83 Why You Have Food Cravings and What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

Why You Have Food Cravings — and What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

What if your cravings aren’t something you need to control?

What if they are messages you have learned to misinterpret?

In this episode, I introduce my approach to deconstructing cravings — looking beyond the immediate desire for sugar, chocolate, wine or another food and asking what your body may actually be trying to communicate.

I believe the body is always trying to move towards balance. But modern life, stress, lack of sleep, the way we eat, social conditioning, convenience and our emotional habits can distort those messages.

So instead of asking:

“How do I stop myself from eating this?”

I want you to start asking:

“Why am I craving this in the first place?”

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why being underslept can leave you wanting to eat all day
• Why a sugar craving may have started long before you reached for something sweet
• How salty, spicy and other stimulating foods can influence what you want afterwards
• Why “I want chocolate” doesn’t necessarily tell you what you are actually craving
• How childhood, culture and repetition condition us to expect certain foods at certain times
• Why wine may sometimes be less about alcohol and more about permission to stop
• How food can become a way of avoiding sadness, loneliness, frustration or other emotions we simply don’t want to feel
• Why logistics matter: sometimes we don’t eat what our body needs because we are tired, hungry and have nothing appropriate available
• How slowing down, chewing and actually tasting our food may help us relearn the language of our own body

I also share a very recent example from my own life: a tiny amount of black pepper at lunch immediately triggering a desire for dessert — and why understanding the craving gave me a choice, even though I chose to have the dessert anyway.

Because deconstructing a craving isn’t about becoming perfect.

It is about becoming curious.

The goal is not to get better and better at depriving yourself.

The goal is to understand your individual body well enough that you create fewer of the imbalances that generate those unwanted cravings in the first place.

Try this

The next time you experience a recurring craving, don’t immediately fight it.

Ask yourself:

What did I eat, drink, do and feel before this craving appeared?

How did you sleep?
Have you drunk enough?
What was your stress level?
What happened emotionally?
What did you eat beforehand?
Does this craving repeatedly show up under similar circumstances?

Observe first. Then change one thing upstream and see what happens.

That is where deconstructing cravings begins.

Ready to go deeper?

If you understand this concept but know that you don’t have the time or headspace to figure everything out alone, this is exactly the kind of work we do inside Body on Your Side.

It is my 12-week small-group programme for women who want to lose weight and take better care of themselves without making their lives revolve around dieting, restriction and constant self-control.

You don’t need another book or another set of generic rules.

You need the space, structure and questions that help you build your own manual for your own body.

The goal?

“I finally know how to work with my body.”

Learn more about Body on Your Side here:
https://gosianagy.mykajabi.com/bodyonyourside