5 Strategies to Kill Your Sugar Cravings

We all know that no matter how dedicated we are to our healthy lifestyle, sometimes our cravings can overpower us. We eat healthy, workout regularly, and try to live a healthy lifestyle, but it’s natural to get a craving here and there for something sweet. Most people get these cravings, indulge in them, and then feel extremely guilty and bad about themselves for giving into them. We all make mistakes, just pick yourself back up and continue on with your healthy lifestyle. However, if you really want to try and fight off these cravings, try these five strategies:

• Drink Water: Drinking water fills up your stomach and it gives you something to do. If you are craving a donut, a bag of chips, or a chocolate bar, just grab a glass of water and down it. Sounds easy, but you would be surprised how well it helps with sugar cravings. To spice up your water, add a water flavoring such as Mio Water Flavor or Crystal Light.
• Substitute: Satisfy that craving but not with the sugary treat, substitute it with a healthier alternative. If you are craving a donut, try a low-fat cup of chocolate pudding. If you really wanted to substitute with a totally guilt-free snack, substitute it for carrots and dip.
• Remove All Sugar: This seems like an obvious choice, but many people don’t actually do it. Remove ALL sugary products from your home. If it’s not in your home, it makes it so much more difficult for you to eat it obviously. Therefore, it forces you to either ignore your craving or turn to healthier choices for snacking.
• Preparation: Prepare for your sugar cravings by always having some cut up veggies in your fridge to immediately turn to if necessary. So if you are hit with a sugar craving, you can go and grab some cut up celery, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower with some low-fat dressing to satisfy that craving.
• Giving In: Sometimes the craving is so large, that you just can’t fight it off. This is alright to do once in a while. However, if you do decide to treat yourself, try to stay away from high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup neutralizes enzymes in your brain that determine your appetite so you will feel hungry all day even though you aren’t.

All these Strategies help to remove your Sugar Cravings as well as in your Weight Loss. You can also take help from Calorie Counter any time.

Hope these tips have helped you and you always have to remember that sugar cravings are very natural and if you happen to give into them, it’s not the end of the world. Just pick yourself back up and continue on with your healthy eating and exercising. Happy health!

3 Strategies for Controlling Your Meal Proportions

Not sure about others, but I love sitting down to a GIANT plate full of food. So the idea of proportion control doesn’t sound that appealing to me. However, I’ve done the research and found a few strategies that actually work – and the great thing about it is that it’s all about what you can make yourself think. Check out my three strategies that I use everyday to help control my food proportions and Weight Loss

. Smaller Plates

I used to have fairly large plates that I would serve my food on, and the food always appeared so tiny that when I finished the food, I didn’t feel full and would have the munchies after dinner. So I picked up a nice dish set that are about 30% smaller than regular dishes from a Calorie Counter. Now when I put the EXACT same amount of food on the plate, the plate is 100% full and I feel 100% full after eating. It’s a simple trick of the mind, because I HAVE NOT reduced the amount of food that I eat at all. This is a great way to cut back on calories as well which will successfully contribute to your weight loss.

Know the Portion “Rule of Thumb”

The portion “Rule of Thumb” is to measure food servings based on the size of your fist. So all types of food you ingest, should be no larger than your clenched fist. Of course with veggies, fruits, and poultry you can always go over as these are healthy food options. But regarding unhealthier snacks such as chips, candy, and ice cream snacks they should be no larger than your clenched fist to avoid over-eating.

DO NOT Skip Meals

You’re probably thinking “what does this have to do with portion control?”, but when you skip meals, not only does it slow down your metabolism, but it causes major hunger spikes. So let’s say you skip lunch and don’t eat until 5pm one day, your going to be filled up after dinner, but because your body’s eating schedule is “off” you’re going to be hungry quickly after and more than likely get a case of the munchies. So try and eat meals on a regular schedule and if possible, eat 5 smaller meals per day rather than 3 large meals.

Hope these strategies helped! If you have a strategy that you use, please comment on the blog below and share with us! For more great fitness, health, and nutrition tips please visit Calorie-Smart’s Blog at: http://calorie-smart.com/