Best Of: Cravings and Self-Control [Episode #488]

This week’s topic is: Best Of: Cravings and Self Control

Today we are going to be highlighting key questions to support you around cravings and self-control.

Summer is here. It is July and many of us may be tempted by summer delights. Don’t worry this show is crafted to help you navigate through these temptations. Katelyn is here with me today to help us through our Best Of Series.

As you know I am out on maternity leave right now, and we wanted to give you the best information to listen to while we are taking a break from live recordings.

Have you been wondering about this very topic? If you want to know the answer to this question and 3 more sent in by Beauties just like you, listen now to find out!

Remember you can submit your questions at https://mysolluna.com/askkimberly/

[Questions Answered]

Casey – New York, NY

I have read all of your Beauty Detox books over the last year and you have really changed the way I eat and view food. How do I prevent cravings in the afternoon?

Crystal – Kansas City 

Why do we have cravings? One minute I want salty, crunchy foods, the next I’m digging for something sweet. I want to find a nice balance. Which healthy foods can take care of both the salty and the sweet, without relying on celery or dates?

Nicki – Atlanta

My boyfriend never craves sweets! It’s maddening, because I know I’m the complete opposite. Is there a way to remove cravings all together or is that an unrealistic goal?

Sasha – Seattle, WA

How do you practice portion control? If something is good, whether it’s healthy or not, I can’t stop eating it but I am gaining weight because I just plain eat too much and can’t stop.

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Other Podcasts you may enjoy!:

• Curb Your Cravings Before the Holiday, and Fine-Tune Your Self-Control
• Getting To The Root Of Cravings!
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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly: Hey Beauties, welcome back to our Thursday community show. Our community Q&A podcast where our topic today is Best Of: Cravings and Self-Control. Today we’re going to be highlighting some key questions to support you around cravings and self control, which is something that we’ve gotten so many questions about over the years. As we all know, summer’s here and in July, a lot of us become more body conscious. We’re also interested in food as always. So we want to find a way to balance. We want to find some tips and tools and strategies to feel our best, but at the same time to stay healthy and to feel good when we’re out and about. Katelyn is here with me today to help us through our best theories. As you may or may not know I am on maternity leave right now. And we wanted to give you amazing information for your journey to listen to while we are taking a temporary break from live recordings.

Kimberly: I’m also excited to share, I want to bring this up now that we are bringing back our 30 Day Roadmap for Healthy Weight Loss, which is, I humbly say an amazing program for teaching you how to live this lifestyle, the Solluna detox lifestyle. How to you feel lighter, healthier, how to have more energy, weight loss is a side effect really from going through the program and really nourishing yourself on all levels and increasing your vitality. And that’s what I’ve, that’s how I’ve always worked with myself and with clients and with readers is we focus on wholeness. We focus on building our health and understanding the lifestyle and then weight loss almost feels effortless. So if you haven’t tried the program yet now is the time. Text the word: feelgood (833) 744-0079 for a special offer today.

Leave a Review and Subscribe on Itunes

Kimberly: Lastly, I’ll say before we dive in to please leave us a review on iTunes, which is a great way to support the show and also remember to subscribe. And that way we don’t miss out on any of the Monday interview podcasts or the Thursday Q&A community shows. All right, all that being said, let’s dive in, Kay.

Question 1: I have read all of your beauty detox books over the last year. And you really changed the way I view and eat food. I am vegan, but I’m wondering how do I prevent cravings in the afternoon and adrenal fatigue in the afternoon?

Katelyn: We can kind of just dive right into our first question, which is from Casey, who’s also based out of New York as well. And she says, “Hey, Kimberly, I have read all of your beauty detox books over the last year. And you really changed the way I view and eat food. I am vegan, but I’m wondering how do I prevent cravings in the afternoon and adrenal fatigue in the afternoon?”

Kimberly: Okay, Casey, thank you so much for submitting your question. First of all, I think it’s great that you’ve made some great shifts in your diet and you’re eating plant based. I think that everybody’s body is different and it can also shift seasonally. So I don’t know exactly what you’re eating all of the time, but if you’re experiencing cravings in the afternoon, if you’re experiencing some fatigue in the afternoon, I would say this is a really good time to incorporate something like the Power Protein Smoothie or the Chia Seed Delight, something that has, it has all these amazing ingredients that’s going to just kind of keep you going through a long afternoon, especially, again it just depends did you work out in the morning?

