How to Use EFT to Manage Food Cravings

by | Jul 6, 2004 | Cravings

Managing Cravings with EFT

There are several ways to manage cravings; you can attempt to stop eating the food entirely, i.e. out of sight out of mind; you can modify your eating habits around a particular food, i.e. cut back on the quantity or how often you indulge; you can use EFT to diffuse the attachment you have to this particular food; or you can try the compulsion blow-out procedure (you’ll need an NLP practitioner for this one).

Eliminating the offending food entirely is rarely successful. We can only limit ourselves for so long before we go crazy, eating everything in sight to make up for the deprivation. Modifying your behavior can be successful, but it can also be difficult. We want to change, but despite our best efforts, we still find ourselves craving the same things, day after day.

Today I read another post from someone saying she’s craving cookies and cake and what can she eat instead? I say eat the cookies, but first, use EFT to help lessen the cravings. Usually a food craving is more about the emotions underlying that craving than the actual food. Remember when you were small and a cookie helped soothe the pain of a skinned knee? Today, when you’re feeling small, you want a cookie and nothing but a cookie will do!

EFT is often helpful to diminish or demolish the cravings!

You’ve said you are going to stop nighttime snacking, and then the voices start, “I’ve been good all day, I deserve a treat, just one won’t hurt…” You’re basically talking yourself into it, and then you’re off and running to the kitchen. Most of us find that once we say yes to that voice, there’s no holding ourselves back.

Use EFT as soon as you notice yourself doing the “talk myself into it routine.” The first round you might notice the craving is somewhat reduced (or it could disappear entirely), but it will likely be lessened. Once you have done one round, re-rate your desire for the food, and if it is still high (more than a six), do another round of EFT right then:

Set-up: “Even though I still want to eat cookies (or whatever is your craving), I’m fine just the way I am.”

Reminder: “Still want to eat _________.”

While I’m doing the EFT round, I might find myself thinking things such as, “It’s not that I want to eat them all, it’s just that once I start I can’t stop.”

So, for the next round I’ll use that statement:

Set-up: “Even though I can’t stop eating cookies once I get started, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway.”

Say the “even though” part with gusto, you really mean it! You are okay, just the way you are.

Reminder: “Can’t stop eating cookies,” or “Won’t stop if I get started.”

This round might lead to, “That’s not true, I can decide how much I want, I just don’t want to limit myself,” so the next round might be:

Set-up: “Even though I hate to limit how much I eat, I deeply and completely…” or “Even though I don’t want to limit how much I’ll eat,” or whatever words fit your situation.

Reminder: “No limits”

Make this process yours and let your personal thoughts guide you. Doing this will help you unearth core issues and beliefs you may not have realized were there. Remember, it’s not the precise words you use, but the thoughts that accompany those words. You can do EFT without saying anything at all, so don’t get all caught up in not knowing exactly what to say – that’s just another trick your mind is playing to keep you stuck.

Do EFT at least three times a day for best results, and if you want ideas or suggestions, just ask. I’m happy to help. 😉

Eating What You Want and Losing Weight

by | Mar 23, 2004 | Cravings

If you have a particular food craving, you should have that food.

Not three other things to make the feeling go away, but that exact food. If you cannot have that exact food, then catalog it for later, and have something similar. For instance, if you want something crunchy and salty, is it the salt or the crunch, or both? Think about it. Would crunchy vegetables give you the same “mouth feel” or does it need to be salty? If what you want isn’t readily available, can you go get some?

If you expect to only want what is “good for you” you’re setting yourself up to fail. You’ll obviously want other things. Just today I wanted nuts, badly. So I ate nuts, lots of nuts. Handfuls of nuts. Far more than I’d normally eat if I were in my natural state but this was a craving, and sometimes a craving needs to be satisfied. So I visited the nut jar several times during the day.

So how do I feel now? Great. Satisfied. Excellent. I ate the nuts, I’m happy. Nuts to you. Give it a go and let me know what happens.

Getting it Out-of-Your System Eating

by | Jan 23, 2004 | Cravings

Face it. You’re never gonna get it out of your system. I once tried to eat myself sick of plain M&Ms; hoping it would cure me of my fondness for them. Didn’t work. I ate so many I didn’t want anymore; couldn’t force myself to eat anymore, but never came anywhere close to sick. I once ate a whole jar of bread-and-butter pickles when I was a child and couldn’t eat them again for years after, but it just didn’t work with the M&M’s. Damn, those melt in your mouth, not in your hand candies!

I quit smoking and substituted M&Ms mixed in with salted mixed nuts. A lethal mix. No kidding, it should be against the law to eat that mix. Why the M&M’s company doesn’t sell their candies mixed with salted nuts, I’ll never know because once you try it, you’re hooked. (Trust me, just do not try it or you’ll be very sorry and hate me forever).

I gained 15 pounds eating a few pounds of this mix a week. It was much more difficult to kick the M&Ms and mixed nuts habit than the smoking. Much harder. I’m dead serious.

I still look adoringly at that alluring deep chocolate brown wrapper – it’s been over 20 years since I gave that mix up and I still want it. Luckily for me they’ve been screwing around with the color of the packaging and I simply do not find those pastel colors appealing in the least. It’s not what’s inside, it’s the color of the package that gets me.

Why I Love Fire Engines

I’m also strangely attracted to fire engine red. Don’t know why, but it’s true. I once couldn’t take my eyes off a passing truck to the point I feared for my own safety – like a young man ogling a tempting lass, I could not pry my eyes from that red truck. Weird.

I’d go get some nuts and mix it some M&M’s except for one thing: fear. I’m terrified I’ll never be able to stop. I advocate eating what you truly love but there are limits and there are some things over which you may have no control. Facing those facts is a good thing. Deciding you have no control over any food though is silly. You can’t love everything like I love fire engine red or deep chocolate plain M&M’s wrappers. It’s true love, not just lust.