Dealing with Food Cravings - Singapore Personal Trainer explains

As a Singapore personal trainer and fitness boot camp instructor, I am always looking for ways to help my clients boost their health, fat loss, muscle gain and weight loss results. Many people ask me for diet tips on controlling food cravings, as even the most determined, motivated and committed people have to wrestle occasionally with burning desire for evil food.

So don't beat yourself up over it. Food cravings are pretty natural;we're all human. When it comes to diet, most of us will have that chink in the armor, or that one place where we're just so vulnerable even though we're determined enough to be attending a fitnss bootcamp 4 days a week. For instance, perhaps Person A can say no to chocolate, chips, chicken rice and fudge, but show him a doughnut, even on a low carb (perhaps, ESPECIALLY on a low-carb day), and his pulse races and his knees goes weak.

So, what should we do when we get the Diet Enemy to fat burning, weight loss and fitness is pressing in hard on every side?

Here's the KEY PRINCIPLE for eating bad with minimal damage:

KEY PRINCIPLE: DON'T EAT IT, unless you REALLY REALLY LIKE it. If you're not dying for it, if it's not almost as valuable to your tastebuds as college funds are to a bright teenager etc, it is just NOT worth the calories and trans fats and artificial colors and whatever.

It's like this: who would pay $200 an ordinary yellow HB wooden hexagonal pencil? Yet, someone might indeed fork over $200 for one from Mont Blanc. When you eat bad food, when you eat any food, you pay with your body. If it's not of extremely high value in terms of nutrition or pleasure, DON'T EAT IT. Don't reach out for a mouthful of chips that you don't really care about just because your friend or relative is offering you some etc.

Learn to know yourself. Make sure you can distinguish between
1. A temporary, passing desire (e.g. : you feel like a muffin just because you walk pass the bakery but 2 blocks later your mind would easily be on something else)

2. A bad dietary habit (e.g. : You don't really care that much for blue jell-o but you have some occasionally because that was a standard dessert at your place when you were a kid and its got all those warm memories associated with it)

3. A genuine craving fueled and fired by authentic soul-deep, spirit searing love for that food (e.g. : you're just that close to selling your new car and forfeiting on your mortgage payment for that slice or bag of XXX)

So what to do when assailed by those genuine food cravings?

Here are the three practical, damage-reducing steps:

1. Allow yourself to eat it ONLY after (preferably after) a workout. This statement is not equal to "eat it before/after EVERY workout"). During the post-workout "window" ), the body is more effective at using ingested carbohydrates to refuel and repair the body, as opposed to inflating our spare tires.

2. Eat LESS of it each time you consume it E.g.: If it's a Mars Bar, cut if in half and give the half away, or stow it in your fridge for the next post-workout fix. NEVER upsize your meals at the fast food joint.

3. DON'T buy it, and if you do, buy as few servings at one time as possible (1 small pack instead of 2 normal ones etc). If you're at the stores, don't pick it up, unless the cravings within you are truly coming with a tidal force. Applying this principle might mean you end up having it only twice that month rather than six times. Don't even go near the aisles that sell such items.

In summary, when it comes to bad food that seem programmed into our souls, the key is to eat it at the right time (post workout) and to eat as little of it as we can bear to.

Don't worry too much about these cravings though. If you stick to your healthful diet for at 90% of the time, you should be fine! 10% off won't derail your muscle gain or weight loss goals significantly