Kimberly: What are you eating for lunch? How’s your gut health? Are you absorbing nutrients? Are you taking probiotics? There’s so many specific items here, but just in a general sense, I would say a nice afternoon power protein or chia seed delight, which are usually my two go-to’s in the afternoon. Both of them do satisfy my sweet craving because there’s cacao. They both help me keep going. I tend to have very busy mornings because now that I live on the West coast, I kind of hit the ground running. There’s a lot going on already in the East coast. I have Katelyn hounding me.

Katelyn: I forget it’s only like 6:00 AM there.

Kimberly: I already have 20 emails from Katelyn. Just kidding, Kay, I love you. But yeah, so I think these are really two good things as a plant-based eater that are going to nourish you. They’re going to get fiber, you’re going to get antioxidants, you’re going to get protein, you’re going to be able to keep going. So check out those two things. Kay, let’s link to the easy, easy recipes for both. Incorporate that in Casey and see how you feel. But I think it sounds like you need a little bit of a nice nourishing afternoon meal/snack there. And those are my top two choices for you to check out.

Katelyn: Awesome. Yeah, that’s great. Especially a lot of time this week, a lot of people may tend to eat more sugary sweets or chocolate. So that’s a good substitute, the Chia Seed Delight and even if maybe people want to make the truffles, the Raw Cacao Truffles this week for themselves.

Kimberly: Yeah, that’s true. That’s a good point, Kay. The truffles are something that are good. You can keep them in your freezer, but this isn’t an ongoing thing. Casey, as far as feeling tired or sluggish, adrenal exhaustion. What’s great about both the power protein and the chia seeds, which I just think is such an amazing food for us and the Solluna/Beauty Detox community is all the Omega-3 fats and the B vitamins and things we really need for energy besides the amino acids to build protein. So these are just really great foods to have in the afternoon. They’re the perfect foods and they’ll digest well before dinner, so check those two out.

Question 2: Why do we have food cravings? One minute, I want salty, crunchy. The next I’m digging for something sweet. I want to find a balance. Which healthy foods can take care of both salty and sweet without always having to rely on celery or dates?

Katelyn: Yeah, that’s great. Okay. So we will dive a little bit deeper into this topic with Crystal’s question who’s in Kansas City. She’s asking, “Why do we have food cravings? One minute, I want salty, crunchy. The next I’m digging for something sweet. I want to find a balance. Which healthy foods can take care of both salty and sweet without always having to rely on celery or dates?”

Kimberly: Crystal, thank you so much for your question. And again, I would say that everything is so interconnected that when we are looking for certain foods, we are looking to self soothe ourselves. We are looking to soothe the range of emotions and feelings that we go through as humans. And salty, crunchy foods, as we were just talking about with Kathy, have a lot to do with pent-up stress intention, whereas sweet foods are usually correlated with soothing, calming down, wanting a treat, wanting to feel some sort of reward after let’s say a stressful day or time. Or if we feel like we just aren’t getting enough love or we’re not loving ourselves enough sometimes. So I would really pay attention to what’s going on with you emotionally and in your life when you want those crunchy foods and when you want those sweet foods. Food cravings are almost never just about physiological needs, physical needs.

Kimberly: There are times where, very rarely, I would say much more rarely than emotionally where people may have a nutritional deficiency and that does happen. But I really think the psychosomatic part of this is the overriding part of food cravings, especially those of us in the Western world that have access to a wide range of foods. And we’re very fortunate that we do have access to that. So I would just say it’s a really great practice in part of your journaling to just start to notice what is happening when you’re craving what. And again, Beauty Detox Power has a lot more information about each one. I think that for me, when I’m someone that will always like something sweet, I will always have a little bit of dark chocolate at the end of the day or an elixir where I put coconut nectar or raw honey in it.

Kimberly: I do like sweet. And I’ve also found that madura, the sweet taste is one of the six essential food tastes according to Ayurveda. So I don’t believe that we should cut sweet taste out all together. I also find that if I have a good balance of fruit in my diet and I’m having my GGS every day, I don’t need as much sweet, but I find that if I don’t have fruit, I want more. So I think the balance back to your question is to keep a good amount of green veggies and GGS, there’s a mix of electrolytes and natural sodium from a food perspective to keep fruit and foods with natural sweetness like nut milks and whole grains, gluten-free greens in your diet. But then again, just to pay attention to what’s going on and to see, oh, do I need more time to self-sooth? Do I need more time to process? Do I need some more emotional support?

