Eating with pleasure, keeping weight: Overcoming the critical minutes

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SPIEGEL WISSEN has developed a nine-week enjoyment coaching program that will help you learn to eat more and maintain your weight. This is the seventh part. The other parts can be found here.

The desire for something sweet or salty outside meals can be unbearably strong. Many people complain that they can not handle the almost addictive desire. The reason for this is often neuropsychological mechanisms: sugar consumption causes happiness hormones such as dopamine and endorphins to be released. Often, the brain also gets used to other snacks over time and craves for them.

But as strong as the desire may be at the moment, it quickly fades away. Often it does not even last two to three minutes. Anyone who "boggles" over this time, has usually already done it - and will also find that the desire on the next day or in the next situation is not so strong.

So the question is: how do you get through the critical minutes?

The American psychologist Susan Albers, who has written several books about mindful food, advises in such situations, just to do something nice and satisfying. But what that might be, you often do not have ready. Therefore, it is helpful to think of some alternatives. Now the following exercise:

Cheat sheet of beautiful things

Take notes and pen and write down ten things that you like to do or like and that have nothing to do with food. It can be a hobby, a sport, wellness at home or in the spa, music, a meeting or a phone call with friends, a visit to the neighbors, a specific item that means something to you, a TV series, a subject like "the old ones Romans "or" cars ". Just write down the list. Now follow two steps.

1. Choose one of these points and spend an hour with it this week - just like that. Browse through a book about what interests you, indulge in a yoga session at home, go to the sauna, or take a walk in the woods, call in detail with a friend.

2. With the list of things you like to do, pick five points that you can do immediately when cravings come: Do you want to do a relaxation exercise, call a friend, take a bath, sew on a button, or one? Watch episode of your favorite series? Put together a kind of emergency list of alternatives. It often seems artificial at first, if you start with a yoga exercise instead of going to the candy closet - but the important thing is to get over the few minutes of cravings. Vary your behavior, try out what works. But start immediately when you realize that the cravings are invading you. In the long run, the importance of snacking becomes smaller.

Important: Hobbies, friends, interests, sports, culture or crafts make people feel "good". Who is very focused on food and tends to emotional food in frustration, anger or sadness, often just forgot that there are other ways to feel happy and satisfied. But if you think about it a bit, there are many activities or topics that also make you happy. It is essential to cultivate a few such interests and activities - they stabilize the intention to enjoy a healthy meal at the same time.

For each issue, SPIEGEL WISSEN offers a practical, easy-to-use daily online coaching suitable for their particular issue. During this time, you will always receive a tutorial by e-mail on Fridays that can help you to make your life better. Order the newsletter here:

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