Elizabeth Joyce (13)
Life can be really hard, and today's political climate (and fallout from) is a lot. And let's be real—it's not getting better anytime soon.
This means we have two choices: let stress run the show or take control of how we manage ourselves.
Sugar cravings are something almost everyone experiences, but have you ever wondered why they happen and how to control them without feeling deprived? In this post, we'll explore the science behind sugar cravings, how to recognize patterns, and build better habits.
Sugar Cravings Don't Have to Control Your Day
Sugar cravings aren't just about willpower—they're rooted in biology, habits, and emotions. Understanding why they happen is the first step to breaking the cycle.
Sugar cravings are something almost everyone experiences, but have you ever wondered why they happen and how to control them without feeling deprived? In this post, we'll explore the science behind sugar cravings, how to recognize patterns, and build better habits.
Identifying WHY Your Sugar Cravings Are Happening
Are you tired?
Nothing will wreak havoc on your goals or motivation like poor sleep. If you're not getting enough sleep, you can be sure your body will find ways to plug energy gaps in the days and often with quick boosts of energy.
Are You Balancing Your Blood Sugar?
Eating too many refined carbs or sugary foods causes rapid spikes in blood sugar, giving you a quick burst of energy. However, these spikes are followed by sharp crashes, leaving you feeling tired, hungry, and craving more sugar to bring levels back up. This cycle can make sugar cravings feel relentless.
What Gut Bacteria Are You Feeding?
Your gut bacteria play a major role in cravings. The microbes in your digestive system adapt to what you eat most often. If you frequently consume sugar, your gut bacteria will start to demand more, reinforcing cravings and making it harder to cut back.
Does Sugar Make You Feel Good (… for a minute)?
Sugar activates the brain's reward system by triggering the release of dopamine, the "feel-good" chemical. This creates a sense of pleasure and reinforces the habit of eating sugar. Over time, your brain starts to crave that dopamine hit, making sugar feel almost addictive.
Is This Simply A Habit or Conditioning
Cravings aren't always physical—sometimes they're just habit. If you always eat sweets after dinner or reach for sugar when stressed, your brain begins to associate those moments with needing something sweet. This conditioning makes cravings feel automatic, even if you're not actually hungry.
Are You Fueling Your Body?
A diet lacking in protein, fiber, and healthy fats can leave you feeling unsatisfied, leading to sugar cravings as your body searches for quick energy. Low magnesium levels can also contribute to cravings, especially for chocolate. Balancing your meals with more nutrients can help reduce these cravings naturally.
Are You Stressed, or Experiencing Hormone Fluctuations?
When you're stressed, your body releases cortisol, a hormone that increases cravings for fast-digesting, high-energy foods like sugar. Emotional eating can further reinforce sugar as a coping mechanism, making it harder to break the cycle. Finding healthier stress-management techniques can help reduce these cravings over time.
Are They Biological vs. Habitual?
Not all cravings are the same! Some come from physical needs (biological) while others are triggered by habits or emotions.
Biological Cravings (Driven by the Body's Needs)
- Blood Sugar Drop – Skipping meals or eating mostly refined carbs leads to a sugar crash, making you crave sweets for quick energy.
- Example: You feel shaky in the afternoon and suddenly want candy or soda.
- Low Energy/Fatigue – Poor sleep, over-exercising, or undereating can cause low energy, making sugar cravings stronger.
- Example: After a bad night's sleep, you crave a sugary coffee drink or pastries.
- Nutrient Deficiency – A lack of protein, fiber, or healthy fats can leave you unsatisfied, leading to cravings.
- Example: You eat a carb-heavy meal (like pasta with no protein) and find yourself craving cookies an hour later.
- Hormonal Shifts – Estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol impact cravings, especially around menstruation or stress.
- Example: You crave chocolate right before your period due to hormonal fluctuations.
Habitual Cravings (Triggered by Routine, Emotions, or Environment)
- Dessert After Every Meal – If you always eat sweets after meals, your brain expects it, even if you're full.
- Example: You feel like you need chocolate after lunch, even though you aren't hungry.
- Emotional Comfort Eating – Sugar is often used as a coping mechanism for stress, sadness, or boredom.
- Example: After a rough workday, you automatically grab ice cream.
- Time-of-Day Triggers – Your body adapts to routines, making cravings habit-based rather than hunger-driven.
- Example: You're not hungry, but at 3 PM, you crave a sugary snack because it's "afternoon snack time."
- Social & Environmental Cues – Seeing or smelling sweets can trigger cravings even if you weren't thinking about sugar before.
- Example: Walking past a bakery suddenly makes you want a pastry.
Find Your Patterns & Proceed Accordingly
By tracking your cravings, you can identify patterns and make small changes. Ask yourself:
- What time of day do I crave sugar?
- What am I craving?
- What am I feeling? (Hungry, stressed, bored, tired?)
- What did I eat earlier?
Once you notice patterns, you can adjust—like adding more protein at lunch to prevent that afternoon sugar crash.
Balancing Blood Sugar:
- Eat more protein, fiber, and healthy fats to prevent blood sugar dips.
- Avoid extreme restriction—cutting out sugar entirely can backfire and make cravings stronger.
Replacing the Habit:
- Find satisfying alternatives (like fruit with protein) instead of processed sugar.
- Use sensory cues to manage cravings:
- Warm drinks (like cinnamon-spiced tea) can mimic indulgence.
- Crunchy foods (like raw carrots or nuts) satisfy the need for texture.
- Sweet scents (like vanilla or cinnamon) can trick your brain into feeling satisfied.
Mindful Indulgence:
- Enjoy sweets without guilt—but portion wisely.
- Choose better options, like dark chocolate instead of processed candy.
Key Takeaways & Next Steps
Sugar cravings are normal, but they can be managed.
