How to Relax and Beat Those Unhealthy Cravings – When You're Not Indoor Cycling

-Dawn Wolfe

In my last post I discussed some of the surprising facts about diet and weight loss. In particular, the fact that “retiring” excess weight isn't just a simple matter of fewer calories in = weight burned off. Instead, it's the kind of calories we take in that help determine how much fat we burn.

As part of that post I related an unsurprising fact: there is scientific research saying that stress changes our brain chemistry and hormones and causes us to crave saturated fats and sugars. If we were to ask an evolutionary biologist, he or she would say that makes sense because those cravings would have helped our forebears load up on the exact nutrients needed to deal with potentially dangerous situations.

Sadly, the cravings that were good for our Pliestocene-era ancestors aren't so healthy for those of us who sit in front of computers all day long, no matter what our cravings are telling us. No matter what I'm thinking while rushing to meet a deadline, an Oreo (or three) is not the answer.

Which, in a roundabout way, leads to the point of this article: how can we combat stress when we're not doing indoor cycling or other stress-busting exercises? After all, less stress = fewer cravings = an easier time maintaining a healthy weight. With that in mind, here are three tips for combating stress in between indoor cycling classes – one of them is a “golden oldie,” and two may be fairly new to you:

1. Meditation. Don't be nervous – you don't have to sit in a half or full lotus position for hours at a time to make meditation work for you. Instead, take a look at this Mayo Clinic article to see how easy, and how beneficial, meditation can be.
   
   
2. Give yourself a “beauty break.” This can be as simple as bookmarking a few favorite museums on your computer and looking at shots of great art during slow times at work, or putting your favorite soothing music on your headphones or car stereo. If you can get out for a walk and look at the soon-to-be May flowers sprouting up all over the Ann Arbor area right now, so much the better. The point here is to lose yourself in something that inspires you – and that has nothing to do with food.
   
   
3. How are you feeling right now? Do you know? Take a moment to notice it. This is called mindfulness, and it's a tool that is being increasingly used by therapists to help clients get in touch and deal with their feelings. You don't have to need therapy, though, to get the benefits of mindfulness. Instead, all you need do is shut down the distractions around you and take a moment to note how you're feeling mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Awareness of a negative feeling gives us more options for dealing with that feeling; likewise, becoming aware of when we're feeling good can lead to doing more of the things that produce that feeling.

The above are my three favorite ways to get a handle on stress – and control of unhealthy cravings. If indoor cycling and/or other exercises aren't doing enough by themselves to help control your weight, it could be that you're in the grip of those fat-and-sugar cravings we inherited from a time when stress equaled real danger. And if that's the case, one or more of the above strategies may be just what you need (but please, check with your health care professional just to be sure).