How to Curb Your Junk Food Cravings

Junk food is hard to resist. It tastes good, it’s convenient and it’s cheap. However, junk food has very little or no nutrition, and there are myriad of healthy risks, like obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease stroke and even death. Doctors are saying that junk food is one of the number one reasons for the rising levels of obesity. However, finding the resolve to cut out junk food from your diet can be a challenge. What else are you going to reach for when you are feeling those midday cravings? Luckily, there are a number of ways to reduce your craving for junk food so that you can focus on making better and healthier choices. Here are some ways you can curb your junk food cravings.

1. It’s hard to kick the habit all together, so one of the smartest first steps is replace all the junk food you want to eat with healthier alternatives. This is a great way to curb your cravings, because over time they will decrease. Many junk foods are engineered to keep you hungry and reaching back into the bag for more. When you switch to natural alternatives, like natural chocolate bars with a higher count of cacao, you will notice your cravings will get less and less intense.
2. You can also curb your cravings by eating smaller servings over a wider period of times. Studies have shown that people’s metabolisms regulate if you spread out your snack time over a longer period of time. For instance, don’t eat that big bag of chips all in one setting – spread it out over the course of the day and savor it. While your at it, there are a number of brands you can buy that have lower levels of trans fat and sugar so that each time you take a bite you don’t have to feel so guilty.
3. You can cheat only when you are rewarding yourself for not giving into your junk food cravings. This may seem totally backwards, but if you curb your cravings for long enough and then give in once and while, it might increase your ability to resist junk food. Essentially, you are fighting fire with fire.
4. You can also stock up on nutritious snacks with high vitamin content. People who have had weight loss surgeries take vitamins, such as bariatric advantage, that curb their cravings for junk food. What you want to do is make sure your body has a sufficient number of vitamins, nutrients and calories that your don’t get cravings for junk food in the first place.
5. Meditation is an all-natural way to fight your junk food cravings. The next time you are feeling an itch for a candy bar, chips or a soda, take a moment to breathe and take your mind away from your cravings. After a while you can literally train your mind to lift the cravings away simply by focusing on something else. Most of your cravings for junk food happen in a lull in the workday or when you are looking for something to hold you over between meals. The best thing you can do is stop, sit, count to ten and breath – hopefully your cravings will dissipate.