The Only 3 Rules You Need to End Cravings & Reset Your Body

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   I had a patient once, um, he was in his m- early 40s, and he came in to see me. And he had a bit of weight around his belly, he was struggling in the day with his mood, and he said, "Doc, you know, I always feel like eating," and there was all kinds of things going on, but in essence, he was starting his day with sugary cereal, okay?

2. SPSpeaker0:22

   Hmm.

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:23

   And I could track his day and his mood and his energy and his fatigue and his focus, and I thought, "I'm pretty certain that the way he starts his day is impacting the rest of his day, and he doesn't realize this," okay? So we did an experiment. I said, "Okay, you've been starting your, your days for years with this sugary bowl of cereal. You've read the marketing, you think it's healthy. Would you be interested in doing something that I call eat dinner for breakfast?" And he said, "What do you mean?" I said, "What do you have for dinner?"

4. SPSpeaker0:56

   Yeah.

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:56

   He goes, "Well, you know, I like a good, uh, good dinner." So he was pescatarian, Mel.

6. SPSpeaker1:02

   Mm-hmm.

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:03

   And he would eat salmon and roasted vegetables in the evenings. I said, "Okay, could you make extra in the evening and then have the leftovers for breakfast?" He goes, "Well, yeah, I could do that. I haven't done that before." I said, "This is just an experiment." And this is a big principle of my entire approach, Mel. I sort of, I offer them to my patients as experiments, not as prescriptions. What I wanna do is inspire that patient to go, "Hey, listen, you know what it feels like to start your day like this."

8. SPSpeaker1:36

   Right.

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:36

   "What does it feel like for you when you start your day with something else?" So then for the next week, he literally did this. And I... You know, it would be often in the morning he'd have salmon and roasted vegetables, like sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts, whatever. He just-

10. SPSpeaker1:50

    One ingredient

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:51

    ... one-ingredient foods.

12. SPSpeaker1:52

    Yep.

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:53

    The salmon, protein, which is satiating, okay, can keep you full for longer. And he came in to see me a few weeks later. He goes, "Dr. Chatterjee, I feel like a completely different person." Right? "I'm better at work now. I have more concentration, more focus. I'm not actually hungry till 2:00 PM," right? And this is the thing people don't realize about hunger. People think they're not eating enough. The thing is you're eating the wrong thing, which is making you hungry. So literally that one change for him taught him how important it was to start his day with these one-ingredient foods. And then what's so important about that, Mel, is that he is paying attention to how he feels.

14. SPSpeaker2:36

    Hmm.

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:37

    So then what happens later is that he wants to continue doing that, not because I asked him to, but because something else has happened. He has felt the difference, and that's always been my approach. You can take alcohol, right?

16. SPSpeaker2:50

    Yeah.

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:50

    Or caffeine. The, the sort of things people are always struggling with.

18. SPSpeaker2:54

    Right.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:54

    My job with a patient has never, ever been to tell them, "You must give up alcohol," or, "You must give up smoking," or whatever it might be. My job has always been to show that person what impact it's having. And so I think one of the reasons I've always had really good compliance with my patients is I don't talk down to them. I see them as equal partners and I say, "Hey, listen, I think this is what's going on. Why don't you experiment this way and see how that feels?" Does, does that all make sense, Mel?

20. SPSpeaker3:23

    Oh my... Not only does it make sense, you've actually handed the power back to us, and you have also activated this internal drive to wanna feel better, and I would love for you to share your framework around cravings. 'Cause you have this three F framework when it comes to craving.

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:51

    One of the reasons that people struggle, Mel, to make changes that last is because too often they try and change the behavior without understanding the role that behavior plays in their life.

22. SPSpeaker4:03

    Hmm. Yeah.

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:03

    So let's talk about that through the lens of sugar.

24. SPSpeaker4:05

    Okay.

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:06

    But you could just as easily apply that around alcohol or three hours doom scrolling Instagram in the evening, whatever it might be, okay?

26. SPSpeaker4:13

    Okay.

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:13

    So let's, let's take a typical scenario that I've seen thousands of times in my practice, and maybe you've experienced before, Mel. I don't... I, I've not been to your house, so I don't know if you've experienced this, but a lot of people when they're trying to reset their relationship with sugar, find that they can be really good in the day.

28. SPSpeaker4:31

    Yes. Yes.

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:33

    But somehow at 9:00 PM on the sofa-

30. SPSpeaker4:36

    Oh my God. Yes

Episode duration: 24:47