 Cravings, we could we could kind of loosely label it as a feeling and what you don't want to do it's stifle or mute or avoid feelings It's like trying to stifle anger or sadness or any other feeling What you want to do is master the actions because if you stifle a feeling or you run away from a feeling That's what pushes you towards these types of habits. If I'm afraid of feeling cravings I'm gonna avoid the feeling of craving as much as possible. She's gonna lead me to Feeding myself every time I have a damn craving or replacing it with some other addictive, you know tool or thing, right? So I can have the feeling it's okay to feel the craving the feeling of craving It's the action that I master a grown man can't go around punching holes in the wall and hitting people So you have to learn to master your actions But the anger the feelings still there and it actually lose it actually loses some of its potency because the action doesn't have to follow Oh It's a big giveaway today the maps super bundles is the biggest bundle that we offer one of you will get it for free Here's what's included by the way maps anabolic maps performance maps aesthetic maps prime maps anywhere Okay, all included in this bundle one of you will get it for free Here's how you can win leave a comment below in the first 24 hours that we drop this episode Subscribe to this channel turn on your notifications if you do all those things and we like your comment will notify you And you'll get free access to the maps super bundle also. We got a sale going on right now It's the April bundle sale Maps prime maps prime pro maps anywhere if you got all three at retail would cost you $361, but right now it's only $99.99 and again, it's only this month So if you're interested head over to maps april calm. All right here comes the rest of the show What's one of the hardest things? That you guys think your clients tell you when it comes to diet nutrition You know why they why it's so hard for them to eat in a particular way. What's the one thing that comes up there? They're addiction to food. Yeah, no cravings. Yeah, the word cravings We're giving up certain types of foods. Yeah, right. It's really tough and when I first became a trainer I'd love your guys opinion on this too since you guys are also fitness fanatics. I remember Thinking totally wrong about this because I was a fitness fanatic. I used to think we'll just Just do it, you know, I can do it. Why can't you do it? You know And that's because I was so obsessed and passionate about fitness that I assumed everybody was a fanatic as well And it it prevented me from really figuring this out for to be able to help other people Because I thought it was just a matter of willpower But later on I learned that there's so much more To food than just Being robotic about it, you know and in avoiding some foods and eating other foods There's so much more to it. And if we don't talk about that people are gonna get stuck in this You know this this self-defeating hamster wheel of you know You know away from the cravings I know the cravings take over and I give up and then I'm back on the track again And then it's just like this circular. Yes, not the whole story. No, and I think yeah We were young and thought for sure it was that simple it was You know, it's just math. Yeah, that's that's where it's like the whole thing with the calories in and out And it's like it's so simple you guys like you just got to cut this out and then life's gonna move on everything's gonna be great Yeah, but there's just so many other factors To what's going on and like so many associations emotional ties You know connections with people and food plays a vital role in our everyday lives I used to think that hunger and cravings were the same thing. Yeah, that's very good I really just thought it was like, you know, if I was craving food. Oh, I must be hungry You know, I've got to be hungry right now and my body's telling me I need to eat And it really was for me was a long time before this really kind of came full circle or my paradigm was shattered And that was the introduction to fasting and and started to read like all the research around that and that You know, I always thought like oh one Hunger and cravings are the same thing too. If I didn't eat a certain amount of time Muscle was gonna fall off my body And so the whole concept around fasting and refraining from food completely like Shattered my parents so good. In fact, I think it's very important to label what you're feeling properly You know language shapes how we feel about certain things. I'll give you an example. I was watching this talk I think was Brené Brown. She was talking on Netflix. I think it's Netflix or max and she's she's Expert on this. Yeah, and she talks about language shapes our feelings and here's one example if we were to measure physiological responses to anxiety and compare it to the physiological responses to To excitement, they're almost identical. The difference is the perception. I'm I'm anxious versus I'm excited and One feels fun. The other one feels totally terrible, right? So craving and hunger are two completely different things hunger is a signal that happens when you lack Nutrients you lack calories. You actually need those things Cravings are an uncomfortable feeling that happens that usually comes from feelings That you maybe want to avoid Or maybe you want to feed no pun intended So it's two completely different things and that's a good like place to start is to say am I hungry? Or is this just a craving because hunger you need to answer Craving is totally different. Well, do you I mean, where do you stand now? Do you do you believe that anybody who lives in the United States ever is truly hungry? No, I mean that's what kind of really shattered my paradigm was that it's like, you know, not only am I not hungry But I could probably make the case that very few if any people in the United States have ever truly experienced what true hunger feels like and 99.9% of all the things that we feel with our attraction towards food has everything to do with cravings Well, this is why I got so attracted to the idea of fasting when I first went through it because it was so eye-opening to me It was like I didn't really stay in that feeling for that long before of not having access to food And just what my body was was going through and what I really needed versus