Why do I have Cravings?

There are multiple kinds of cravings – workaholic, sweets, fried, mindless scrolling mobile phone, smoking, daily alcohol, binge watching, mindless shopping are cravings.

I realized about cravings the hard way. I used to feel hungry immediately after lunch and dinner. Between 4 and 6 pm I always looked for Sev puri, bhel or dabeli. If I knew I had ice cream at home, I would crave it and I would make sure I had 1 or 2 cups of it.

I always blamed my nutritional food intake and my lifestyle. After I corrected my nutrition intake and lifestyle routine the problem still persisted. The blood work did not show any deficiency and still I had cravings. Then what was wrong? This question kept haunting me and finally I got the answer.

My self was seeking “ME”. My self was wanting to spend quality time with myself. But it is the scariest thing. Sometimes scrolling social media or binge watching feels like “ME” time but it is just a distraction or an excuse to run away from our own self. Distraction from self is also constantly keeping ourselves busy with work. I felt its being productive but our self doesn’t need us to work all the time. Our self needs “ME” time. It wanted me to pause and reflect.

To my delight and surprise when I actually paused and reflected my coping mechanism such as sweets, fried, work or mindless scrolling disappeared. I no longer was hungry after my lunch or dinner and my portions reduced with no conscious effort.

I realized any kind of void or vacuum gives birth to cravings. When we address both physical and mental parameters of health together – it creates magic!