How to Use Emotional Freedom Technique for Food Cravings

Food cravings have the ability to turn any diet into a train wreck if left unchecked. These little blighters can sneak up on any unsuspecting dieter at any time and leave you chomping at the bit for the desired food of choice. So it is important to have at the ready a tool to use to send this trouble tree packing when ever it surfaces.

A couple of days ago I had one such attack. I had enjoyed a lovely meal of stir fried chicken breast with spelt pasta, broccoli, okras and spinach. I was sitting in my veranda just enjoying the evening breeze when I suddenly had this really strong desire to eat some thing sweet. This is something that I will get from time to time but I do not count it as a craving because it is usually just a passing thought.

However, on this particular occasion the sugar craving decided it was going to launch a full on attack. At first I did my usual thing and tried to direct my thoughts away from the craving but I noticed that after about 20 minutes my lips were still smacking and I was beginning to salivate.

Concerned about this unusual occurrence disturbing my evening siesta I wondered what I could do to distract myself from these very powerful feelings. It took me a little while but I suddenly remembered my good old friend EFT. Emotional freedom technique as popularized by Gary Craig can be used for anything including food cravings.

Although I had read about folks with eating disorders using EFT I had never used it for food cravings. But I have used it for so many other things ranging from, curing a verruca to clearing negative beliefs about money so I knew it was definitely worth tapping for a food craving.

Before I started I checked in with myself to see how strongly on the scale I was feeling this craving. In EFT you always measure how strongly you are feeling the discomfort so that after your first few rounds of tapping you can gauge to see if the level of discomfort has dropped. On a scale of 1 – 10, ten being the highest I rated my craving a 10.

I then started as always on the karate chop point and I used the following set up phrase…

Even though I really feel like eating something sweet right now, I deeply and completely love and forgive and accept myself.

I repeated this set up phrase three times and them I went through the tapping points that I usually use which are…

Eyebrow – side of the eye – under the eye – under the nose – under the mouth – collar bone – under the arm – top of the head.

Whilst tapping each of these points I used a different statement based on how I felt at the time. It went some thing like this…

• Eyebrow - this craving for something sweet is really strong right now
• Side of the eye - I desperately want something sweet to eat right now
• Under the eye – I really want some thing sweet to eat
• Under the nose – I can’t believe how strong this craving is
• Under the mouth – I really really want a snickers bar
• Collar bone – I so want some chocolate right now
• Under the arm – I want some thing sweet and I don’t care what it is
• Top of the head – I’m gonna scream if I don’t get something sweet to eat

I did this sequence twice using words to that affect, when I finished I took a deep breath and sat still for a moment assessing how strong my craving was. To my surprise and joy I rated the craving a 4. Obviously it was still there but it was not nearly as desperate as it was before the tapping.

With EFT the point is to continue tapping until you reach 0. So I continued like this…

• Eyebrow – I am still craving something sweet
• Side of the eye - I still want something sweet to eat
• Under the eye – I still have an urge for chocolate
• Under the nose – I still need some sugar
• Under the mouth – I still have this craving
• Collar bone – it doesn’t seem to want to go away
• Under the arm – I can still feel it
• Top of the head – I really want it to go away now

I did this round twice and checked in again. This time I rated the craving at 1. But 1 is not zero so I tapped again.

• Eyebrow – I don’t need this craving any more
• Side of the eye – its time to let go of this craving for something sweet
• Under the eye – I can eat what ever I want
• Under the nose – I do not need to crave sugar
• Under the mouth – I can eat something healthy and sweet
• Collar bone – there is no need for this craving
• Under the arm – so I am letting it go
• Top of the head – releasing this craving in mind body and spirit

I did this sequence twice and checked in again. I was at 0.

The whole session took about 15 minutes which was fantastic considering I had been sitting with the cravings for at least 25. Basically I was suffering unnecessarily, but now that I have remembered how great EFT is I will never go through something like that again.

So the next time you have a food craving remember that you can quickly overcome it with emotional freedom technique. If you would like to see EFT in action visit my EFT Page where you can watch a video of master practitioner Brad Yates as he walks you through a sequence of tapping for weight loss.