The Best Way to Beat Chocolate Cravings

Ever notice how telling yourself to stop obsessing over a guy only makes you think about him more? Well, the same goes for chocolate: Women who feel guilty about indulging often try to suppress their thoughts about the sweet stuff—a strategy that may just ramp up your cravings, according to a new study in the journal Appetite.

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If you've ever tried this strategy, then you probably know the ultimate outcome: You end up eating the chocolate you've been trying so hard to resist—because telling yourself not to think about something is pretty much the fastest way to make sure you think about it nonstop. And chances are, you scarf way more chocolate than you would have if you'd just indulged in the first place. So stop trying to banish that Hershey's bar from your head, the scientists suggest, and imagine eating it. Over and over again.

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As crazy as this technique sounds—so you want me to torture myself?—it's actually been shown to be pretty effective at quelling cravings. Why? Repeatedly picturing yourself enjoying a chocolate bar may cause you to "habituate" to it—that is, you mentally observe yourself indulging so many times that actually doing so starts to lose its novelty, the researchers explain.
 
So go ahead, do a little food fantasizing. And afterward, if you still really want chocolate, savor a single square of the darkest stuff you can handle. 

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