Metabolic and Mental Health

Zayla’s Six-Step Process to End Food Cravings, Reverse Metabolic Syndrome, and Trim Her Body

A practical guide to addressing emotional eating that leads to weight gain and metabolic disorders

Food cravings and emotional eating are well-known causes of gaining unnecessary weight and accumulating visceral fat, leading to metabolic disorders. Zayla stopped food cravings, reversed metabolic syndrome, and gained a trimmed and defined body in six steps.

This story documents a woman’s experience who successfully overcame food cravings and emotional eating with six practical steps. Zayla addressed food cravings, manifesting as hunger urges sustainably, leveraging the power of a holistic health approach.

I only focus on the key points and link to my previous articles for details to make this post digestible and helpful.

A Brief Background to Zayla’s Situation

In the early 1980s, like many of her friends, including me, Zayla joined the low-fat craze to be healthy and fit. She chose to be a vegetarian, hoping it would help her to become a model.

However, she did not become a complete vegan. Her main focus was refraining from eating food with fat and cholesterol, whether plant or animal sources.

Even though she loved avocadoes, coconut milk, fish, and eggs, she stopped eating them. In her first year, she lost substantial weight and felt great about it. After that, however, she faced a massive challenge that affected her physical and mental health.

The biggest problem for Zayla was excessive hunger sensation even after her main meals. Of course, she increased her portions, but still, she felt like she was starving. She particularly craved certain types of food, such as chocolate, cakes, donuts, ice cream, chips, bread, and peanut butter.

Initially, she did not worry about high-carb foods but did not want to eat too many chips and peanut butter as they had fat. Her only concern was fat, thinking fat would make her fat. She had no clue excessive carbs might turn to visceral fat.

She also refrained from protein as she considered it would shorten her lifespan. Her only protein source was legumes; she consumed a few weekly servings. But legumes upset her digestive system. She was not very happy with her gassy stomach, which caused her bloating and distension.

To her surprise, in the second year, Zayla gained all the weight she had lost. The year after, she even got heavier. Despite her growing belly, she was feeling hungrier. Her hunger pangs increased and compelled her to eat more. Finally, Zayla became an emotional eater. She couldn’t get satiety from her high-carb meals.

In the mid-1990s, Zayla became overweight, and her family doctor diagnosed her with metabolic syndrome. The size of her waistline, high triglycerides, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and low HDL indicated her situation clearly.

As the doctor believed in integrative healthcare, she referred Zayla to an experienced metabolic health specialist with a high success rate in reversing metabolic disorders.

To her surprise, Zayla’s situation was resolved without any medication. The integrative healthcare practitioner assisted Zayla in reversing her metabolic syndrome with healthy lifestyle choices. Having a trimmed body was a bonus that exceeded her expectations. She became a model after her 30s.

Here’s how Zayla eliminated food cravings in six steps.

1 — Acted mindfully and learned to meditate.

After reviewing her medical history and having the first interview, the practitioner started with Zayla’s mind as he recognized the root causes of her situation were mainly emotional.

But she also had physical symptoms that the practitioner used different approaches to solve. So, the first prescription, rather than medication, was acting mindfully. Zayla learned that excessive emotional stress was the leading cause of cravings for food.

Mindful behavior lowered Zayla’s impulsivity. Awareness of her urges and accepting them even if they hurt was an excellent start for her. She learned to act mindfully and intentionally. Zayla also started a 20-minute meditation daily.

A mindful approach with regular meditation lowered her emotional stress by empowering her neocortex and taming her amygdala. Mindfulness practices regulated her emotions and gave her cognitive flexibility. Her adversity quotient increased.

After gaining self-compassion, she became calmer and more composed. Her metacognition prevented her from indulging in impulsivity. Her food cravings did not stop, but they became more manageable.

2 — Addressed nutritional deficiencies.

The second item on the agenda was to address the nutritional deficiencies Zayla had. The specialist identified them from her blood tests. Her hormonal imbalance was also an indicator of deficiencies.

She learned that her body needed specific micronutrients to function. Therefore, a lack of essential nutrients in her diet might be causing severe cravings. She also understood that excessive calorie reduction to lose weight in her first year triggered food cravings.

The specialist referred Zayla to a qualified dietician specializing in plant food eaters as Zayla did not want to consume many animal products. But she agreed to eat a little fish and eggs as the dietician highlighted the importance of bioavailable proteins.

The dietician helped Zayla to cure her fat phobia. Her diet was close to a keto-vegan diet. To her initial prejudice, Zayla loved consuming avocados, olives, walnuts, and macadamia nuts in moderation.

Consuming whole foods mainly from plants gave her essential amino acids, healthy fats, minerals, and vitamins that her body needed. In a short time, she felt great. Her mood increased, and her cravings lowered.

3 — Made smart food replacements.

Both the specialist and dietician identified that Zayla mainly craved comfort food like chocolate, cakes, donuts, peanut butter, and ice cream.

As the dietician knew the impact of those foods, she taught Zayla to make some adjustments when food cravings occur. This tactical approach, serving as a coping mechanism, lowered the cravings and prevented impulsive behavior.

