How One Client’s Craving Turned Into a Breakthrough
Meaningful Movement
Takeaway: Carolyn thought she had a sweet tooth problem. Turns out, it wasn’t about sugar at all. What started as a simple recipe suggestion turned into something much deeper—a discovery that changed everything about the way she handles cravings at work.
How One Client’s Craving Turned Into a Breakthrough
This is a story about how saying the wrong thing led us to the right answer.
I was on a call with a client recently—Carolyn—and she shared that she struggles with a sweet tooth at work. She wanted suggestions for how to overcome it.
So I shared a quick, easy, and manageable recipe: the 3-2-1 CAKE.
Three tablespoons of boxed cake mix.
Two tablespoons of water.
Microwave for one minute. Boom—cake.
(Steal this one if you’ve got a sweet tooth.)
It’s low-calorie, easy to fit into any diet, and tasty enough to satisfy a craving.
But after I shared the recipe, Carolyn made a face.
“No, that won’t work. I need something convenient at work, not something I have to prepare.”
I smiled. In Carolyn’s “no,” the real answer revealed itself.
She didn’t need a recipe—she needed a new way to deal with stress.
Her sweet cravings weren’t the result of a bottomless sweet tooth. They only showed up at work. That’s not a preference—it’s a pattern. And patterns always have a cause.
The cause? Stress.
Turning to food when stressed is common. Fatty, sugary foods light up the brain’s reward centers. You get a hit of dopamine, and for a brief moment, the stress fades.
Covering a dirty floor with a beautiful rug doesn’t make the dirt disappear.
When the dopamine wears off, the stress is still there. And now you’ve reinforced the habit loop.
Stress → Food → Dopamine → Stress Returns → More Food → More Dopamine
This is how a sweet tooth turns into a survival mechanism. Not for hunger—but for emotional escape.
And that cake?
It’s no longer just dessert.
It becomes your crutch.
So here’s what Carolyn is doing now—and what you can do too:
🔍 Step 1: Build Awareness
Make a list of every moment during the day you feel the urge to reach for a treat. What just happened? What were you doing or feeling right before the craving hit?
This helps identify your triggers.
🔄 Step 2: Create an Alternative Plan
Once you know the trigger, you can predict the moment.
Have a go-to coping strategy ready. For Carolyn, this could be:
Walking a few flights of stairs
Taking five deep breaths
Texting a friend or playing a quick game on her phone
Anything that relieves stress without sabotaging your goals
⏰ Step 3: Set Reminders to Interrupt the Pattern
Your subconscious is going to try to do what it’s always done. That’s what habits do.
So you need something that snaps you out of autopilot—a sticky note on your desk, a timer on your phone, a bracelet you touch before a snack.
Reminders help you choose your new response instead of defaulting to the old one.
🔁 Step 4: Repeat Until It’s Automatic
This is the real secret to change: repetition.
If you want to stop eating when you’re stressed, you need to do something else often enough that it becomes your new automatic.
That’s how behavior rewiring works.
Cue → Response → Reward
Same structure, different choices.
Carolyn’s “sweet tooth” wasn’t the problem.
The stress underneath it was.
But now? We’ve got a plan.
And whether your crutch is cake, scrolling, or coffee breaks that turn into calorie bombs—the process is the same:
Spot the pattern.
Replace the response.
Repeat it until it sticks.
You’re not stuck because you’re broken.
You’re stuck because you’ve been conditioned.
And conditioning can be changed.
P.S. When you’re ready to take the next step in your health journey, here are three ways I can help:
Book Your Free Health Discovery Call to learn about how we can help you overcome barriers like Carolyn.
Download our free Food Freedom Framework Guide.
Let AI build your meal plan—New Free Training!