Why have I suddenly lost the will power to resist eating the fatty, sugary stuff!


Question: Why have I suddenly lost the will power to resist eating the fatty, sugary stuff?
Yes, a lot is going on in my life; more stress, more pressure, more problems, but nothing I know I can't handle. Sure, I cry every now and then and feel like I'm losing my mind every day of my life, but I KNOW I can handle it. So this can't be it, or maybe it is. I don't know. I've just been craving those sugary, fatty foods lately. Why? I don't know why, does any of you have any ideas why?

I've been having that big portion of sweets a day; like yesterday it was one BIG sugar cone ice cream and a big spoonful of icing sugar and caramel.

Today it's two cupcakes topped with a mountain of icing and caramel. I CRAVE it! I can't stop. I used to have the will power to resist that craving, that strength that made me say 'no' and stick with it. But I don't have it anymore. I'm working on it, but it's not there anymore really. How can I build it up? How can I resist that urge? Can someone please help me?

Answers:

Well, the main reason people crave these things is because they ate some yesterday.

Imagine it like this: You eat some, and your blood glucose levels soar to dangerously high levels- ones that will damage your organs, etc.

Your body knows this and so rushes to readjust, and in doing so goes a little too far, taking out too much glucose, and so leaving you feeling a little low on energy, and often moody as a result.

BUT, this low has happened a couple of hours AFTER eating the junk, so you don't blame the junk itself. In fact, because the next time you eat some junk, your blood glucose sky rockets up again, your mood actually improves, and you thank the junk, rather than seeing that it was the junk that messed up your mood in the first place.

You've got two options:

1. Go the rest of your life experiencing wild mood swings, sometimes lifted by the rush, then angry and sad a couple of hours later.

2. STOP eating it at all- you'll get a few days of lows, then a couple of weeks of occasional cravings, then your body will have settled back to it's real equilibrium, and you'll be calm and in control of your emotions.

NOW, most of this advice has applied to sweets rather than fatty foods, but in practice most fatty foods also contain lots of sugar, or at least carbs, which are the same thing as far as your body is concerned- they get converted into the same thing almost straightaway once you eat them.

To help you understand the fatty food thing a bit more, what I will also say it this:

We, as humans, are genetically programmed to like 3 basic tastes: fats, sugars, salts. In nature, these things are only present in minute quantities, so our cravings for them ensure that we eat lots of good things like fruit and nuts.

The problem with the modern diet is that- in just the last couple of hundred years- we have created thousands of 'foods' that have a dose of these things dozens of times what we had ever evolved to eat.

So, don't be too hard on yourself that you crave such things- you have evolved to like these tastes, in order to ensure your survival. Just remember that food companies have created products that deliberately play on those (still useful) instincts, in order to make us buy stuff that has a 20% profit margin, rather than the 2 or 3% profit they can squeeze out of fruit and vegetables.



just take up running!



Rather than dealing with the stress and pressure,you are using sweets as a way to "stuff down" the anxiety and stress you are feeling. The only way to confront this is to find a new way to handle this. Some choice of will power is needed no matter what.
One way is not immediately eat. Tell yourself you can have it in like 5 minutes and increase to more time as you go. By then the "urge" should go away.The other is to keep busy....vacuuming (whether floors need it or not ) works wonders.Write down what is bothering you...since no one will read it..whatever comes to your mind write it down.
The other is to understand all the health problems that this type of binging can lead too. Besides getting overweight there is diabetes. It is not easy,but you really have to make a choice




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