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You have just finished eating a main meal; you think you should be full and satisfied ? yet your mind is telling you that you still need to eat something sweet. This is so much more common than you would think.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with eating something sweet after your meal, it is important to understand why you are doing it. Below are two potential reasons why you always crave something sweet after a meal. 



1. Your Nutritional Needs Aren't Being Met


The body is so much smarter than we ever give it credit for. It tells us exactly what we need and when we need it. Therefore, if you are craving something sweet after each meal, it is important to look at two different areas of your nutrition.


Firstly, you want to make sure that you are eating enough throughout the day. While it is easy to look at your main meals and believe you are eating enough in that one sitting, it is important to zoom out and look at your whole day. Are you eating an adequate amount of food for you individually?


When we undereat (even subconsciously) our bodies will tell us that they need more energy? *cue sugar/sweet cravings.*


Some indications that you aren?t eating enough include:



It is important to ensure that you are eating enough food throughout the day for your body to be able to function at its optimal level. This will also help to reduce sugar/sweet cravings.


Secondly, you want to look at the balance of each of your meals. It is important to aim for a source of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat during each meal. When you are consistently lacking one of these macro-nutrients, your body will tell you that it needs more energy. (*Again cue the sugar/sweetness cravings.*)


Below is a helpful diagram to use when building your meal meals. It is important to not limit or restrict any food groups, they all have a very important role to help your body function. 




2. It's A Deep Rooted Habit


Yep, eating something sweet might have actually just become a habit for you. If you have been eating something sweet after your main meals for a while now, your body will just expect it.


We sometimes learn to perform certain actions in certain environments or after certain things happen. For example, some people crave a cigarette when they start to drink alcohol. Other people automatically grab a snack whenever they sit down to watch a movie. James Clear talks about this in detail in his book Atomic Habits. (Great book by the way ? highly recommend.)


For many people, having a meal triggers the urge to have something sweet. And the only reason for this is that it?s become a habit and your body has become accustomed to associating sweet food with a meal.

If you are wanting to take back control over food, it is important to break this habit loop. You can give yourself complete permission to have the sweet if you want it, but you get to decide on the day. It should not be a ?must have? for you to feel satisfied.  


To start to break this habit, it?s a good idea to give yourself a task to complete straight after a main meal. For example, have a catch-up planned with a friend straight after lunch or make a call for work. This means that you must go and complete a task before eating something sweet. Most cravings only last a short period of time, so adding in a mandatory task allows your brain time to decide if it really wants something sweet or not.


Remember, breaking a habit can take some time. You are not a robot; you are human. So making mistakes is only part of the learning experience.


If you found this blog post helpful or try any of these techniques, let me know. I would love to hear back from you.