On your recovery journey, you’ll quickly find that overcoming alcohol cravings is one of your biggest ways to ensure long-term success. Curbing alcohol cravings isn’t always easy, but you can do a few things to help suppress cravings and suppress them during the recovery process. Use these tips to avoid triggers and enhance your strength and willpower to avoid alcohol consumption. 

Foods to Help Calm Alcohol Cravings

Food is a great way to fill your body with healthy products while resisting the demand for alcohol. Think about some of your favorite foods and how they make you feel. Some of these foods have natural ingredients that help your mind and body separate from the constant desire for alcohol. Keep these foods around, and you’ll stop a craving before it leads to a wrong decision.

Fruits and Veggies

Your diet should already consist of a healthy amount of fruits and vegetables, but if not, now is a great time to do so. Fruit and vegetables help your body maintain stable blood sugar levels, which reduce alcohol cravings. Additionally, these products can boost your immune system and protect your liver, and the healthy nutrients help individuals avoid deficiencies caused by excess alcohol consumption.

Complex Carbs

When your body becomes used to drinking alcohol, cravings can come as the brain searches for sources of fuel for your body. Instead of caving to unhealthy demands, eating foods with fiber-rich complex carbohydrates, such as cereal, bread, and fresh fruit, can make your body feel full and satisfied.

Foods That Enhance Dopamine Levels

Chronic alcohol consumption eventually reduces dopamine levels, leading to increased cravings and an immense amount of alcohol needed to satisfy those cravings. Instead, treat alcohol cravings with foods like bananas, sunflower seeds, or caffeine that reduce the desire for alcohol.

Set Goals

Setting goals is essential no matter what tasks you partake in. Doing this can help outline what you need to accomplish and provide a blueprint for how you will do so. If you want to reduce alcohol cravings, setting a goal is one of the first steps you can take. It will clarify how much you can drink, what you want to drink (or eat during the day), and a host of other considerations. Contact a medical professional for a more precise goal, depending on where you are in the rehab process, and want clarity on what is appropriate for your age.

Put Your Goals in Writing

Writing down goals helps them stick in your head and mind. Instead of just setting a goal in mind and letting it linger amongst your many other thoughts, putting your goals clearly in front of you is a great way to remember them throughout each day. Create a list of reasons why you want to stop drinking, whether your goal is to improve relationships with your children or spouse or to get back on track at school or work.

Avoid Keeping Alcohol in Your Home

Out of sight, out of mind, right? Cravings may occur, but the only way to satisfy those cravings is if alcohol is around. Keeping alcohol away from your home can give you extra time to think and prevent these cravings. This can also help you embrace the cravings by searching for additional ways to quell your thoughts. Instead of quickly taking a drink, you’ll give yourself time to address your brain by placing alternative methods in your mind. 

Partake in Other Activities

Distracting your mind is a great way to reduce cravings. Focus on positive distractions, like a new hobby or simply walking around the block. Here are some additional activities you can consider instead of searching out alcohol:

  • Listening to fun, exciting, or engaging music.
  • Going for a walk or run in a park.
  • Watching a funny show or video.
  • Finish up your weekly chores.
  • Find a new hobby, or spend time engaging in an old one.
  • Grab a quick snack or make a cup of tea.
  • Read a book.

Get Support From Medical Professionals

Alcohol cravings can make it difficult to perform everyday responsibilities and tasks and take a bite out of your overall mood and productivity. Succumbing to cravings and desires can set you back on your road to recovery, but fortunately, you don’t have to recover alone. There’s nothing wrong with turning to medical professionals for support during your rehabilitation for alcoholism. With the right support team, you can find various ways to curb your cravings and become that much closer to a full recovery.

At Steps to Recovery, our treatment facility provides proper support for individuals searching to quell withdrawal symptoms and cravings for alcohol. With treatment programs like our addiction therapy programs, we use our expertise to provide constant support and care during your alcohol rehab process. Complete our contact form to learn more about how our customized care can help you, or give Steps to Recovery a call today at 267.719.8528.