you know what my my cravings were leading me towards and It again, it's just like that self-reflections that introspection that you can can sit through that It's really difficult for people to do that a lot of clients come in and have like never even done that So that was eye-opening for me. Totally. Well, even when your your body burns off the fuel that you say you consumed earlier in that day or even the day before and so you tap out all that like This idea that you now have no no more fuel and the body is now going to start to break down Muscle and you're gonna lose that is so not true. I think Sal you've shared this before I don't know if you know the number off your top head, but how many calories in reserve does your body? Oh my god Well in in carbohydrates alone. I believe it's something like seven thousand or so Most of it being stored in the liver and some in the muscle and then our fat stores the average even the lean ripped athlete Has got some to the tune of fifty thousand calories stored in body fat and hunger real hunger doesn't kick in for a long time So if you miss lunch It's not hunger that kicks in if you miss breakfast. It's not hunger that kicks in It's usually when you don't eat for two or three days which back to your point Adam Most people living in modern societies have never gone. Yeah, you know one day takes a lot of discipline to do that Yes, totally. Yeah, so here's an example of a craving. I just ate a big dinner. I'm full. Oh my god I'm totally full. Oh my god. They're bringing out the dessert. Yeah, I really want that That's not hunger that's craving I'm using the extreme example to illustrate the point here But it's very important that you label what you have as a craving or hunger because then you can address it and kind of figure Out what's going on. I mentioned earlier that cravings are triggered by feelings The most common one for me and I'll speak personally is boredom if I'm bored. Yeah, I tend to want to eat So if I'm at home nothing going on I'll open the pantry. What do we got? Let me see if there's any snacks or whatever If I go to my parents house or my grandparents house for some reason that triggers cravings for me probably because They always feed me when I go there So I'll open the cupboards and see what's going on but other common ones are sadness Because if you feel sad nobody wants to sit in the feeling of sadness Just like I don't like to sit in the feeling of boredom So what they'll do is they'll distract themselves by eating and eating is pleasurable This is why the foods that you crave tend to be pleasurable foods We almost don't we almost never crave foods that are I don't know for lack of their term in the healthy category It's like you don't crowd don't crave, you know broccoli or vegetables or you know a whole natural food It's usually something that's hyper palatable and that's because it's a very very good distraction Sadness is a common one anxiety or stress or another one people tend to eat with stress or anxiety There's a lot of different feelings that we want to run away from or avoid or feed through eating and That is what fuels these cravings. Well, it's it's kind of it's a form of Medicating yourself the same way that a alcohol Alcoholic uses alcohol or somebody who abuses drugs totally drugs and you mentioned that addiction to food Yeah, and that's and I think we're heading down the same path that's where I think most of our clients where they struggle with and The the root cause is not anything really to do with the food. There's something else that's underlining I think that was again something that took a long time as a trainer for me to learn how to unpack that and help my client Figure out like this isn't a macro calories in calories out issue right now There's something underlining that you are either running from or you want to avoid or that you want to keep yourself busy And then what you're choosing is food as your way to keep yourself busy What do you guys is triggers when it comes to cravings for me? It's boredom. That's like the biggest one if I had nothing to do It's that's what I'm boredom is the same thing for me. I sleep for me for sure. Oh, that kicks up big time Yeah, I start craving all kinds of junk when you're tired. I'm really tired Yeah, it's like you want that serotonin right and that don't make me up But then it's never a good choice. Yeah, the other one is you know, and I don't know where you would how you would categorize but even just Habits right, so I think I've talked about this on the show before where When I was competing I had to eat so many calories and I trained myself to eat so frequently and such massive meals That even to this day and I it wasn't that long ago that I hadn't broken the habit of if I ordered five guys It would be two of these double cheese and back when I had a 5000 calories I needed that I would power right through that in order for me to maintain But I'm the word near that but I still I still have this habit of I trained myself for so many years Consistently if I ordered this meal it was this big and it's like I don't even really want that but I think I do here's another one with habits It's lunchtime. Oh, I got a craving for food or oh, I wake up. I have a craving for food or it's dinner time I have a craving for food. It's funny, right people I used to get I used to think that I was hungry and if I missed lunch I would get irritable the reality is is I was not feeding my craving or satisfying the craving and what made me irritable Was the uncomfortable feeling? Yeah, it wasn't that I was hungry You allowed yourself to be in that state of mind. Yes You're you associated that so strongly that you just decided this is how I'm gonna behave Well, we've even given it labels to justify it. You're I'm angry. Yeah, I'm angry It's like to justify that you are uncomfortable in that situation. I just being a dick or what about low blood sugar Oh, my blood sugar goes down unless you're diabetic. That doesn't happen. That's not true. You're right Unless you're diabetic, you know, this is what's here's this is an important fact here or something to take note of Cravings we could we could kind of loosely label it as a feeling and what you don't want to do It's stifle or mute or avoid feelings It's like trying to stifle anger or sadness or any other feeling what you want to do is master the actions Because if you