Curbing urges the easy way

A common problem most people have when they start eating "clean" is curbing urges. I have two "hot spots" when it comes to urges (some people call these comfort foods). One of them (which I have already talked a lot about) is beer. The other is pizza. Hmmmm..... I sense a pattern here! :)

Others may crave things like salty snacks, fatty snacks, sugary delights, or whatever your preferred poisen is. Curbing urges doesn't need to be complicated (or all that restrictive).

Food urges can be caused by a lot of different things. Stress, mood (in particular for me, anxiety), low blood sugar and more. While I don't think it is critically important to understand exactly what your trigger points are, having a clue where the urge comes from is always helpful.

I manage both my stress and mood with the help of some supplements and excercise. Of course, foods I choose in my diet are a key part - but I really don't adjust my food based on my stress level or my mood.

One of the supplements I take is called Xyng (pronounced zing). It is one of the products made by the Xyngular company. Xyng is an all natural energy pill - but it has some additional goodness as well. It has both an ingredient that helps with blood sugar as well as an ingredient that helps elevate your mood. All of the ingredients for Xyngular's products are food based, all natural. The energy from Xyng is an all day thing - so I take one or two in the morning and I am set for the day. There isn't a "rush" or a "crash" - just a good day of energy and "feel good".

Another supplement I take is called Cheat+. I take it about 30 minutes before I eat a meal (3x daily) with a full glass of water. I will write more about this stuff later - but the short version is that this product will help you control your calorie intake in every meal AND help manage your blood sugar.

While I don't change my diet to address stress per se, I typically eat steel cut oats for breakfast or have some other whole grain product during the day to help control blood sugar. For that matter, any low glycemic food will help manage blood sugar.

The when you eat is probably the hardest thing to manage for a lot of people. It still remains a challenge for me - but I have just surrendered myself to the fact that I really have to eat something 5 times a day. I will write a lot more about diet (food choices) in future posts, but the when I eat helps me curb food urges. My day consists of:

• Breakfast within an hour of getting out of bed
• Morning snack 1.5 to 2.5 hours later
• Lunch 1.5-2.5 hours after morning snack
• PREFER to have afternoon snack - but if running late on meals, will skip lunch snack
• Dinner somewhere between 6 and 7:30 PM
• If I skip an afternoon snack, I will have a post workout snack (I generally work out in the evenings).

The excercise component really lifts my mood and manages stress. Especially in conjunction with the supplements I already talked about. I will be writing more about excerise in future posts - but just know that even a little bit of excercise goes a long way. Also - excercise is cummulative. That means that if you only have time for 15 minutes of stuff in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening - that is the same as 30 minutes of excercise! I love it that excercise kind of works like calories!

So - even with supplements, excercise and planning I STILL have my favorite foods (and the urge to eat them). When that happens, I just make it a point to find healthy choices that fit my nutrition goals. Last night, I had half of a California Pizza Kitchen thin crust hawaiian style pizza. It is about 141 calories a slice (with the thin crust) and I had three slices. I THOUGHT about having a beer with it - but chose to not. It was still AMAZING!

Thats all for today....