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"You cannot override your physiology with willpower. Biology will win. It's designed to win." - Rachel Carta, RN, CFNC

Have you ever made it through an entire day eating well, only to find yourself standing at the kitchen counter at nine o'clock at night, reaching for things you swore you wouldn't touch? You feel frustrated. Maybe a little ashamed. You tell yourself you just need more discipline. More self-control. A better plan...

Cravings come up with nearly every woman I work with. And I mean that literally. It doesn't matter if she comes to me for fatigue, for perimenopause symptoms, for gut issues, or for anxiety. Somewhere in the conversation, food cravings show up. And almost every time, she's been blaming herself for them.

That stops today.

What Your Body Is Actually Doing

Your body is always trying to keep you alive. It's not working against you. It is working for you, sometimes in ways that feel inconvenient, but always with a logic underneath them.

When you are exhausted, underfed, stressed, sleep-deprived, or dealing with hormonal shifts, your body becomes very practical. It wants fast energy. And fast energy, in the body's economy, almost always means sugar or refined carbohydrates. Bread. Crackers. Chips. Cereal. Something sweet. These foods break down quickly into glucose in the bloodstream, which gives the body an immediate hit of fuel it's been desperately trying to access all day long. This is normal physiology.

When we eat refined carbohydrates without protein, fat, or fiber to slow the process, blood sugar rises quickly. The body releases insulin to move that sugar from the bloodstream into the cells where it can be used as actual energy. But when it moves too fast, blood sugar drops. And when it drops, the body starts asking for more quick fuel. That's the cycle so many women find themselves caught in: crave sugar, eat sugar, feel temporarily better, crash, crave sugar again. Once you understand what's happening physiologically, it makes complete sense. It doesn't make it easier overnight, but it makes it make sense.

The Days That Set the Stage

I hear it from clients constantly. They can't understand why their evenings feel so out of control when they "did so well" all day. But when I ask them what the day actually looked like, here's what I hear: coffee for breakfast and nothing else. A lunch eaten while multitasking, or skipped entirely. Trying hard to "be good." Undereating protein. Running on stress hormones from morning until the moment the house finally gets quiet.

I was this woman for years. From about age 16 to 40, coffee was my breakfast. I'm not even kidding. I couldn't understand why I felt so chaotic around food by evening, and I blamed myself for it every single time.

What's actually happening in those days is that the body is running on stress hormones, particularly cortisol, which we genuinely need but which creates a real problem when it's chronically elevated. Cortisol is designed to help us wake up and respond to threats. But when it stays high because of poor sleep, blood sugar swings, emotional load, and relentless daily demands, the body starts looking for quick energy to keep going.

I remember working night shifts as a nurse years ago and living on bagels. At the time I just thought I had no self-discipline. Now I understand exactly what was happening. My circadian rhythm was completely disrupted, my stress hormones were elevated around the clock, and my nervous system was running on fumes. Of course my body wanted fast fuel.

You might be in a version of that right now, even without the night shifts.

Perimenopause Can Make All of This Louder

If you're in perimenopause and your cravings have intensified in a way that feels new, or even alarming, there is a physiological reason for that too. Progesterone naturally declines during this stage, and that shift affects sleep. A lot of women find themselves waking at two or three in the morning, and they can't quite figure out why. For some, it's hormonal. For others, it's blood sugar dropping overnight. Often it's both.

Fragmented sleep raises cortisol. Higher cortisol contributes to blood sugar instability. Blood sugar instability intensifies cravings. The emotional weight of this life stage, for many women, is also high. And insulin resistance can naturally increase during perimenopause, which adds another layer to the picture.

Insulin resistance means the cells have become less responsive to insulin's signal over time, often from a combination of chronic stress, poor sleep, inflammation, repeated blood sugar spikes, and yes, hormonal change. When this happens, sugar has a harder time getting into the cells where it can actually be used for energy. Even when there's plenty of glucose in the bloodstream, the cells are essentially signaling that they're starving. So the body does what it always does: it asks for more quick fuel. This is one of the clearest examples I can give you of why restrictive dieting so often backfires. You cannot override your physiology with willpower. Biology will win. It is designed to win.