stifle a feeling or you run away from a feeling That's what pushes you towards these types of habits if I'm afraid of feeling cravings I'm gonna avoid the feeling of craving as much as possible. She'll lead me to Feeding myself every time I have a damn craving or replacing it with some other addictive, you know tool or or or thing, right? So I can have the feeling it's okay to feel the craving the feeling of craving It's the action that I master and it's just like anger like I'll tell you what as a man And a lot of men can relate to this you you're when you're a boy your testosterone levels are nothing You don't have high testosterone at all all of a sudden you go through puberty and you have all these feelings Okay, one of them being anger. I remember as a young kid You know young boys can be angry too, but man when you're a teenage boy and your testosterone goes from zero to the highest It's ever gonna be all of a sudden you feel this crazy Over this overwhelming emotion and you have to learn to master your actions a grown man can't go around punching holes in the Wall and hitting people so you have to learn to master your actions But the anger the feelings still there and it actually loose it actually loses some of its potency because the action doesn't have to follow What you're talking about is the main thing that I believe all three of us would agree is the real true value of fasting Yeah, learning how to control those impulses those actions to be with them through yes to sit in them to be distilled I've already committed. I'm not eating all day long today and now I've got all these feelings and emotions and you got to sit in I've already committed. I'm not gonna give in I do that and you're you're training it like a muscle the same way that you you go To the gym and you lift weights to get stronger, right? The same thing that you're doing with your discipline here and your relationship with food That's where the real value passing now the way it's marketed to everybody is fat loss and reduction of calories and mental Clarity and then the growth hormone production. I mean they they've attached all kinds of great science By the way, all those things are attached to lower calorie diets regardless right faster And this is this is where I agree with Lane because Lane loves to pick apart shit like this and be like listen The same thing if you're just a little kind of it, but from day one We've never presented that to our audience as the real value in it Yeah, this is the real value you're training something where people have a really hard time controlling and it's really your relationship With food that we're trying to improve by detaching from it and sitting in those feelings You can always act or react and one is gonna lead you you know in a more negative path versus the other and so it's it's learning how to Make those decisions when you're in that really uncomfortable state. Yes, it's proactive versus reactive So when you train yourself to be reactive it becomes a habit craving satisfy the craving craving is uncomfortable Got to go eat something. So what you have to do is you have to train a new Feeling around it you literally and you just mentioned this Adam change the relationship you have with the feeling of Cravings which then will result in impulsive actions being erased or at the very least You become aware of your impulsive actions. So you're no longer reactive You're like, oh, there's that feeling again, but here's how I'm gonna act versus there's that feeling react, right? You whatever you do a lot of you end up training This is this is an important thing to understand So if you are right now listening and cravings are really challenging to you We're gonna go through some steps on how you can retrain yourself But just like any kind of training it's gonna take time So nothing that we're gonna say today in what we're talking about today is gonna fix or solve this problem Working on it, but it's gonna take a lot of discipline to really develop this practice Yeah, and the first part or the first step to this practice is becoming aware. That's it Is you got to first become aware before we work on or fix anything Yes, one of the best ways to become aware of anything is to change how you think what does that mean? Okay? People don't realize this but writing is a form of thinking and there's a lot of therapists and counselors and psychologists that encourage people to Write their feelings down. Yeah, and you and when I was I remember when I was younger and someone encouraged me now It's real. Well, I just thought that was done. Oh, right. What's the difference? I think it I write it very big difference because when you write things out you think differently You see what you wrote. It's an exercise and it's an exercise So one of my favorite awareness practices around cravings is Identify that it's a craving versus hunger. I have that craving right down how you feel How do I feel right now? How does the craving feel right now? What's going on now? This doesn't necessarily mean you don't have to react on the craving just yet Remember I said it's gonna take some time So at the very least write down how you feel and then if you're like, I'm not ready to not give into this craving Go ahead and give into the craving but then write down How did I feel during while I was eating this particular food and how do I feel afterwards and what this does is it brings What you're doing is you're an Arthur Brooks talks about this a lot In fact our recent episode he talks about this practice with other things But what you're doing is you're moving these reactions from the reactive part of the brain to the prefrontal cortex, which is the Essentially the part of the brain that makes us human It's what makes us think logically and act in ways that are beneficial not necessarily reactive So when you're becoming aware you're taking this reactive Circle that's happening or cycle that's happening in other parts of your brain You're moving it to the front side part of your brain, which then allows you to process it over time This practice then moves that back to the reactive part of your brain So then your reaction changes from giving into the craving or avoiding the craving to Understanding it and there's a feeling and it I don't have to see act first It's a conscious thought then it becomes a subconscious thought it goes from conscious incompetent