I agree with Brie. If I am dying for chips, I am generally ahving a craving and work to plan it into my upcoming week.

If I am hungry, my regular food plan fits the bill.

I find that the more I gave into cravings the more intense and frequent they became. I had to "strengthen my resistance muscle" rather then my "giving in muscle." This took a few months, but now I know that I don't have to give it.

For me, I think there is a huge difference between being physically hungry and having a craving for something specific.

If I'm physically hungry, having a piece of fruit works no matter what else I would prefer to have.

If I have a CRAVING, that's a different story and I have a strategy. This is how I handle food cravings:

If they weren't planned for in my day, I make myself wait until the following day so I can plan for the craved item in my food plan. (There was a Beck exercise that really helped me with this. I won't die because I can't have a piece of chocolate today and it will still be there tomorrow type thinking). Most of the time by the next day, I no longer want said food but sometimes I do and I will work it in.

Basically though, because I have a food plan that I really stick to, I don't give in to cravings. It's like Cathy's weekend "try" homework. I don't TRY to stick to my food plan, like Nike says, I just do it ; ) Caving to cravings when they happen are just not part of the plan for me.

I also find that if I give in to food cravings, then I use up all my discretionary calories for the week. When push comes to shove, I'd rather bank those calories for something I'm going to savor and really enjoy which usually doesn't seem to be the case with me for cravings.

I'm disciplined enough now that I won't give in to an unplanned for craving AND have weekend wine and dessert because the subsequent weight gain is totally not worth it to me.