Kevin Geary: Decode Your Cravings
When you hear the word, “craving” what comes to mind?
It might be a feeling or an itch, that if left unscratched, will eventually take on a life of it’s own.
What we now know through behavioral psychology is that our cravings can be unnatural or natural depending on the manipulator that creates them.
Whether healthy or unhealthy, we'll find a way to satisfy our deepest physical and social needs.
This week on Wellness + Wisdom, Holistic Health Coach Kevin Geary of Rebooted Body shares how we can identify our “manipulators” to then stop using superficial cravings as a means of instant gratification.
Decode Your Cravings
Do you crave a McDonald’s Big Mac or a large ice cream sundae after a long day? Or maybe a large glass of ice cold water in the summer?
Some cravings are natural and healthy; it's our body's voice that has spoken to us for millennia to support health, vitality, and satisfy our soul.
But having a sugary smoothie will not help us satisfy what we are truly missing from our lives.
What we all deeply crave are the physical and social factors such as energy, acceptance, and a life purpose. It’s never too late to begin taking a closer look at yourself and discover what you’re truly craving in your life.
When we take time to figure out our stress factors and why we crave what we crave, we can get to a place of self-acceptance and feel satisfied with ourselves. When we look deep inside, we find fulfillment and finally get the life that we want.
What is a Craving vs. a Superficial Craving?
A craving is something that is a human need for a specific purpose such as survival, to be happy, among other core human needs.
A superficial craving is more of a desire such as a desire for a cup of hot coffee in the morning or something sweet as an afternoon snack.
When we can’t satisfy real human cravings, it can increase our superficial cravings and bring on a great deal of stress so that we easily turn to different coping mechanisms such as eating unhealthy foods.
Human cravings that we need to satisfy to end superficial cravings can include:
- Safety
- Mobility
- Movement
- Love and Relationships
- Social Acceptance
- Purpose
- Health and Vitality
- Self Actualization
- Autonomy
What Are Our Manipulators?
All of us have very different backgrounds that involve stressors and factors that keep us from reaching our health and fitness goals.
These are referred to by Kevin as “BioPsychoSocial Manipulators.”
One specific manipulator is perfection. If we feel the need to have specific meal plans, workouts, and other specialized plans to reach fitness and body success, this need for perfection can actually have a negative effect on ourselves both physically and emotionally.
If we’re perfectionists and we end up not following a specific diet, we would feel bad if we eat something that’s not part of the meal plan. If we didn’t do every set in a workout, or if we didn’t meet a weight goal by the summer, we’d be negative towards ourselves and get nowhere in the end.
BioPsychoSocial Manipulators such as perfection are distractions that keep us from reaching our goals in a positive manner.
Other BioPsychoSocial Manipulators can include:
- Willpower
- Shame
- Guilt
- Anxiety
- Grief
- Poor sleep
- Nutritional poverty
- Cluttered environment
- Peer pressure
- Chronic illness
Why We Need A Why
The fitness industry likes to tell us that we need to look a certain way or we need to be a specific pants size to be healthy.
Therefore, we set up goals based on that idea and force ourselves to workout everyday (or only eat salads for a month) because we think it will get us to our fitness goals. But if you’re using willpower and forcing yourself to do a workout or eat a diet that you don’t like, then you are more likely to fail than to succeed.
Willpower is a manipulator and it’s keeping you from reaching your goals and has no means to help you reach them in a much more positive means of fitness. Instead of having willpower, what you get to do is to ask yourself the question:“Why?”
Why do you want to set a fitness goal? Why do you have this intention to eat healthy? If you have a massive why instead of a superficial why that’s been given to you by the Fitness Industry, then you’re going to be able to overcome your obstacles and get to your goal.
More About Kevin Geary
Kevin Geary is the founder of RebootedBody.com and host of the Rebooted Body Podcast. He helps men and women finally get a body and life they love with his unique blend of real food nutrition, functional fitness, and behavior psychology.
He currently has clients in over 30 countries around the world and is dedicated to the mission of changing the landscape of human health. Rebooted Body is here to help you answer the main question, “Why can’t I consistently align my behavior with my good intentions?”Kevin himself has gone through a life and body transformation from being 220 pounds and borderline diabetic with high blood pressure.
After experiencing different yo-yo diets and forcing himself to cut calories and eat only certain foods, Kevin realized that there has to be a better, positive way to lose weight by creating a relationship with yourself, food, and fitness.
Listen To Kevin Share
- His personal experience and journey with weight loss
- His discovery of restorative and positive movement and exercise
- His and his wife’s experience with psychotherapy sessions and finding the perfect counselor
- How Kevin changed his life around with a new job, goals, and life outlook
- What is the difference between Cravings vs. Superficial Cravings
- What are BioPsychoSocial Manipulators
- How are childhood experiences affect our behavior later on in life.
- How and why we all have different perceptions of what is stressful
Resources Mentioned In The Show
- Rebooted Body
- Decode Your Cravings Program
- Sanity Fitness Guide from Rebooted Body – Free Guide for mindset around living an active lifestyle
- Adverse Childhood Experiences Study
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Headspace app
- Calm app
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About The Author, Lauren Bryant, Podcast Production
Lauren Bryant is the Podcasting Assistant and Show Notes Writer for Wellness + Wisdom. She has a BBA in both Marketing and Spanish for Business as well as certificates in Advanced Business Communications and International Business from the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire.
Lauren’s wellness journey began at a young age when she joined her local YMCA swim team, The Wave, of La Crosse, WI. One of the most profound views on wellness that anyone has said to her was when she was an assistant swim coach for that same YMCA swim team.
One day during a practice, former head swim coach, Jon Brenner, shared with her that the most important thing about coaching the swimmers was that “It doesn’t matter if they become the best athletes in the world. What’s important is that we give them the tools and guidance they need to live a healthy, active lifestyle for the rest of their lives.”
Since hearing those words, she has taken it to heart to not only focus on continuously living her own healthy lifestyle, but to help others pursue their wellness goals as well.
Lauren is not only an avid swimmer, but a fan of running, yoga, cooking, and doing any activity outside that involves being surrounded by nature. In the Fall of 2014, she completed a long-awaited goal of walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
According to Lauren, wellness is about finding gratitude and joy in doing any type of physical or self-care activity that we love. Wellness means providing ourselves with self-love, good nutrition, and the inner peace that our individual minds and bodies need.
