How to Stop Food Cravings Before They Start

Clients continue to tell me, "I thought about doing EFT but then I didn't." Why does this happen? Mostly it's because you really do want to eat the chocolate (or whatever food it may be) more than you don't. In other words your desire for the instant pleasure is greater than your desire for the delayed gratification from reaching your goal weight, looking better or feeling better after you've lost the weight. It's always easier to put weight loss off for one more day.

I'm busy working when suddenly I got the idea to munch some chocolate I just happen to have in my closet. (If you know me you know I nearly always have something chocolate nearby.) I got a few foil wrapped chocolates balls out (five to be exact) and while peeling the foil off the first I thought, "I should do EFT and see what happens." I'll admit my initial thought was that I wasn't really "craving" the chocolate, so EFT for the craving didn't make sense. Mostly I just wanted to eat some chocolate. There's no need to use EFT then, right? Wrong! If you want to lose weight, that is exactly when it makes a lot of sense to use EFT.

Next I thought, "Wait. What if I did a simple round or two of EFT just to see what would happen? I could still eat the chocolate if I wanted it. No one will even know. It's just me and my chocolate." I decided to go for it, and I'm going to write here how it went step-by-step to show you exactly how I use EFT.

Using EFT on a Craving for Foil Wrapped Chocolate

Note my SUD Rating (how badly do I want to eat this?)

I've already unwrapped the chocolate ball, so I'm going to smell it, and think about how it would taste to get a good high number for my SUD (subjective units of desire) rating. At first I didn't really have a very high desire, since actually I just wanted to have them, but thinking about the sensation of one melting in my mouth is helping bring my desire up a bit. On a scale of 1 to 10 my desire to eat this chocolate right now is an 8. So I note my SUD rating at 8.

Round one while tapping the "sore" spot:

"Even though I want to eat this chocolate, I deeply and completely accept myself."

While tapping the face and body points with shortened phrase:

• Want to eat the chocolate
• Wouldn't this chocolate taste good
• Oh, yes, I want this chocolate
• Boy I want the chocolate
• Want the chocolate

Re rate my SUD level after first round.

I'm thinking about eating the chocolate. How much I want it, how it would taste and feel melting in my mouth. I'm trying to bring up as much desire to eat the chocolate as I can and I find my current SUD level (desire on scale of 1 to 10) is 4.

Note: I've gone from an 8 to 4 with just one round. Does that mean I'm not going to eat the chocolate? Well, I'm not interested anymore. Not right now, anyway, but let's see if I can bring that desire even lower?

Round two while tapping karate point on hand:

"Even though I still want to each this chocolate, I deeply and completely accept myself no matter what I decide."

While tapping the face and body points with shortened phrase:

• Still want the chocolate
• I still want the chocolate

Took a deep breath. Drank a sip of water. I actually had to get up and go get a glass of water, and while walking I took a few deep breaths and began to wonder if I was actually hungry. I decided I'm not hungry, but anxious. When I get anxious I have a few things I like to do:

1. Go window shopping, specifically to book stores or an antique store.
2. Eat something, especially something crunchy.
3. Look at cookbooks for something to make (usually desserts, I love to bake)

If I need to get something done, I'll often get this "anxious" feeling and want to do something else. You may do this too by finding yourself wanting to stop what you're doing so you can go "get something to eat" even though you weren't hungry until the moment you suddenly thought of eating.

My SUD rating for wanting this chocolate is now 2. I suppose if I leave them sitting there I might decide to reach over and pop that unwrapped one in my mouth. I might. I might not. I really don't know anymore. Does that mean my desire is gone? At least for now it is.

Just for fun, let's see if I can bring my SUD rating back up.

In other words, let's see if I can increase my desire to eat the chocolate above a 2. I'm picking it up, smelling it, closing my eyes and imagining it melting in my mouth. I even rubbed my teeth on it to get a bit of flavor in my mouth, then I licked it. Not much came off it from that though -- it's not ice cream, after all, but a rolled ball of chocolate. It doesn't smell that good anymore. If it was a better quality chocolate, it might be different, but I don't have any excellent quality chocolates sitting around at the moment. I'd say my rating is actually a zero. I don't even want the chocolate at all now.

Hunger Strikes

My son came in to show me some new features on his cell phone, which got me interested in putting together a WAP enabled web page (those that can be viewed on cell phones). That sent me in yet another direction--away from the work I was planning to do (getting the newsletter done for one) and all of a sudden I noticed I was wanting to pop something handy in my mouth again. (Something quick and easy, like a chocolate ball perhaps?). Instead I went and got something for lunch. You will get hungry. Expect it and make better choices for your meals than candy bars and chips. Your body will thank you.

Use the tools you have available and you might begin to realize certain things about yourself too.

For me when I'm busy and trying to get a lot of work done and something stumps me or requires extra thought, my tendency is to want to take a break and get something to chew on. That might be true for you too. I haven't worked directly on the anxious feelings themselves, just the end result of wanting to eat something. Every time I've tried it, I've ended up not wanting what I was going to eat in the first place so personally I'd say it is very effective.

If you did nothing more than stop yourself from mindless eating a few times a week, you could easily save hundreds or even thousands of calories and isn't that easier than suffering through another restrictive weight loss diet?

Start by noticing how often you submit to "Mindless Eating."

Is it once a day, twice? More than three times? Start to use EFT at those times, either when the idea first strikes or even after you've gone and gotten the food and brought it back with you. It can't hurt. Keep a "Mindless Eating" log for a week. Note the following:

This is just one example of tracking. Here I'm using:

• Time of Day
• What I wanted or if was a meal
• Whether I was hungry
• If I used EFT, the start and ending SUD levels.
• Whether I ate and any comments I might want to add

Tracking like this is very helpful because it can show how often you use EFT to combat your "mindless eating" and how often you eat when you are truly hungry. If you aren't using EFT when it could help, read on. If you are eating often without hunger, and also not using EFT, read on...

Reluctance To Use EFT When It Might Be Most Helpful

If you notice you are not using EFT when it might make sense to do so, then you must first work on your obvious reluctance to use something that could help. It may be you aren't ready to really lose the weight and that despite your protestations to the contrary, nothing is ever going to help until you tackle your reasons for feeling more secure where you are now. If this doesn't make sense, it doesn't apply to you. Those who know what I'm talking about will probably get it though.

Use EFT every single time you start to eat something outside of regular meals. In other words, use it for the "extras" and leave your regular meals alone for now. You can still have treats, no one is going to stop you, but what if you could reduce the frequency? What if you could be satisfied with far less cookies? You'd lose weight, that's what! It's a good place to start.