In summary, a few adjustments took a teaspoon of Manuka honey from New Zealand when she craved sugary foods like cakes and donuts.

She took a spoonful of dairy cream when she yearned for ice cream. She drank a cup of cacao beverage with no sugar when she desired chocolate.

She drank a cup of organic bone broth when she craved salty foods. When she craved peanut butter on her toast, she replaced it with vegemite. Australians love vegemite, a unique taste that other nations have difficulty adapting.

4 — Regulated blood glucose, made the body insulin sensitive, and gained metabolic flexibility

As identified by the specialist, one of the main culprits for Zayla’s emotional hunger was fluctuating blood glucose. Her blood glucose rose quickly as she was on a high-carb diet and mainly consumed refined carbs.

Her body produced excessive insulin to manage elevated blood sugar, which was toxic to the body. Since insulin acts very quickly to clear the sugar from the blood, she felt terrible hunger. This physical process created a psychological effect. She was not aware of it.

Since her body created excessive insulin for a prolonged time, the specialist noticed that her body was insulin resistant. In addition to her customized diet, the specialist advised Zayla to exercise for 30 minutes after each meal.

Her new diet with healthy fats and bioavailable proteins normalized her blood sugar and caused fewer insulin spikes. In addition, her body became more leptin-sensitive, giving satiety signals to her brain.

Her new diet and exercise enabled her body to become insulin-sensitive, which made the most significant impact in reversing her metabolic syndrome and trimming her body.

After having an insulin-sensitive and leptin-sensitive body with normalized cortisol, her mood improved, and most of her cravings disappeared.

5 — Used CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

The next item on the specialist’s agenda was introducing Zayla to a CBT practitioner to make lasting behavior changes.

She gained numerous practical tips to improve her behavior during the CBT sessions. For example, she stopped eating in front of the TV. She made triggering foods invisible.

Since Zayla had already learned how to act mindfully and meditate, she only took a few sessions to learn CBT practices. The key points were to observe and challenge her thoughts and feelings with intellect.

After learning CBT techniques, Zayla felt more empowered. Her empathy and compassion for herself and others were enhanced. Her relationships with others improved. She joined new health and fitness clubs, which I introduce in the next section.

Cognitive behavioral therapy enhanced her cognitive flexibility, regulated her emotions, and improved her adversity quotient.

6 — Boosted mood with personalized exercise, dance music, and laughter therapy

As 30 minutes of walking gave Zayla a lot of joy, she wanted to exercise more. The specialist advised Zayla to start resistance training with body weight and light weightlifting, like a few kilos of dumbells. She joined a health and fitness club with a gym and other activities.

Her favorite workouts were the plank and pushups, which helped her to have a better posture, contributing to her trimmed body being more defined. She started Pilates and Yoga to strengthen her core.

Her Pilates instructor was also offering classes for Zumba. Zayla joined the Zumba classes and loved them. Moving her body with music joyfully helped her burn fat sustainably. Her body became more insulin-sensitive. After Zumba classes, she did not feel any hunger or food craving.

After meeting Gloria, she joined the laughter yoga club. Meaningful interactions and friendly support in the club took Zayla’s mood to another level. She stopped thinking about food.

Rhythmic movements with laughter activated several brain regions, producing mood-boosting neurochemicals. I believe her BDNF significantly increased during these joyful exercises. Therefore, she felt younger than before.

Conclusions and Takeaways

Food cravings with irresistible urges leading to binge eating are the primary cause of gaining unnecessary weight, especially visceral fat, causing several metabolic disorders.

Frequent and excessive food consumption can imbalance our hormones and neurotransmitters, making us feel miserable and needy.

As food cravings involve both body and mind, we must approach them holistically. Fixing both physical and psychological problems can produce optimal results.

Mindfulness practices can significantly lower food cravings, as I exemplified in Zayla’s situation. Mindful awareness of our thoughts and feelings can put us in a better position to control our urges.

As the body and mind are connected, our thoughts and emotions play a critical role in creating our behavior and habits for physical manifestation. For example, we might have a better hormonal profile when we simultaneously balance the needs of the body and mind.

Observing, analyzing, and finding ways to reduce our cravings can improve our mood and manage our weight more effectively. The body and mind are inseparable. They work better when we create a good balance of our biochemistry.

Food cravings and obesity are like a catch-22 situation. For example, excessive weight can also trigger food cravings. As informed by this review paper, “studies indicate that eating behaviors and food cravings are associated with increased BMI and obesity.”

Food cravings and the irresistible urge to eat are significant causes of unnecessary weight gain, leading to metabolic disorders.

Thus, I hope this story shows the importance of a holistic approach to addressing food cravings and gaining metabolic flexibility, managing a healthy weight, and having a joyful life. The aesthetic is just a bonus.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

If you enjoyed this story, you might check how Luke, who had severe issues, achieved a similar result in a story titled After Losing Substantial Weight Too Quickly, Luke Faced 6 Agonizing Health Issues.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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