Understanding patterns (biological vs. habitual) helps reduce cravings.
Balancing blood sugar & making smart swaps can help curb sugar dependency.
Your Next Steps
Hit the low-lying fruit:
- get enough, high quality, sleep
- drink 8 cups (or more) of water per day
- eat 25 grams of protein and a source of good fats at each meal
Track your cravings for a few days to spot patterns.
Experiment with protein-rich meals to stabilize blood sugar.
Exercise does more than just strengthen your body—it also triggers the release of what scientists call "hope molecules." Regular movement, especially strength training, jogging, or vigorous walking, helps flood your system with mood-boosting compounds. In a world where stress and uncertainty can feel overwhelming, movement is one of the simplest ways to boost hope and resilience.
Agility handling is a game of precision, speed, and split-second decision-making. Yet, many handlers find themselves struggling with late cues, unstable turns, or inconsistent movement—issues they often blame on technique alone. While skill and timing are crucial, there's another often-overlooked factor that could be holding you back: core strength.
A weak core can lead to inefficient movement, slower reaction times, and even increased injury risk. By improving your core strength—specifically in rotational, anti-rotational, and anti-flexion movements—you can dramatically enhance your handling ability.
Self-Care Is More Than a Trend
We often see self-care dressed up in shiny fabrics, lavish dinners, and indulgent habits that don't align with our deeper vision for life. Social media floods us with this narrative, but what if there was a different approach?
What if you redefined self-care? IMAGINE how you could transform your relationship with yourself, your life, and your self-esteem.
Motivation is Just an Emotion
Motivation often feels like the magic spark that gets us moving. It's that rush of excitement when starting something new or the drive you feel after a particularly inspiring moment.
But just like any other emotion, motivation comes and goes. One day, you're fired up to hit the gym or tackle a workout; the next, it might feel like a chore you can't face. Basing your fitness journey solely on motivation is like relying on the weather—it's unpredictable and unreliable.
Engaging in resistance training may contribute to the prevention of osteoporosis by promoting increased bone density. This form of exercise imposes stress on the bones, prompting the body to generate denser bone tissue.
While research hasn't definitively established a substantial increase in bone density through resistance training, a 2020 review suggests its probable efficacy in osteoporosis prevention, albeit with varying evidence across different body regions.
Despite potential variations in bone density outcomes, resistance training offers a spectrum of advantages beyond potential bone strengthening. It plays a role in muscle fortification and, when combined with other exercises, may help diminish the risk of falls.
Explore further to understand the effectiveness of resistance training in averting bone loss, its potential in reversing osteoporosis, and recommended frequency for incorporating this exercise into one's routine.
Who doesn't want overnight results, in every area of their life? Achieving fitness goals, building muscle, conditioning your body—no matter how you express it, striving for a specific outcome in your workouts likely takes more time than anticipated. If you're wondering just how long, keep in mind: results won't manifest overnight, but they will come.
Indeed, achieving fitness requires patience and dedication. Weeks of effort may pass without noticeable changes, you'll need persistence and an investment in future well-being rather than immediate results. Surprisingly, you might start feeling significantly better long before observable improvements emerge.
Witnessing the results of your workouts can be incredibly gratifying, so whatever stage of your fitness journey you find yourself in, keep going. If you're seeking a timeline for the progress you may experience, consider the key workout approaches—strength training, running, and cardio—to gain insight into why persistence is crucial.
Understanding the Importance of Exercise
- Strengthening muscles around joints.
- Maintaining bone strength.
- Increasing energy levels.
- Facilitating better sleep.
- Controlling weight.
- Improving balance.
- Enhancing mood.
Strong muscles are crucial for supporting bones, and neglecting exercise weakens these supportive muscles, leading to increased stress on joints.
Balance can feel elusive. It gradually walks towards the door, slipping behind other guests and furniture unnoticed until it's gone or thinking of leaving. A loss of balance can significantly reduce your quality of life and the activities safely available to you. It's helpful to look for ways you have power in situations, from both a physical and a mental standpoint.
Balance is important for handlers for a number of reasons. The first one that comes to mind is injury prevention! Nothing will sideline your team faster than injuries and staying ahead of that is so important. Speed is improved, a reduction in trip or fall risk, a better ability to handle powerful dogs all improved through better balance.
When you think of building better balance does your mind drift to standing on a balancing device? Or perhaps standing on one foot with your eyes closed? Or walking in a straight line with your eyes closed? While these are all ways to work on balance, there are things you can do to expedite balance improvement.
Where do you start when the most basic core exercises you're exposed to are too tricky?
Like dog training, revisit foundations!! Foundations are critical when people are looking to build strength. When the foundations aren't fluent, the more advanced exercises can remain inaccessible, and/ or can cause discomfort.
What I'm going to share with you today are the foundation steps my clients go through, our non negotiable criteria and exercises you can do that are generally well tolerated by most bodies. In a most sincere effort to make this accessible, there are as many standing exercises as possible.
There are a number of factors that we need to take into consideration when we're thinking about handling large dogs without compromising our own bodies. I am looking forward to sharing with you how I coach my large dog clients so they can interact safely, comfortably and effectively.
The first is general safety and injury prevention because large high-drive dogs put a lot of force and torque on our bodies. In particular our spine, knees and shoulders. I'm going to use the example of an intense tugging session throughout this post, although this same information will help with carrying crates, helper work, being pulled on a leash etc.
The challenge of connection while sprinting on course is real. It is a very hard skill! And while there are physical requirements, and we are going to talk about them, there is also an aspect of using your peripherals and general awareness of where you are on the course. Here you'll find a roadmap to prepare your body for the asks that you make on course, and how to pull the use of peripherals and connection into your sprint practice.