Kimberly: Do I need to call a friend or just scale back or get a massage or take a bath, spend some time with myself, meditate more. And that will give you a more clear picture, Crystal, because food cravings are so nuanced. They’re so specific. But I think when we start to understand ourselves more and we can look within ourselves, we can definitely learn and learn to balance our food cravings a lot more, which is my experience.

Kimberly: I used to have no clue that my intense pretzel cravings were really connected to my emotional state. I was just like, “Oh, I just think they taste yummy.” I had no clue, no correlation, but when I started to really look into the patterns and look at when I was the most stressed, when there was a test or an exam coming up, or I got in an argument with someone close to me, really wanted the crisp, the pretzels. So then, self awareness is really powerful when it comes to food cravings and it doesn’t mean they go away overnight, but it does mean that awareness, it gives us so much more power. We can start to dig in and look and again, take a more holistic approach.

Katelyn: Being mindful in every area of our life. Right?

Kimberly: Yeah.

Katelyn: It really can help when you’re, I think we talked about this even last week, when we’re aware of something, we’re much more likely to be able to find solutions and better outcomes than when we’re not mindful of it at all. So I think that’s the big takeaway from this last answer here for Crystal.

Break

Katelyn: So with that, we’ll let Kimberly take her short break and then she’ll be back to answer the last two questions.

Kimberly: Okay, we were back from the break and we have a few more questions to share with you around this awesome topic of cravings and self control.

Question 3: My boyfriend never craves sweets. It’s maddening because I know I’m the complete opposite. Is there any way to remove cravings altogether or is that an realistic goal?

Katelyn: We have another question from Nikki living in Atlanta. “My boyfriend never craves sweets. It’s maddening because I know I’m the complete opposite. Is there any way to remove cravings altogether or is that an realistic goal?”

Kimberly: Well, Nikki, thank you so much for your question. We talk so much about trying not to compare, and I know it’s so hard, Nikki, because you’re probably so close to your boyfriend. And guess what? He’s going to have different issues than you. He’s going to have different triggers. He’s going to have different sorts of cravings. He’s going to have different challenges and blocks and strengths. So I would just say, let the whole boyfriend thing go. Women tend to crave sugar more anyways, sweets, which are softer and have that gentle soothing quality. Of course, men like sweets too, but not everybody likes the same things or goes to the same things. So like we were talking about with our four cornerstone approach when it comes to sweets, and to answer your question, I don’t think, the goal isn’t to never, ever want a sweet again.

Kimberly: I don’t think that’s, not only is it not realistic, but I don’t think it’s necessarily healthy. I think we’re meant to have all the different tastes, but we don’t want to feel controlled by any of the tastes. And we want to choose some healthier options. So from a food perspective, when it comes to sweets, like I said, a healthy body should be able to handle healthy, natural food. And that very much does include fruit. So as you get healthier, if you had candida or cut out sugar for a while, like some people do, then as you rebuild your microbiome in your gut, fruit should be part of a healthy diet. I truly believe that. It’s a beautiful natural food packed with so many antioxidants and so much goodness that I just can’t imagine a world where we shouldn’t eat fruit.

Kimberly: I don’t believe that. So make sure there’s fruit in your life, Nikki, some natural sweetness. And then when you do have sweets, crave sweets, keep healthier options around like dark chocolate, coconut ice cream is also my go to, so you have those on hand. And body-wise, when you are having more sweets, just want to make sure you’re really nourishing your gut because sugar, especially refined sugar, can actually wipe out your microbiome.

Kimberly: So please make sure you’re taking your SBO probiotics every day, two a day. And that will just also help keep things in check. And I believe when someone’s gut is more balanced, they tend to be a little bit, it’s a tool. It helps I think against sweet cravings. It’s just another way to help strengthen your resilience and your body. Emotionally, make sure you’re taking time to soothe yourself. I think when we get so busy and we don’t feel like we have time to breathe, we tend to want more sweets because we need that rest. So just make sure all of the things we talked about, take baths, have some more alone time at night, spiritual growth, our fourth cornerstone, making sure you’re taking time to connect with yourself through meditation or any other practice that really speaks to you. And that will help to balance your sweet cravings in a more holistic and doable way.

Katelyn: Oftentimes they feel like we deem cravings as quote unquote bad, right? As you’re saying, so I think it’s nice to reshape the way we look at it and that it can be manageable. It’s just getting it to a point where it’s not out of control. I know there’s been times for me. If I was eating a lot of processed sugar, I would crave it more. And when I was, and even salt, remember there was a time Kay when I was at your house and I’m like, “I need more salt. I need more salt.” And just being in tune with that and finding a balance that feels right. I don’t think we’ll ever be, it’s not all or nothing. So I think that’s great to cover it up.