from conscious incompetence the conscious Competence to unconscious. It's such it's such a powerful exercise for self-awareness Totally the clients and the people that I've had do this They they always learn something about themselves. Isn't that weird come back to you and they'll say something like you know what? I had no idea But after consistently doing this every time I go and reach for the chips or these snacks Something happened earlier in my day totally where either at work because I can't stay my boss And we had an interaction or my husband who never picks up his stuff behind him when I in the morning time Or they always find out that holy shit There's something else that's going on in my life that I'm kind of suppressing and then eating to medicate And I don't even realize that I'm doing it because it's not like tragic You know like your husband leaving his underwear on the floor and not putting it in the hamper It's not like the end of the world But it's enough to bother you the inside be Festering and be thinking about it and then causes you to go do that to try and get that that dopamine hit that you want through I'll never forget. I had a client who we went through this practice and she was very she was like, okay I'll give it a shot and she realized something that blew her mind where she's like I never realized they did this This is how unaware it was when I go to the grocery store. I Snack on you know that they have the bins where you could grab like the chocolates or the candies or the nuts She's like I eat those things and I never track them and never write them down Because and I think I was purposely unconscious about it. Yeah, like she was purposely You know, like we want to be unconscious to some of these actions because they service in some way, right? They distract us and she's like as soon as they started becoming aware I said wait a minute I keep reaching in every time I walk by the bin with the chocolate covered almonds or whatever I grab a handful She became aware of it and she realized that oh I have these feelings when I'm in the grocery store that I want to avoid and so I reach in and I do it now I'm aware. Wow. There's an extra 500 calories worth of you know, chocolates or chocolate covered nuts that I end up eating So becoming aware is very interesting. It's also uncomfortable. I want to warn people. Oh, yeah When you do this this again, I keep saying this is a practice and I cover some shit. You don't want to Whatever feeling was uncomfortable that leads you to have to react to these cravings is now gonna surface Okay, so that means you're gonna have to kind of deal with the feeling a little bit So this is not a comfortable process just like the first time you work out and you start squatting It's not a comfortable process. You suck at it. It's hard. You're shaky. I'm a little sore. Wow Whatever there's some acceptance going on. I guess I'm not good at this exercise But as you continue practice what ends up happening with your relationship with you know exercise It still hurts, but now the hurt feels different and I enjoy it and I start to enjoy the process So that's what's gonna happen when you do this first step Sometimes the awareness too is just you you you become aware of just habits that you've created too It doesn't always have to be something I brought up the thing with like the husband is that there's always have to be this like Negative either it could just be a habit that you've created I remember when I figured this out with why do I have this habit of if I have ice cream or candy or some sort of a Dessert in my house that I have to crush the whole fucking back That was so weird to me. I remember you talking about yeah, and it took a long time for me to figure out You know what this is from this goes all the way back from when I was a kid And I lived in a house with you know six people Yes, I was competing with my siblings It was very rare that we got these treats or desserts I didn't have a lot of money, so it's like we got one thing I got it It was like you had to get it and you had to crush as much as you could because you're not coming No one gets seconds So you want to get as much as you possibly can and I had trained myself For so long to eat that way when it came to desserts and treats that even as an adult We can afford to have as many cans of candy and ice cream that he wants I still would do this and so I had to and it was Exercises like this that allowed me to kind of unpack and go oh shit like it's not I can go have one I had a conversation with my kids about that because we rarely have dessert and We'd be out at a restaurant and you know dessert would come and their spoons are ready to go And they're trying they're trying to like get their steak as much as possible Not even caring about like what it tastes like how much they can get in before you know because we would always share it Good it was like one of those things because the portions are ridiculous right especially for kids And so we just we've had multiple conversations about this about actually tasting it taking a few minutes in between to breathe Like I'm not gonna jump back in and this isn't a competitive thing. This is like an enjoyment. It's a treat It's not something that's we need to hoard it in really fast Yeah, you know when one for me was that I used to do this and I still sometimes do this although I'm aware of it if I'm gonna if I have a strong craving and I know I'm gonna eat something That's not gonna serve me right. I'll bring someone in with me because for some reason If I'm gonna be bad I'm gonna make sure someone else is bad Yeah, just it's like I'm not gonna feel it makes me feel better that oh my buddy is doing the same thing with me We're both gonna you know eat this terrible thing. That's not gonna make us So I'd be like hey you want to go get you know you want to go get some cookies, you know Because I want some company in order to do this, you know, we do that we do that to each other all time. Oh, yeah I know you know, it's funny so you mentioned you how you eat ice cream and stuff like it You guys have seen I don't know if you guys ever seen me eat a popsicle or a lollipop or whatever I just crunch it Look away. I see you watch. Yeah, so you know what it is So when I get a popsicle popsicles you're supposed to enjoy for you know, however long and I eat it And it's gone Yeah, and I