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Curb Your Chocolate Cravings With Mindfulness

Sinduja Rangarajan |
September 15, 2013 | 11:35 p.m. PDT

Staff Contributor

Just put it down (CalorieSecrets.net)
Just put it down (CalorieSecrets.net)
It’s midnight and you’re still awake doing work. You’ve had a busy day, you’re exhausted and you want nothing more than to hop into bed. It’s been three hours since you had your last meal and you’re hungry. You scan the fridge. Somehow all the healthy options are the most unappetizing at this hour. Part of you knows eating a chocolate brownie isn’t the best thing to do, but at 12 in the morning, all you can think about is that brownie.

Sound familiar? All of us can relate, right? 

The good news is that health psychology researchers have discovered a strategy that will help us deal with these pesky hankerings.

A paper published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, written by researchers from Swansea University and City University London, suggests that using a mindfulness strategy can help us resist temptations.

The research recruited 137 participants who were trying to reduce their consumption of chocolates. They were divided into three groups based on three different strategies, cognitive defusion, acceptance and relaxation, and observed for five days.

All the participants were given a bag of chocolates that they had to carry around with them for five days and practice their given strategy. They also completed a questionnaire by the end of the five days to measure the extent to which chocolate consumption was automatic---both before and after the five-day period.

The method of cognitive "defusion" involved having to detach oneself from all thoughts. Participants practiced what is called the 'mindbus metaphor'. This involved thinking of themselves as the drivers of a bus and thinking of all thoughts as the passengers. Instead of controlling one's thoughts, the key was to observe the thoughts and feelings that arose when temptations to eat the chocolates were strong.

The participants in the acceptance control group were told to accept their feelings and to acknowledge their urges without giving into them.

The relaxation control group was told that relaxing was a good way to handle cravings. They were instructed to relax and contract certain muscles.

Out of the three methods, cognitive defusion emerged to be a clear winner. It is an introspective strategy rooted in Buddhism. Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh mentioned in the New York Times, “We need to be coming back to ourselves and saying: ‘Does my body need this? Why am I eating this? Is it just because I’m so sad and stressed out?’"

A similar method called mindfulness training has also been found effective in smoking cessation, according to this article on the NYdailynews.com.

Understanding the relationship between ourselves and our thoughts compels us to think about what we are eating, why we are eating, and if there is a point to eating at that very moment. Does what we are eating meet our needs? Asking these questions makes it difficult to mindlessly binge. So before you pick up your next cookie, snap out of the moment and remember how you can help yourself.

Reach Staff Contributor Sinduja Rangarajan here.



 

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