The natural sugars and sodium (nature’s salt), wrapped up in nature’s perfect, nutrient-dense package of fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains, and legumes, are your biggest allies to successfully fight and conquer cravings. When cravings call, be sure to first load up on these foods, especially whole fruits and vegetables, to render those sabotaging urges powerless.

4. Graze on Fruit for Breakfast

Fresh fruit expedites your freedom from cravings. The challenge is – eating enough fruit in a day when traditional food faves demand front stage and center. Rather than breakfasting on the typical bad-boy carbs which trigger cravings (dried-up cereal from a box, quick oats, brown-colored white toast, pancakes, pop tarts, pastries), fat-laden bacon and eggs, or just a cup of pick-me-up-then-crash-me-down, why not jump out of the breakfast box and fill your morning and stomach with nature’s best craving crushers – fresh fruits?

Pay attention to your hunger drive and eat enough whole fruits, approximately four to ten, to fill you up and satisfy you. Grazing on whole, fresh fruits until noon helps shut the gate before the cravings get out of the barn, gain momentum, and sneak attack later in the day. Try it. See how many whole fresh fruits fill you up and behold your incredible shrinking cravings.

5. Keep Healthy Snacks Handy

Whether at home, work, or on the go, think ahead and keep healthy snacks with you at all times – cut-up veggies, fruit, and raw, unsalted nuts and seeds. That way, when cravings start crooning, your fortifications will stop them dead in their tracks.

6. Stop the Diet-go-Round – Forever

Sure diets work, for a while – until they don’t. But they are excellent at one thing – adding red-hot fuel to your cravings.

First, diets deprive you of your food faves - until you can’t stand it, give in, and sneak them back into your life. Second, diets restrict calories and portions, leaving you hungry, making you crave more, and building that food frenzy to a height that consumes your thoughts and your life until…you give in. Third, diets often limit the major nutrient, carbohydrates. With a shortage of good-guy carbs, cravings take control, and you grab the first bad-guy carb in sight. The result: you feel like a hopeless failure one more time.

So the next time you’re tempted to diet, just remember one thing: Diets Don’t Work!

7. Add and Wiggle!

Okay. Let’s face it right now. You’re not perfect. You will never be perfect. Nor do you have to be perfect to finally be free from food cravings. So give yourself some wiggle room. Instead of proclaiming that you’re never ever going to be seduced by one of your food friends again (that’s not going to happen so why go there?), try a new strategy.

Think addition, not subtraction. In other words, instead of trapping yourself in a restrictive food-box of "can’t haves," depriving yourself from the get-go, think about which foods you "get to" add to your day that will give you the most nutrition for your calorie buck. These are the very same foods – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes – that will short-stop those cravings that have enslaved you for decades.

Then follow the 80/20 Rule. Eighty percent of the time when meals and snacks are routine without holidays, birthdays, or get-togethers, add and fill up first on those best-for-you foods. The other twenty percent of the time, don’t worry about it and wiggle! Just beware you don’t wiggle too much.

No matter how diligent you are at incorporating these 7 Strategies into specific action steps in your daily life, if you are a mere mortal, there will be times when a goodie, but baddie will hop into your open-like-a-baby-bird mouth, and when you least expect it. No worries, with persistent mindfulness, time, and patience, you can unlock that trap door, free yourself from cravings, and build your body-dream-come-true.

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