was thinking about this the other day because I was I got a popsicle and I was sharing it with my With my young son and he's like super he's so funny He sits on my lap. He's so cuz I never give him stuff like that So he's all of a sudden super obedient like I'll do whatever you want. Yeah, so he's licking it And I'm biting it, you know and Jessica's like it's gone in three minutes. Like why do you eat it that way? I'm like, you know what when I was a kid Remember the ice cream man would come by and you'd hear the music and I'd run to my dad You know give me can I have a dollar? Please let me have a dollar and every once in a while my dad be like alright Here's a dollar, but you got to come back and let me have some so alright So I go get a popsicle and come back and my dad would always do this you grab the popsicle crunch it He'd bite half of it off literally like Such a dad thing to do Teach you about taxes That's the dad so it like made me do that too for some reason which is pretty funny But there's all awareness right so as you become aware You're able to make better Logical calculated or choices at the very least that serve you better rather than serve the craving if you always serve your cravings You're not serving yourself. You want to consider that that's an important thing to understand Yeah, you have to accept it in a minute before you even make steps to 100% you can't fix what you're not aware of Yeah, that's all here's the second thing and this was by far my favorite strategy and You know you have to do the first one that we said before we can do this one because if you're not aware you can't fix it But once you're aware, I love this strategy right here, which is Create space between the feeling and the impulse. Okay. I have the feeling of the craving How do I create space between that and the impulse one of my favorite strategies is this one right here? So I've identified there's certain foods for me Which are really really strong triggers the number one for me chips potato chips. Yeah, 100% Lay's potato chips in particular and I'm not quite sure why I think it's just hyper palatable for me for some reason It's the commercial got you. I'm a salt person, right? So if I have chips around me It's like it's a constant battle. Oh, no don't get oh, you know And I end up eating a whole bag and I feel terrible not stuff, you know physically just doesn't feel good So what I've done is I've said I'll eat them. It's not like I can't eat them They're just not gonna be in the house if I want chips I got to drive a mile and a half to the grocery store and I'll get myself a single serving of Chips now of all the times I have a craving for chips How many times you guys think I actually act on that impulse because I have to get in the car Yeah, drive over there walk in there grab the bag get in line and pay for it, right? Probably one out of every 20 or 30 times. Why is it the hassle? Kind of but it's not really the hassle. It's the space Yeah, because by the time it takes me to get my pants on get in the car I'm I don't really want it. It's not something I really want by time I really have a drive-through one yet where you don't have to put pants. Yeah, or doordash. Yeah This works for things other than I mean I shared just recently the podcast to how I do this with purchasing stuff Yes, I that I don't necessarily need just like you don't need the I love the strategy But I want I want it and simply putting it in my in my shopping cart online and waiting a night and just saying Hey, I'm not gonna say I can't have it. I'm gonna say I can't have my chips I'm but if I really want it I gotta go drive to do it if I really want to buy that I got to wait till tomorrow morning to go through the shopping cart and 90% of time I don't do it delete you just gave me an idea So the convenience apps that we have have really made this much harder And I predict that obesity is gonna rise even faster because now I can impulsively order food Whereas before I had to get in the car and drive somewhere Yeah, and you just made me think of something Adam when you go on doordash You have the option to order it right now so it gets your 30 minutes or schedule it Yeah, so I think what might be a good strategy and I've never communicated this with clients because doordash came out after I stopped training clients But if I had clients today, I think what I would say is use doordash But give yourself a three-hour window so schedule it for three hours later And that way you have some space between you and the impulse and within that three-hour period You might say you know what I really don't want that Maybe I don't I don't know if you would count this in the same category because it's similar But it's like it's also not being like distracted, right? So the the TV and the phone thing is a big one for me with clients. It does create space because what does TV do? That's right. There's no space. I'm distracted. So I have that impulsive reaction going on So don't eat in front of the TV don't eat But you know studies are clear on this by the way If you want to cut your calories by 10 to 15 percent The most effective thing you could do is not eat in front of the TV or with your phone or any type of Distraction just eat it's really it swear to God. It's very consistent 10 to 15 percent less calories Well, I mean thinking old-school about like really designating meals throughout your day, right like that you share with other people like So it's really important for me, especially dinner obviously to to connect with my kids and my wife and this is the meal This is the meal, you know, we're not like eating in outside of that really And just trying to like stick with like certain types of meal like so I'm not snacking I guess in a sense where it's like a constant thing that you know I could just interrupt that with a bad decision. Totally. Here's another one. I had a client once tell me this now They they had the wrong idea behind it But it was super effective anyway And then I figured out later what it was and what what he said and he was like adamant about this He says when I have a craving I got to do 10 push-ups And I got to do 10 body weight squats and his rationale was I'll burn some calories and then eat the food I remember as a trainer being like bro, you're burning 30 calories and the food You're about to eat is like whatever but it worked and he would get