Kimberly: Exactly.

Question 4: How do you practice portion control? If something’s good, whether it’s healthy or not, I just cannot stop eating it. And I’m gaining weight because of that. I just eat too much. How can I stop?

Katelyn: So this ones from Sasha, and she’s from Seattle in Washington. I definitely relate to this question. So I feel like a lot of people do because we got this one. “How do you practice portion control? If something’s good, whether it’s healthy or not, I just cannot stop eating it. And I’m gaining weight because of that. I just eat too much. How can I stop?”

Kimberly: So Sasha, this is a great question. It’s something that we can all relate to at some point. We just want to keep eating. It tastes good. And then when we’re eating beyond what our body needs, it’s often to fulfill something else, right? It’s to shift a mood, to help us feel better, to make us feel temporarily lifted up. This is something I talk about quite a bit in Beauty Detox Power, just the different cravings whether it’s sometimes we eat too many chips, but we eat the whole bag. It’s like, why do we want this crunchy food? Or we eat a whole pint of ice cream. We eat sweets. We eat like all this butter. We want fat. And it all can mean different psychological needs that are not being met. So I would encourage you, Sarah, first of all, to check Sasha, sorry to check out, check out Beauty Detox Power, because there’s a lot more detail beyond what we can talk about here, but it talks about some healthier upgrades as you’re working on the deeper psychological. We have to work on that.

Kimberly: We have to work on more self-love and feeling good except for the crutch beyond the crutch of food, because otherwise, we’ll never really get past the portion control issues because we’re relying on food to fill us up.

Katelyn: Right.

Kimberly: First, being filled up with, again, the love, connected to our wholeness, to our own validity, being enough just as we are. This comes from meditation, contemplation, journaling, just anything that is positive and uplifting and connects us back with ourself is super important. On a practical level, I will say that even when you’re eating healthy food to make sure that you’re eating as much fiber as possible because after a while, when you’re eating really fibrous foods, you just physically can’t stuff more in there, which is why smoothies are so great. The fibrous soups like having big veggie soups blended or chunky are important. Having big salads at the beginning of your meal, just having all that fiber in there versus like oily stuff or things that can really stack up very quickly, as far as calorically and just denseness without the bulk of fiber.

Kimberly: So, smoothies, soups, salads are going to be your friends. There’s all the, just putting out what you want to eat and then putting the rest away and then maybe making some, just really getting into the habit of when you finish what you deem is the right, for now, like eventually you’ll just be able to kind of flow with your body. But for now just saying, this is how much I to eat and then immediately getting up and making yourself go for a walk, leaving the house, going out for 15 minutes, listening to music on your headphones, just shifting your environment, so you don’t set yourself up for eating and eating more. So, trying to create some conscious habits. Again, I just want to say, I want you to work on the deeper psychological stuff too at the same time, but these are some practical things you can do, but the deeper psychological stuff, I think anytime we overeat and I certainly had many times in my life, many periods, many years of overeating, Kay, you have as well.

Katelyn: Oh, yeah.

Kimberly: It just comes from being disconnected to ourselves, not in touch with that love and that validity. And it’s always there, but sometimes we just lose sight of it and we start to grasp outside ourselves for that boyfriend or for that food or something to kind of complete us where we don’t actually need it. But sometimes we need to reset and refine that balance because life is ups and downs. And sometimes we lose that connection and it’s okay. We just get right back and we know that we need to keep doing the work. And it’s a long longterm journey, it just goes on and on. So just staying connected and whatever feels inspiring, inspiring people and material, reading material, journaling, music, walking outside, anything that will shift your mood in a more nonfood way can be very supportive.

Katelyn: Perfect. Yeah, I love those practical tips you added in. And then just bringing up the emotional side as Kimberly mentioned. If you go on mysolluna.com, there’s a section with all the books and there will be a link there if you’re interested in, if you haven’t already purchased Beauty Detox Power, there’s a lot in there that you can just take at your own pace and implement it.

Kimberly: Thank you so much for tuning in, Beauties. We will be back next week for our next episode of Best Of: Balancing Our Emotions. Until then, take great care. We have our Monday interview podcast as always, we’ll see you next week. Be sure to head over to mysolluna.com for the show notes, meditations, recipes, lots and lots of stuff over there. And sending you lots of love, we’ll see you back here soon.