Article: Curb those nagging night time cravings
by Roslyn Franken

Do you find that despite your best efforts all day long to eat right and control your weight, you end up confronted with those night time cravings for sugar or carbohydrates that are often just too hard to resist? As a result, do you find yourself sitting in front of the television and next thing you know you're reaching for cookies, chocolate, ice cream, cake or similar sugary or starchy treats? And when you do give in to these cravings, is it often hard to stop? If this sounds like you, then know that you are not alone. I also want you to know that these cravings are not simply a matter of you lacking in willpower. Let's look at some of the underlying factors triggering your food cravings and what to do about them.

Underlying Factors

Insulin-resistance

If you've been going on and off low-fat, high-carbohydrate and fad diets for many years that are often too rigid, unbalanced and too difficult to maintain long-term, perhaps with the belief that you need to go hungry or feel deprived in order to lose weight, then you may actually be making things more difficult for yourself by steadily increasing your resistance to insulin.

Insulin is required to keep blood sugar levels stable by signaling your cells when to go get glucose from your bloodstream. When your poor eating habits lead to insulin resistancy, it means that your cells aren't getting the glucose they need from the bloodstream the way they should and instead takes all your calories and stores them as fat. The problem with increased insulin resistance is therefore, that even if you eat less you can still continue to gain weight or struggle to shed those unwanted pounds because the calories you're consuming are quickly being deposited as fat. What's happening is that since your cells aren't getting the glucose they need, your brain is actually telling you that you need more sugars and carbohydrates in pursuit of the glucose. This brain signal is causing those hard-to-resist sugar and carbohydrate cravings. When you continue to give in to the cravings, you will quickly see the numbers rise on the scale.

Not only does insulin resistancy lead to weight gain and obesity, but it can also lead to diabetes and heart disease on a physical note. Another problem with constantly going on and off diets is that dieting can be very stressful on your system wreaking havoc on your metabolism. If you're looking to lose weight and keep it off long term, you may need some time just to get your metabolism in check first before seeing consistent weight loss results. This is probably one of the most difficult challenges in losing weight in a healthy way because it's difficult to be patient and forgiving of yourself.

Stress and anxiety

Another cause of food cravings is stress and anxiety. When you're experiencing stress and anxiety on a regular basis or not sleeping well, you may be feeling exhausted and overwhelmed much of the time. This can lead to adrenal exhaustion which causes your body to give your brain the same signals that it needs an energy boost much like the low blood sugar associated with low insulin and also low seratonin levels. As a result you may turn to those sugary or starchy treats and extra jolts of caffeine during the day or more sugars, carbohydrates or even alcohol at night. Again, when you give in to these cravings you are only feeding the problem and making matters worse.

If you're suffering from insulin-resistancy, you may be beating yourself up for your excess weight which is causing the increased levels of what I call "self-inflicted" stress and anxiety which is just keeping you stuck in the endless cycle.

Emotional response

Aside from worrying about your weight itself, you also need to look at what is happening in your life that is influencing your food behaviours. If you are eating for emotional reasons then you need to look at the emotions you are feeling and find healthier ways to cope. For example, I was speaking to a coaching client the other day, and in battling her night time cravings, I helped her recognize that what was really going on was that she was feeling bored and lonely for her friends back home. She was in a living situation that took her away from her family and friends and in missing them and feeling sorry for herself, she felt that eating things like chocolate, cookies and ice cream was the only thing she could do to feel better and calm her down. The bottom line was that this nightly habit was just that "a habit". The only way to break this habit is for her to look at what she can do to address the underlying issues without using food as a physical and emotional crutch.

She decided that it was time to push herself to become more socially involved and be more active to combat the feelings of loneliness and boredom that were bringing her down and thereby lowering her insulin and seratonin levels. By increasing her activity levels DOING things that bring her more joy and social interaction, she no longer needs to eat to fill that emotional void and stabilize her insulin and seratonin levels and the cravings are gone.

How to gain control over the cravings

Firstly, you need to lighten up. That is, you need to stop feeling guilty and getting down on yourself for your feelings of lack of willpower and know that there are actually physiological reasons beyond your behavioural choices that you can actually do something about. The physiological and behavioural relationship you have with food go hand in hand. As you start to work on one, the other will follow. If you continue feeling guilty and beating yourself up you will only increase your need for sugary, high-carbohydrate treats. When you give in to this response, you will only increase your susceptibility to eating for emotional reasons.

To control your cravings for less healthy sugars and carbohydrates that offer very little nutritional value, you need to take a first step. The first step is to start replacing your less healthy choices with ones that are healthier, that do not have high amounts of sugar, fructose, glucose, corn syrup or other sugar, or white flour and other less healthy choices that offer very little nutritional value, are high in calories and hard to stop eating once you start them. At the same time you need to start burning more calories and turning your fat into muscle to start strengthening not only your muscles but speeding up your slowed down metabolism too. You need to focus on making small changes and sticking with it and take your focus off the number on the scale.

By eating better and getting more active, your cravings will start to disappear. The less sugar and less healthy carbohydrates you eat, the less of them you will crave. The only way you can believe this is by experiencing it. The only way to experience it is by making smarter choices.

Roslyn Franken helps people who need guidance and support to make smarter food and lifestyle choices. Roslyn has overcome her own food and weight issues and has helped many others through her personalized coaching program and professional speaking services. She counsels clients worldwide by telephone and email who are ready to build a healthy and positive lifestyle maintainable for a lifetime.

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Roslyn Franken is author of The A List: 9 Guiding Principles for Healthy Eating and Positive Living. She is a Weight Loss Coach and Motivational Speaker on positive living solutions for positive results for greater health, success and quality of life. She hosts How to Thrive After 35 Internet Talk Radio and is co-author of Death Can Wait: Stories from Cancer Survivors.

Diagnosed with cancer at age 29, Franken fought back to become a long-term cancer survivor. Then at age 39, at her heaviest weight ever, and concerned for her health, she decided to fight back once again, only this time to overcome her battles with food and weight once and for all.

Roslyn owns Roslyn Franken Group, committed to helping people lighten up their lives one bite at a time by reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, balanced lifestyle, and positive outlook.

For more information, visit www.roslynfranken.com or view her video at http://www.roslynfranken.com/highlights.wmv

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