leaner And then I figured out what it was Because he had to do 10 push-ups and 10 squats it created space between him and the impulse and what ended up happening was he Often didn't act on the impulse because he just created space you can do this with a walk when you have a craving say Okay, I'll have that food after I do a 10 minute walk and that 10 minute period of time gives you time again to move that That that action into the the prefrontal cortex into something that is much more of a conscious Decision then when you come back from your walk you have permission to eat it But what you may find is you actually don't I did this was a huge strategy for me when I was competing When you're competing you're like hungry all the time or you feel hungry all the time cravings No, you are hungry because you're gonna deficit for 12 weeks Yeah, so I definitely feel this way a lot and so and I at this time I used to have a treadmill in my house and if I had that really strong feeling I'd get up off the couch or whatever It was I was doing and I just go in the treadmill and just go for a walk for 30 minutes and again telling me telling myself No, it's not that I can't have that but giving myself that space to kind of work it out Am I really that hungry am I okay? I'd even want walking to what do I really want? I could eat this I could eat that before you know it after the 30 minutes of walking on there It's past and I'm okay, and then now I'm even closer to the next meal time So well, I'll just wait it's only another half hour hour till I eat again. So I'll just wait till my next meal I love that. Yeah, I love creating space by either an obstacle or Another action that you have to you make a rule with yourself that you say I have to do this action before I end up taking action on this particular craving like the push-ups the sit-ups the walk And I picked you know I'm talking walk and push-ups sit-ups like you know squats and stuff just sort of healthy distractions, right? Cuz another distraction you can go outside and smoke a cigarette don't necessarily think that's a good choice Or trade although people used to do that back in the day, right? All right So so the first two steps really center around awareness now we can start to talk about just strategies And this is where people's focus What I'm what we're about to talk to now is where people tend to go first But if you go here first without going through one and two You're not gonna succeed because you don't develop the relationship that you want instead what you develop our Relationships with the ways you lower cravings like we're about to talk to the impulse will still be there the impulse Yes, that's still gonna be there But so if you do one and two then you can move to three which is eating in ways that actually lower cravings now We have some food strategies one of them and Adam you brought this up on recent podcasts is eating Small meals throughout the day right frequent meals. So instead of having breakfast lunch and dinner You you take breakfast you split it in half so you go breakfast snack Lunch snack dinner snack. So now you're eating six small meals Which means you're gonna have less time to sit around and not be able to eat or whatever I really like talking about this one now because we know that the six small meals thing as a Metabolism booster has been debunked in there. There's no value in it for that point But it's just like the fasting thing like sometimes the fitness base gets so hung up on the science of things And we forget about the behavioral side Yep, and you know, this is just is just something that would help my clients is if they had a prepared meal already Set up to where every two to three hours there It made it so much easier when those cravings would set in like well, I just I already have a meal It's made for me and it's in the in the fridge I just got to go reheat it for me to have it versus me going and doing some fast food or making a poor choice It just made it easier for them to adhere to the diet because they had it scheduled out throughout the day You have something there. Yeah, so it's not gonna burn fat faster It's there's not a it's not a hack like that but it is a hack to help somebody what's You know live with these cravings and not feel like oh because I tell you when you have a craving like that I still today struggle with this if I have a craving hit me and I have and it's been four or five hours since I've A and I'm like head driving home and there's nothing other options. Yeah, there's no other options It's really easy to swing in totally and get fast to justify right very easy to justify it at that point And so having them broken up and prepared for the day is just a great strategy to help someone with that another craving killer Is also something that just overall increases satiety or is a very satiety promoting Nutrient, which is protein. Yeah, protein will stifle your appetite big time You talk to anybody who goes from eating, you know, average amounts of protein eating a high amount of protein and the complaint will be I don't know if I can eat this much when I would have clients that would come in and we're trying to lose weight So typically you'd have to cut their calories if I got them to eat their protein targets. I'd say okay actually happens Oh, I'd be there. All right, Mrs. Johnson, you know, I need you to 100 grams of protein a day Oh, I already had a high protein diet. Well, no, no, we're gonna track and that's about 35 grams or 33 grams for breakfast lunch and dinner Here's what it looks like with chicken. Here's what it looks like with steak or whatever and they'd come to me Like I can't eat that much protein. I start to it's like too much protein is very very. It's very satisfying It kills hunger. It's heavy in there and I like that It's it's something substantial. Yeah. Yeah, this is a this is a great stretch I wish honestly I leaned in that direction earlier in my career that would have been so helpful for me personally even just trying to stay lean But like for clients too because because you I mean you just get into that where you look at what what types of carbohydrates are out there and what types of foods tend to follow as a pattern After eating like a higher amount of carbohydrates. It's just human behavior. It's like it starts to kind of Spice up this like sort of novel Interest in other foods that tend to lean