Can You Eat Just One Cookie Or Do Your Cravings Cause You To Eat The Whole Bag?

When people learn I am a nutritionist and also coach people on weight loss they assume I always eat healthy. They feel intimidated to eat sweets and other indulgent foods in front of me.

The truth is I eat chocolate almost daily and even an occasional bag of French fries or other junk foods. And eat them when I want.   The difference is I am no longer binging on a bag of donuts or stuffing my face with M & M’s.

So how is that possible?

One of the most common complaints I get from my clients is that they feel out of control around sweets or junk food and don’t understand why they can’t stop overeating.

If you often feel out of control with your cravings for certain foods and want to change your behavior, but don’t know how…read on!

The assumption normally is that you need more control over your impulses to get you to stop overeating and get you to only want to eat healthy foods. In other words, you believe you need more willpower to stop your cravings.

The Good News Is That Willpower Is Not The Answer.

In fact, following someone else’s diet plan to make you feel more in control makes it impossible for you to form the correct habits and beliefs, that allow you to be healthy, fit and trim and stop the uncontrolled cravings forever.

But if it isn’t willpower that holds me back from stuffing my face with cookies, what is it? What keeps my behaviors in check?

To understand the mental process the first thing you have to realize is that liking a food is only one of several factors that determine my food choices.

I like Chips Ahoy cookies, but I also love my healthy cookies made with almond flour and coconut oil.

I love lots of delicious foods, healthy and not, but I don’t stuff myself with them because taste is not the only thing that I consider.

I take into account…

my mood

how I will feel after eating something

what else I have eaten that day/week

what my goals are for myself at that time

Healthy Food Tastes Good

The typical dieter’s mentality is that you must choose between taste and your weight loss goals.

Taste is a given for me, since I always make sure what I eat tastes good so it does not have to be a choice. I also have “trained” myself to cook and love eating natural real foods.

I eat amazingly delicious foods everyday that are as appealing to me as store bought cookies. Right now for me it is pomegranates. In terms of cookies, my homemade cookies are so delicious that the store bought cookies cannot compare.

*See recipe below.

So delicious food is a given, but how the food will make me feel is also a factor. Even if there is an amazing yummy cookie, it does not take much willpower to stop me from overdoing it because from experience my body doesn’t tolerate white flour and sugar in big doses. I often end up feeling sick if I eat too much.

Large servings of bread and sweets make me feel foggy and lethargic. My stomach expands and I feel dehydrated. Most people don’t even realize it is the food that is causing them to feel this way.

I actually try to consciously eat my treats until they no longer taste amazing in my mouth and that is typically no more than a few bites. So why would I subject myself to feeling bad when I get most of my pleasure from the first few tastes anyway?

The result is that I no longer have to diet and I allow myself to eat daily treats including cookies if I feel like it.

I don’t have the guilt of straying off my diet or depriving myself, because it is not the last cookie I’ll ever eat. If I want another one I can have it, so it is no big deal.

Back when I was dieting all the time and craving sweets, such “restraint” felt impossible and I usually ate the bag of cookies when my willpower gave out.

It was because I worried it was the “last time” I was ever going to eat that Chips Ahoy cookie for the rest of my life.

Now I know it is OK to eat joy foods on a regular basis and that has given me a sense of freedom since I no longer ever feel deprived!

Are You Ready?

Are you ready to figure out how to eat in a way that is always pleasurable and that will allow you to never have to diet again?  I’d love to show you how!   Click here to contact me and set up a free mini session to figure out why you can’t stop your cravings.

Have you struggled with overeating? How have you managed to overcome it?   Share in the comments…

*Recipe: Pear Coffee Cake Cookies

Yield: Makes 22-24 cookies

These gluten-free, grain-free cookies taste like coffee cake in cookie form! Grated pear adds extra sweetness and soft texture.

For the cookies:

1 cup blanched almond flour

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 large egg, room temperature

1 medium pear, peeled, cored, and grated on the large holes of a box grater

1/4 cup unsweetened creamy almond butter, cashew butter, or peanut butter

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup raw pecans, chopped

For the streusel: (optional)

1/4 cup raw pecans, finely chopped

2 tablespoons coconut sugar

1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut sugar, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, grated pear, nut butter, and coconut oil. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir thoroughly to form a dough. Stir in the pecans.

Drop tablespoons of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Gently flatten each cookie with your fingertips to about 1/2-inch thick.

In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the streusel. Sprinkle a little of the streusel on top of each cookie and press gently to adhere.

Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes until golden brown and just firm to the touch. (Cookies will continue to firm up as they cool.) Cool completely. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or freeze for longer storage.