The Brain Chemistry Nobody Talks About

There is another piece of this conversation that I think gets glossed over, and it's important. Sugar temporarily changes brain chemistry. It can increase feel-good neurotransmitters and briefly calm the nervous system. So if you've been in a low-grade state of stress and threat response all day long, of course eating something sugary feels calming. Of course it does. Your nervous system found something that works, and it's going to keep asking for it until the underlying conditions change.

I've had clients tell me they know they're emotionally eating. Sometimes that's true. But I think we do women a real disservice when we leave the conversation there. Because if you're sleep-deprived, undereating, stressed, dealing with blood sugar instability, navigating hormonal shifts, possibly carrying a gut imbalance, and living in a chronic fight-or-flight state, that's not emotional eating. That's your body screaming for support and finding the fastest way to get it.

We cannot solve nervous system exhaustion with food rules. We just can't.

The Gut Piece That Changes Everything

Inside our gut, we have trillions of bacteria and microbes that collectively make up the microbiome. This environment influences far more than digestion. It shapes cravings, inflammation, mood, energy, and appetite signaling. The question of whether you even know you're full? That comes from here too.

When there's an imbalance, whether from yeast overgrowth, dysbiosis, or years of diet culture that stripped the gut's diversity, cravings can intensify in ways that feel completely out of your control. The gut plays a much bigger role in what you reach for than most people realize.

I had a client who genuinely believed she could not stop craving bread. She was exhausted, bloated, deep in perimenopause, and constantly reaching for quick carbs and sweets. We didn't start by restricting her food. We started by stabilizing her body: more protein, more healthy fat, more fiber, eating consistently throughout the day. Her cravings began to quiet down naturally, not overnight, not perfectly, but significantly. She was shocked. And we didn't eliminate dessert, because dessert was a real and meaningful family ritual in her house. We shifted it. Greek yogurt with berries. Allulose in certain recipes instead of regular sugar. Fat, fiber, and protein at every meal to keep her blood sugar steady.

She stopped feeling controlled by food. That's the goal. Not perfection. Food freedom.

Fat, Fiber, Protein: The Anchor

If you take one thing from this episode, let it be this principle, and I want you to hear my voice every single time you walk into your kitchen: fat, fiber, protein. Every meal. Every snack. When those three elements are present, your blood sugar stays steadier, your energy lasts longer, your cravings soften, and your body stops screaming for fast fuel. It is one of the simplest and most consistent shifts I see make a real difference for women.

It's never about the huge overhaul. It's always about the small hinges that swing the big doors.

What Your Cravings Are Telling You

Symptoms are signals. I say this all the time, and I mean it about cravings too. When your body is asking for sugar or quick carbs, it's not sabotaging you. It's communicating. It's telling you something about your blood sugar, your stress load, your sleep, your nervous system, your gut, or your hormones. Possibly several of those at once.

The work I do with women inside my functional nutrition practice is built on this exact premise: we look at the whole picture. Blood sugar, stress, hormones, digestion, sleep, nervous system patterns, and root causes. Because another restrictive plan is not going to be the thing that saves the day. What actually changes things is clarity. Understanding why the cravings are there in the first place.

You can find me on Instagram at @peaceinperimenopause, or visit my website at RachelCartaRN.com. And if you are ready to finally be free from your cravings, let's talk. You can schedule time with me here: Clarity & Relief.

Your body is talking to you every single day. When you can slow down enough to listen, everything starts to shift. Not all at once. Not perfectly. But steadily, and in a direction that is yours. You are not fighting your body. You never were. Breathe in. Breathe out. It's trying to get you home.

Lots of love,

Rachel

Rachel's Free Resources:

Mood Swings? Get the 5 minute audio to calm them now. https://rachelcartarn.com/sos

Do you want to understand more of what's changing in your body in midlife and get a few simple tools to feel better now? Get the free guide: The Real Reason You Still Feel Off.

Ready to Talk: Book a Clarity & Relief Session here.