more towards the process side of things. It's just protein It's just so satisfying and hardy. Well, most clients under-consume it and unless you're a fitness fanatic Which very small percentage of your clients are those people? Yeah You under-consume protein and you over-consume carbohydrates And it's just a great strategy for coaches to play that kind of like psychological game with your client It's like I'm not gonna tell you can't have any of those things that you're eating for all I want you to do is focus on make sure you get enough protein the calories drop and the calories They just naturally drop. Yeah, they're fuller. They end up replacing what was you know a bag of chips or a bunch of carbohydrates Now they're eating the steak, you know That's four or five hundred calories and forty fifty grams of protein and they just they end up exchanging that So having the seven hundred calories of snacks They're now have this hearty meal and then you add in the fact that now they have the building blocks to actually build muscle Which then also is gonna speed our metabolism. Oh, yeah So it's like central Around and I never had to tell this client who was here for fat loss that hey cut this out less of this That's that I'm telling them have how I would get complaints from people who normally overeat and they would come to me Like I can't eat this this I end at the end of the night I start to gag because I can't eat any more protein and they used to laugh Here's somebody always overeats But now all of a sudden they can't eat enough because if you and on the extreme case if you ever talked to anybody Who's followed a carnivore diet like I've had people, you know DM me who followed carnivore I know you did for a second Justin has more of an elimination diet, but the complaint was always I can't get enough calories I just don't want it to go. Yeah, it's really difficult to eat that much meat to Stack up to the amount of calories you could easily do with carbohydrates another strategy too is to use these low calorie food the foods to keep like your mouth busy You're notorious for this out. You almost always are carrying your little thing of rice cakes with your cell phone back Little busy mouth. Yeah But you know eating something that one of those things 30 40 calories or something like that They're hardly anything, you know, my favorite is pickles pickles are the best. They're salty the salt for some reason actually I know why Salt you'll you'll get cravings if your salt is low as well, but the saltiness. They're crispy And they and of course it's a cucumber, right? It's just a it's a pickled cucumber So I'm getting vegetables. How many calories are in one pickle like five much You don't hold jar of them and you've got you know, what are you 50 calories? I mean, it's one of my favorite foods to eat if I feel a strong craving and I'm having a tough time with it or dealing with it I'll just eat like two or three pickles. It's not a big deal carrots carrots is not a Doug does that all time, right? He'll eat he snacks on carrots. That's another good one So there's definitely foods that you can you can snack on olives is another one now all of oils high in calories olives or not You can get a jar of olives and your calories are still pretty damn low Doesn't make that big of a difference, you know, all right the next one Another trainer trick that we used to play on our clients is to have them drink a lot of water Yeah You get somebody to aim for a gallon of water a day and they tend to eat less calories. It's really funny but it's because being hydrated often does blunt the craving signals that we tend to get When we're feeling anxious or sad or whatever in fact I used to tell clients is an awareness strategy when you feel a craving drink two glasses of water and wait five minutes Yeah, and that would work like clockwork and about 50% of people that would that would try well I remember when I figured this out. I had read something and maybe you remember Sal like it talks about how much how many people? Over consumed calories through liquid drinks. Oh, it's a lot. Yeah It's a high percentage and I remember seeing that going like oh my god If I could just get if this is this percentage of people that are overweight or obese Or it's because they're drinking so many calories if I could just find a way to get my clients to stop drinking their calories We'd have a huge win and again going back to the same philosophy of not telling a client You can't have the strategy would be drink more water if I kept them to drink a gallon of water is hard It's really it's actually people don't think so try it. Yeah, it's it's hard to like consist and everybody go Oh, I drink plenty of water. Yeah, have you ever measured it and actually seen like try and measure it and see if you Actually hit a half a gallon is hard for people. Yes So given someone a goal like three quarters of a gallon to a gallon of water in a day is Challenging for most people and all it does is it keeps them busy drinking that they don't ever have the time where they're craving a soda Or juice because they're constantly having to drink the water now along with that add a little bit of a little bit of sea salt To your water when you're drinking that much water You are gonna be expelling more sodium being low on sodium will send a hunger signal To your body or a craving signal to the body. This is especially true for people with a low carbohydrate diet We work with a company called LM&T and they make an electrolyte powder that's high in sodium You can put that in your waters no calories or you could take literally pink Himalayan salt and a pinch in a bottle You wouldn't even taste it But it's enough to give you the the sodium to balance out all that extra It's best if you're working out and still getting after it. I mean, it's so amazing when You add in just a pinch of salt to what that does for your performance You know in training or running or anything else. Yeah, one of my favorites are carbonated water Carbonated water. This is anecdote. So I have no studies to support this But carbonated water when it comes to cravings, it's like amazing in comparison to regular water especially if you're trying to reduce the amount of alcohol in terms of like Carbonated water and lime for me was always a fantastic Replacement, who was it turned us on to that somebody did that. I don't remember. Yeah, it