Posts Tagged ‘cravings’

If you’ve been dabbling into the raw food lifestyle or are looking to find out more about food combining, then I’ve got a great treat for you!

I’m releasing a piece of content that I’ve never shared before outside of the Cure Cravings Forever program.

This video goes in depth into some of the most overlooked concepts in the raw lifestyle. Definitely take some time to watch it.

How to Stop Stressing Out Over Food, Once and For All

Cure Cravings Forever will open for registration on April 22nd, 2010. Get on the list to be notified as soon as the program is available, to ensure you get your hands on the fast action bonuses as soon as they are announced.

Are You Ready for the New Cure Cravings Forever?

I am really excited to be bringing you the all new, more powerful than ever Cure Cravings Forever program.

Let me know in the comments what you think of the video, and any questions you might have about the content.

Talk to you soon!

P.S. I’ll be skipping Mindful Monday this week in preparation for the Cure Cravings Forever relaunch – be mindful for me! ;)

Photo by M. I. Zuhair

Today’s post is a treat for those of you who are struggling with cravings or emotional eating.

Peggy Carey, the author of this article, is also offering a special promotion to Raw Foods Witch readers so be sure to read till the end!

This is a guest post by Peggy Carey also known as The Zest Lady.

I have been a yo-yo dieter all my life… losing 50 pounds and then gaining it all back in a couple of years.

As a result of my desperate quest to reach my ideal weight I ruined my health.

I finally found the secret to losing excess weight and keeping it off in a way that also promotes vibrant health and fitness. I lost 45 pounds using a combination of raw food and essential oils.

Achieving your ideal weight can be challenging, but there are many tools that can help you reach your goal. Let’s look at aromatherapy and how essential oils can be used as a weight loss and maintenance aid.

Using Essential Oils for Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance

As a result of his research Dr. Alan Hirsch says that we feel full because of a special mechanism in our brain.

One reason we stop eating comes from signals designating being full or a sense of being satisfied.

An emotional state can also trigger a desire for food and we can control these feelings by inhaling certain scents.

The sense of smell can help us suppress appetite and all those irrational emotional responses we have to food.

Using our sense of smell consciously can give us control where our will power fails. For most people, using scents can curb cravings.

The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Institute of Chicago found that by inhaling an aroma throughout the day, you can inhibit the desire to eat.

Dr. Hirsch, in his study, found that the more people used scent to control their appetite, the more weight they lost.

The key was to vary the oils used to prevent becoming desensitized which would reduce the effectiveness of the inhaled oils.

How to Use Essential Oils to Keep Your Irrational Hunger at Bay

Experiment by choosing three essential oils to use throughout the day.

Put a couple drops of each one of the selected oils on the cotton wick of your Be Lean Whiffer™ aromatherapy pendant.

Hold the Whiffer™ close to your nose when you feel you need a stronger scent.

The more you use these scents, the more effective they will be. Each day change the oils you used previously with three different ones.

This can be done easily by unscrewing the cap and inserting a new wick. Save the used wick for another day in a glass vial. (Oils can dissolve most plastics.)

Recommended Essential Oils for Weight Loss

• Peppermint: Is a digestive aid that soothes an upset stomach and helps with digestive problems.
• Grapefruit: A natural weight loss appetite suppressant through a process called lipolysis dissolves fat. (Combines very well with lavender in a Whiffer aromatherapy pendant).
• Bergamot: Stimulates your endocrine system and produces a sense of calm and well being and alleviates stress. Lavender can be combined with bergamot to enhance this calming effect.
• Tangerine: A diuretic and is also used to calm the nervous system.
• Orange: Helps overcome depression and gives emotional support.
• Ylang ylang: Used to clarify thoughts and assist in a feeling of wellness and calm.
• Patchouli: Used as a sedative and relaxation aid.

It is suggested you start with peppermint oil, because it provides unique weight loss benefits.

Dr. Alan Hirsch’s study found that inhaling peppermint can directly affect your brain’s satiety center, the ventro-medial nucleus of the hypothalamus.

This powerful essential oil makes you feel full after a meal. The result is that you can eat less and still feel satisfied.

You can choose to either inhale peppermint oil before a meal or drink a few drops in a glass of water or tea right before each meal.

Make sure the oil is pure enough to ingest. Do not ingest oils that are not marked GRAS (generally regarded as safe) or are not labeled for supplement use.

In Essence…

Essential oils are a terrific and natural way to suppress appetite and calm emotions as they relate to food and stress.

For safety and effectiveness, read the directions that come on the bottles of each essential oil before inhaling or ingesting.

Reaching and maintaining your ideal weight is a very important step towards achieving vibrant health.

Get more health related tips at Peggy Carey’s site The Zest Lady.

