What are you craving?
I decided to do the grocery shopping in the middle of the week this time to help save a bit of time on what is looking to be a busy weekend. So I put together the menu for next week, figured out what was missing, added a couple of items to play with, and headed out to the store.
Now I do come home once a week or so with a slice of chocolate cake or bowl of chocolate moose from the pastry counter, but I do not consider this a craving. I just enjoy a good chocolate and I find that if I buy a treat once a week, that I do not feel the need to make as many treats at home.
But as I was going through the isles this time it just hit me... I have to have animal crackers! Not good ones, but those tasteless little circus animal crackers in the box. So I hunted around and found a stack of them and added one to my basket.
They were way to sweet and saltly, and other than a bit of graham flour flavour, basically tasteless and a little stale. And I enjoyed eating every last one of them - especially the biting off of each of the heads. :-)
I knew I had better cookies at home in the freezer, both fully baked and as dough bits ready to bake, that would taste a lot better and be a lot healthier to eat, but I do not think I would have enjoyed them as much as this.
As long as my food cravings are not too unhealthy for me I tend to give in to them. When it is crisps that I am craving, I tend to buy the habanero flavoured ones because the heat limits how many I can comfortably eat in a sitting - and now I always portion them onto plate so I do not just sit and eat the whole bag without thinking about it. But I figure the pleasure from the craving is worth a bit of extra exercise for the next couple of weeks.
So, what are you craving and how often do you give in to your cravings?
About the only craving lately was for ho-ho's, but that went away within a day. That is my new method for dealing with the unhealthy cravings, if they last a*day, I give in. Only about a third of them last that long. Healthy cravings get taken care of as soon as possible.
Instead of the cravings for the old junk foods, I've been making more healthy versions of some of my old comfort foods, which I think helps with some of the emotional part of the junk food cravings. It also helps that my response to a lot of the stuff that I used to down by the box, is now "yuck!" when I try it. The ho-ho's would almost certainly be in that category.