Understanding Cravings When You Have Celiac Disease Ep. 20

If you are like most people, you would have had cravings and not been able to control them.

Well, there's a reason for cravings. In this episode, we are getting to the bottom of what could be causing your cravings.


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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Oh right this week, we're going to be talking about cravings and what causes them. Now, if you're anything like me, you would know that certain times of the month can cause cravings and certain seasons cause cravings and a number of other factors, but maybe you don't understand entirely why it is that you crave certain things. And what, what is going on within your body? What is going on around you that causes these cravings? Because what happens is many people beat themselves up thinking that they have a lack of willpower or that they're weak, or that they just can't stick to dieting, or you know, that they're never going to lose weight because they don't have any willpower because they're constantly craving fatty food or chocolate or something like that. So I'm going to explain to you some of the reasons why we have cravings and it might just help you shift your mindset and be able to focus on replacing the way that you crave food. Because you can have a, I guess, an answer to why you're craving food in the first place and be able to eliminate that issue before it even happens. So my very first one is probably

Speaker 2: 1:44

The number one reason

Speaker 1: 1:47

That most people crave food. And it's really, really crazy because it's so simple and it's literally dehydration. Okay? Dehydration, I've talked to you guys before about making sure you drink lots of water and what it does for you and how it can help with feeling less fatigued and things like that. But the thing is when your body starts to get dehydrated, your body is being sent a message. Before you realize that you've got to that point of dehydration, that you are hungry and you're not actually hungry. So the thing is, people go too long without drinking water. And next thing they know, they think they're hungry. So they reach for food and it doesn't satisfy them. So then they reach for something else and that still doesn't satisfy them. And then before they know it, they've gone on this massive binge of food and they still don't feel satisfied. And it's simply that they just need to hydrate their body and they just need to have a big glass of water. And sometimes I even see that in my own children, that they just want to keep eating. And then I realized, Hey, hang on a minute. Your water bottle is downstairs and you're upstairs. And I haven't seen you drink any water for awhile. Dude, go get your water. And then come back to me and see if you're still hungry. And more often than not, that's as simple as it is. They just needed to have a drink of water. So give it a go and drink more water during the day. And that could be your main cause of what's creating those cravings for you. All right, the next one is your lifestyle. So when we talk about lifestyle, let's talk about what's going on in your life as far as relationships or perhaps your workplace. If you're dissatisfied, if you're not happy, perhaps your reaching for food to make you feel better. So it's replacing that feeling that you should be getting from doing rewarding work or from being in a loving relationship, something like that. So if you are dissatisfied, that's when perhaps you are craving for something else. So you're craving for love and attention. So you're not getting that from your partner. So maybe you're finding that in a block of chocolate or at the bottom of a packet of chips. So lifestyle is a big one. So it's very important to look at why you are reaching for certain foods. At certain times of the day, one of my past clients, we figured out that one of her main problems was she had a major craving for cheese and we worked it out. So I got her to keep a bit of a food diary and work out why she was craving the cheese and when it was happening. And what it came down to is the moment she walked through her front door from getting home from work. She was coming home to an empty home that she wasn't happy in and she would go straight to the refrigerator and she would grab out the cheese and she would pee out on cheese. And as soon as she told me that she had an aha moment and she realized, oh wow, it's not about the cheese. It's about my home life. So she was able to make some changes and the cheese cravings went away. So it's really interesting that sometimes we don't even associate that those cravings come from our lifestyle and what's going on within, within our lives. So definitely something to look out. All right. Another one is imbalances. So let's talk about ying yang. So as you may know, so there's ying and yang and they balance each other out. Okay. So if you eat something that's incredibly Yim compared to yang, you will go for the opposite. You will crave the opposite. So if, for example, you've had something that's really rich in sugar, that's quite young, then that may cause a big craving for something that is young, such as meat. So often if you're having too much of one thing, it can cause you to crave something else and you've not even realized it. So that's an interesting one. That's more going into I Aveda and I won't touch too deeply on that, but that's just, just an awareness that it can. Um, if you have one thing it can cause you to crave. Another thing, another way to think of it is you go out and you have a pizza and it's really fatty and oily and you might crave Coke to go with it because it's something sweet. Like the way I think of it, pizza and Coke go together. It's just something that works together. And that's the reason why, because they're balancing each other out. If that makes sense. All right, the next one is cravings from things that we've had either recently or throughout our lives or something in the past. So just say you haven't eaten chocolate for such a long time. And then you get given a massive box of chocolates at Christmas time and you think, oh, I'm just going to have a couple of those chocolates tonight and that'd be fine. And you sit down and you have a couple of chocolates. And then the next night you're like, oh, I really want some more of those chocolate. And it's because you've just had them recently. And so your body is craving them because it's something that you've had back in your life. Again, another one is, if through your childhood, there was a particular food that