The Special Offer I Mentioned

To help you get started with essential oils, Peggy has generously offered to give anyone who buys a Whiffer pendant putting the code “RFW” in the comment-box a free pack of cotton wick storage vials.

Simply enter the code “RFW” in the comment box at check-out to receive you free gift! Click here to pick up a Whiffer and get your essence on!

P.S. I am experimenting with one of Peggy’s handmade Whiffers and will be sharing my experiences in future posts! Join me and get your own Whiffer and oils here.

Okay, I have a confession to make. I’ve been teaching people about raw food, detox, and alternative healing for months, but I’ve never fasted before.

Photo by Bu

Honestly, I feel like I should post a note that says “I’m not an expert” somewhere on this blog. If only for this reason.

Luckily, my friend Elizabeth P.W. reminded me that it’s okay not to have all the answers. She voiced what I’ve been noticing around the web: people trust those who are honest with them, even if that means admitting faults or problems.

For me that means letting you know that I’ve never done a real fast before. Well, unless you count that time where I decided to eat nothing but apples for one day. (Didn’t do much!)

But that’s all going to change…

I’m about to embark on my very first real fast! I’m going to do the lemonade fast, also known as the Master Cleanse.

I’ll be posting about my experiences here on the blog. I will be as honest and transparent as I can be, without sharing too many of the gory details, if you know what I mean.

It’s funny because before I went raw I always thought fasts had to be for an ulterior motive. Like a 24 hour fast for charity. Or for spiritual reasons.

My rationale for doing this 10 day cleanse is a lot less righteous. Here are a few of my thoughts and reasons:

1. Winter is coming and I want a strong immune system, so giving my body time to heal would be good.
2. I’ve been working hard on my Cure Cravings Forever program, and I could use a boost of energy.
3. I realized that there’s never a perfect time for a cleanse. I was going to do a juice feast in the summer, but somehow the timing didn’t work out. Now or never, I say.
4. It would be great to know what it’s like to experience “crippling cravings” again so I can really delve deep and share my insights in my Cure Cravings Forever program.
5. I’m very curious about the reported benefits and I want to know whether to recommend it to people or not.
6. This master cleanse will be an interesting way to build up my self confidence, and willpower. When you commit to something like this, it’s transformational. (Or so I hear.)
7. I want to see how much yeast vs. beneficial bacteria I seem to have gathered over years of being on birth control pills and taking antibiotics.

Oh, food cravings…

I’ve gathered a lot of craving busting tricks up my sleeve over the past few years.

I go into all the details in my new program called Cure Cravings Forever. I wanted to let you know that the program registration closes on Wednesday November 4th at Midnight, Eastern time.

So if you want to hear my advice on cravings, without the “high and mighty” voice (I’ll be just as bent on cravings as you during my fast!) then this is your time.

I look forward to working with you on kicking some craving butt!

One of obstacles that creep up when we decide to change the way we eat is the dreaded craving for that kryptonite food of yours! The cravings, they are hard to deal with.

Photo by Guillaume Lemoine

What are Food Cravings?

Food cravings can show up in a number of different forms. They can be all consuming, taking center stage in your mind for large parts of your day. Appearing in your dreams at night, and haunting you.

They can also be a little more subtle. That pint of ice cream you didn’t intend to buy that somehow ended up in your grocery cart. Your finger punching the speed dial number of your favorite pizza place.

Usually cravings are just that. Your body trying to deal with the changes you’re making to your diet by reminding you of the way things used to be. There’s nothing wrong with you and it’s not your fault that you crave your old favorite foods.

Sugar is Addictive

Sugar is one of the most addictive substances of all. Worse, it’s not just straight “sweet stuff” sugar, but foods that convert to sugar soon after you eat them. Like bread, pasta, and potatoes.

The reason that sugar has that extra addictive pull is a little more complex, because it has to do with your beneficial intestinal flora versus the possibility of yeast developing. Yeast doesn’t just show up in the form of feminine yeast infections, it also shows up as mucus in colds and other “side effects” such a poor digestion.

The more sugar you eat, the more you feed this yeast. If you suddenly stopping feeding the yeast by reducing your sugar intake, you can bet that the yeast is going to let you know it wants to be fed. That can come in the form of cravings.

There’s a lot more science and details to this delicate digestive balance, but that’s a whole other post to itself.

Photo by Pawel Loj

MSG & Other Addictive Substances

To make matters even more complex, you’ve got to fend off the addictive effects of processed foods. Many times the reason we find certain foods to “taste good” is through some added manufacturing processes. And a combination of MSG and “taste enhancers.”

Foods with MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) actually cause your body to react by salivating, and releasing feel-good hormones in your bloodstream. Soon enough, your body gets into the groove of responding to foods this way.