was definitely like a game-changing for me Just because I it was the mouthfeel It was the smells all that kind of stuff and it did help So I've done that and then what I'll do is I'll put I'll put lime carbonated water and salt Yeah, yeah, you're like a corona. Yes, so I've done hands Corona I've done that for a long time and it does it's it just More satiating I guess or satisfying than just a regular glass of water So it's just another that's a hack. That's a trick. I don't have any studies support that But that's just a lot of anecdote. All right, the last step. We've already mentioned quite a few times Which is the practice of fasting by the way the practice of fasting doesn't just apply to food You can fast from anything that you have an impulse with so if you impulsively go on social media Or buy things you can fast if you impulsively buy things you can fast from it Right, if anything that you do impulsively if you fast from it What you end up doing is you end up dealing with the feelings and then you automatically realize you can deal without you You don't need it and you start to develop a new relationship and it's almost it's not quite Almost like hitting the reset button you hit the reset button you start over and now you're comfortable I went 24 or 48 hours without Whatever this thing is that I'm fasting from this case. It might be food In which case now I feel like I have a better handle on it Really what you're doing is you're slowing down the speed Because most of the time you get into trouble in the cravings. It's all about speed and how quickly I can get it and You know feed that that trigger that impulse And to be able to create that space do all the steps we mentioned in between is really about like slowing things down being able to You know really be aware of what's happening to be present. Thank you There's two that suck okay that what Justin just said right now is the most important part of this those two things that I want to say one if you have had eating disorders in the past fasting is not a good option because it can Push you back in that direction. Okay, so we're not talking to you if you've dealt with that before to what Justin just said about being present is so important because if you fast and the way you deal with your feelings is distracting yourself while you're fasting what you'll have is a symptom eruption at the end of your fast and you'll see this sometimes someone will fast for 48 hours They've been and they'll binge afterwards super yes because they they white knuckled it the whole time and distracted themselves When you fast you don't just not eat you also Sit with and allow yourself to feel what you're feeling and you become aware of the feelings If you distract yourself when you fast the rebound is gonna be nasty You're gonna go back to eating and you have solved nothing and if anything you've given yourself permission now to binge And then you encourage us this not very good relationship with food that you end up training I also like and I know you kind of said it right that this kind of reset feeling that I get where I become like Ultra sensitive to foods that don't agree with me Oh, so if you make the mistake of fasting and then going eating something that is a food that doesn't really agree with you very well Diarrhea. Oh my god. It just destroys you up to that So that's what's kind of cool is like after you do it you really are craving these like you want Vegetables and whole foods and you want like a light meal because eating something really heavy after that Especially if it's something that doesn't agree with you. Oh, man, you will feel that and notice it right Physiologically, too Here's what happens as well is that the the receptors that are responsible for the sensations The pleasurable feelings that we get from food when we are constantly feeding ourselves over Saturday down They down regulate. Okay, when you fast these receptors that are responsible for there's a lot of them, right? There's you have your dopamine and your serotonin and there's other things other things that happen in the body When you fast those receptors up regulate and then here's the interesting thing You'll let's say you're a candy addict. So you just love sugar love candy you fast for however long 24 48 72 hours Whatever you come out of the fast you don't eat candy go eat a piece of fruit The fruit will taste sweeter. Yeah, then you could remember it'll be sweeter than what it what you experienced before because you've Up it's it's almost like it's like this It's like not having sex with your wife for three weeks and then you have sex with her. It's like oh my god It's like having it's like having a sponge that's full water and when you're over saturated and you're just running water It's just going right through having it and then wringing it all out and then running it under water How it just sucks up and up to everything. I mean the food tastes the experience with food after a fast is Quite remarkable. I remember thinking that like I ate foods that were you know, that'll eat that were healthy But then I ate them after a fast. I'm like, oh my gosh this Asparagus delicious, which I've never said before right? Yeah, so it's a very interesting Physiological phenomenon happens a while but while you're fasting you have to be aware. Otherwise, you'll do the that's it Which you just said right now is actually a great strategy to get people to like vegetables or like something that's healthy for Yeah, introduce them after what when you're zero was it Chris Rock who did the stand-up where he Talked about us the saltine cracker. He's referring to not having sex Oh, yeah, and then you give it to him with them. Oh my god is the best cracker Like this If you know, it's a saltine cracker was gonna starving So it's the same concept like you fast for an extended period of time like that Introduce a food that maybe oh, you didn't think that you liked very much But you're so hungry watch how good those carrots or that or the vegetable taste because you haven't had anything Excellent. Look if you like our information head over to mind pump free calm and check out our guides We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal You can also find all of us on social media So Justin is on Instagram at mine pump Justin Adam is on Instagram at mine pump Adam And you can find me on Twitter at mine pumps out