you had and you crave it. And so example, when I was a kid growing up, I love cereal. And one of my favorite cereals was definitely Soltani brand. And another one was Weet-Bix very basic, but I love them. And when I found out I had celiac disease, I couldn't have them anymore because they weren't gluten free. And I shared a photo recently on my Instagram page, actually, from when Weet-Bix released a gluten-free version, this was going back quite a few years now. And I was all excited because it was one of my childhood foods that I could have. And honestly, some mornings I wake up and, um, you know, I just want to have that nice warming bowl of Weet-Bix with some honey and a sliced up banana on there. And it just takes me back to my childhood. So that can be one thing that we do as well, because it makes us feel good. And we craving that going back into our past as well. So very interesting how that works. All right. The next one is seasonal. So often what happens is when the seasons change, we crave different foods and I've heard so many people beat themselves up over this one and thinking that it's their fault and then it's wrong. So a lot of my clients, because what I do with my clients is I work for them for a minimum of six months. And what would happen was I would see them over a couple of seasons, right? So let's just say, for example, I would work with a client and we would meet up first up in summer and they'd be eating really well. They'd be eating their salads for lunch, with some protein and be having smoothies. And they'd be doing all these wonderful things that they found super easy. And then as the weather started to call off during our sessions, they sound really disappointed because there were no longer wanting to eat salads or they were no longer wanting to make a smoothie for in the afternoon. And they were beating themselves up over it because they thought that they'd just, you know, come to the end of it. And they thought that they couldn't do it anymore. And want to explain to them, no, this is normal. This is, this is what happens because our body actually craves what it needs seasonally. So if you think about it, if it's winter, you're not going to be craving cucumber because cucumber is a calling vegetable. It's a hydrating vegetable and it calls you down. So what do you want to do in winter? You want to warm yourself up, don't you? So it's not normal to want to eat a salad or to drink a smoothie. That's got frozen fruit in it and ice in it and make yourself feel cold from the inside out. So what happens is we need to look at that and go, right? Okay. So now it's winter. I don't want to have a smoothie. I don't want to have a salad. What else can I have? That's full of vegetables. Well, I, no brainer is a bowl of soup or some vegetables that are cooked, some roast veggies. So it's not that there's anything wrong with us. It's our body working perfectly with nature and doing exactly what it needs to do to keep us warm in winter and cool in summer. So when we're not aware of these things, we don't think about it enough. And we don't do what's right by our body. We do what's right by what we think we should be doing. So it's very different to do what we think we should be doing compared to what our body naturally wants to do. So I hope that makes sense. So another one, this is a huge one. So this is probably after day hydration. I'd probably say this is one of the, the main, biggest causes of cravings as well. And that is having a lack of nutrients. So if your body is lacking any nutrients, you will crave food that makes up for those nutrients. So for example, if you're low in iron, you are likely to crave red meat. If you're a meat eater, because your body naturally needs to, you know, heighten your iron levels. So it's natural for your body to crave having more meat. If you, for example, are low in magnesium, then you're probably going to reach for chocolate. And that's completely normal because chocolate is going to fix that craving, but you might feel bad about it because it might go on and on and on. And you're not realizing that your actually doing the right thing by your body, eating that chocolate and giving your body what it needs. Obviously there's different kinds of chocolate. There's healthy chocolate. And then there's, you know, sugar loaded chocolate. That's got all a whole heap of other stuff in it. So that may not necessarily be the best choice, but it's just good to know that our bodies are very, very intelligent and often, you know, we don't, we ain't thinking of about what we're doing and what we're putting into our mouth before it happens. So when you can understand that these cravings are there for a reason and that if we balance them out and we do the best by our body, then we can eliminate craving the not so healthy foods and then not so great options for our health. And then the last one that I wanted to talk about is hormones. So most of us women know that during that time of the month, they're, you know, we have a major loss of blood and our bodies change, and it messes with our hormones and our, you know, testosterone and estrogen levels are causing major issues as far as the cravings go. So, you know, it, it's just part of nature and there's obviously the better options that we can reach for and the not so great options. So it's about educating yourself and knowing what is best for your body and, and understanding that these cravings are there to teach you and to support you. And you can go about it one way or we can go about it the other way. And the best way to do it is to have an awareness of your cravings. And I recommend the best way to get on top of your cravings is to keep a food diary for a little while and, and just write down what you are eating, write down what time of the month. It is, write down when these cravings are happening, what's going on in your life and your moods and those types of things, whether you're drinking enough water, and you'll start to see a pattern, you'll start to see where your cravings are coming in, and it will help you if you're on a weight loss journey, because you'll be able to stop beating yourself up over why you're doing certain things and start to balance them out. So I hope that this helps you with understanding your cravings. So if you have any questions relating to this podcast episode, please reach out to me on Instagram. You can find me on Belinda underscore Whelan, underscore GF underscore coach. And I will get back to you just as soon as I can on there. And I look forward to talking with you guys again next week. Thanks for tuning in bye.