A Little Sweet Doesn't Harm!

Picture this, you are working frantically on your fitness and nutrition plan, everything has been going well and you are feeling wonderful.  Suddenly, sweet tooth kicks in!  The sugar craving is growing so big that you have to eat that candy bar now and once you start, you can't stop!  It goes on for days....  Have you wondered why this happens?

When people become more health-conscious and start to eat healthy, they might start with going too extreme.  By taking a drastic cut on carbs or sweets or fatty food, your body might mistake this sudden change as nutrient deprivation, thus react to this with food cravings.  If you have been having sugar craving recently, check your diet to see if you have been consuming enough carbohydrates and protein.  Other factors that cause sugar cravings are,

• Stress
• Fatigue, lack of sleep
• A sudden change of eating habit or a drastic reduction of carbs consumption
• Nutrients deprivation from an imbalanced diet
• Over-consumption of carbohydrates and a lack of protein in diet
• Consumption of artificial sweetener
• Mentruation

Both over- and under-consumption of carbohydrates would trigger sugar cravings due to insulin fluctuation.  All carbohydrates breaks down into sugar to yield energy in order to support our daily activities, therefore, not eating enough carbs would cause blood sugar level to drop.  When that happens, we feel lethartic and fatigue, sugar crave kicks in.  Therefore, it is crucial to eat a moderate amount of carbohydrates together with protein at every meal.

If you have been experiencing food craving, you can try to:

• Instead of cutting back drastically, swap the unhealthy carbs to healthy ones, i.e. roasted potato, multi-grain/ rye bread, pasta, basmati rice, sushi, etc
• Check if you are having protein with carbs at every meal
• Introduce good fats to your diet, i.e. avaocado, nuts, salmon, olive oil, etc
• If you really really want that piece of chocolate, just eat it and work harder at the gym the next day.

Discipline is great, our bodies need roughly 21 days to adapt to a new discipline. Go slow, be patient and persistent.  Life is all about balance.

Be Your Best,
Joey