. They simply look at the food itself (in my case that dark chocolate bar) and that usually doesn't work in the long term. Sights, sounds, smells and even hormones play just as big a role. Just eliminating whatever is being craved may work for awhile, but expose one little trigger and that craving might come back full force!
This is why it's important to look at the big picture and deal with everything that goes on during an "episode". I'm hoping the Deconditioning Diet talked about in my previous post will help me do just that. Hence, why I created a Craving Log-to help me notice patterns surround my episodes. One that I'm starting to notice is I tend to "crave" dark chocolate when I'm tired. This probably has more to do with the caffeine content and not so much being hungry (most of the time) and yes, I have caved several times this week. Actually that's the reason I'm extending phase 1 of the diet another week. Hopefully this will allow the cravings to dissipate enough that I feel comfortable moving on to phase 2. More on this later.
Sayonara
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