Recently I was asked by a personal training client of mine what she could do to avoid her food cravings. This is a very common question, so I have outlined some steps you can easily implement to alleviate these cravings and not compromise the goals you are working towards through unnecessary overeating.

Its long been my opinion that when discussing fitness, sports and exercise goals will power will be a major determinant of one’s success, without it we won’t have the cutting edge over our opponents, our doubters and infinitely more important, ourselves

Some have claimed that if your body is craving a particular substance it must be in need of it, however having spoken to several clients that have expressed to me that during pregnancy they craved toxicsubstances like alcohol, and even household products like hand soap and cleaning sprays! one can only deduce, that our bodies do not always cry out for what will benefit us the most!

This must therefore be a matter of will, how badly do we want to reach our goals? How much are we willing to sacrifice? And how long can we battle our unhelpful cravings?

Well that’s a very individual question, and only you can answer these questions for yourself, but don’t threat there are some general guidelines you can follow to help squash those food cravings and stop them from interfering with your progress

Top Tips For Avoiding Food Cravings

1. Take a multivitamin—many food cravings are thought to occur through nutrient deficiency, you can easily get this back on track by taking a daily multivitamin supplement. With the right amount of nutrients in our system the body and mind are working as they should be and are less likely to trigger cravings

2. Eat more fruits and vegetables— many of us have developed a taste for coffee as a pick me up or alcohol to relax, why not develop a taste for something that will keep us living longer?

3. Eat good fats—healthy fats will help suppress appetite, not to mention a host of other health benefits.  Good fats can be found in a range of nuts and oils, my tip – avocado salad with olive oil!

4. Limit processed foods – ensuring we eat as much natural food as possible rather than ‘man made’ foods will help us avoid harmful ingredients such as neuro-toxic additives, hydrogenated oils and homogenized fats

5. Limit alcohol, sugar and refined carbs— it’s not a good idea to consume foods high in sugar as it triggers an insulin spike leaving your blood sugar levels unstable and likely to crave more of the same after a short period of time, refined carbs are also very easily absorbed into adipose tissue and unfortunately this will then be stored as fat!

Following these 5 simple tips can go a long way to helping your avoid your food cravings and in turn achieve your goals!