Coaching practices for Plan for Cravings

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Plan for Cravings, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I keep finding myself already mid-snack or already typing the sharp reply, with no memory of deciding to
• The same situations set me off every time
• There’s a predictable moment where I always slip
• When a craving hits it feels like it’ll just keep building and building until I cave
• Telling myself to resist a craving forever feels impossible and I give up before I start

Practices that may help

1. Notice the urge as it arises
   Catch the craving early, the moment it starts, before it becomes an automatic action.
   Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
2. Plan ahead for predictable triggers
   Decide in advance how you will surf the urges you know are coming.
   Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
3. Arm an if-then plan for the impulsive moment
   Decide in advance exactly what you’ll do when the urge hits, so the impulse meets a plan.
   Delayed Gratification, Made Practical
4. Ride the wave to its peak and down
   Watch the urge rise, crest, and fall without acting — like a wave you are surfing.
   Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
5. Buy time with a brief delay
   Commit to waiting just ten minutes before acting on the urge.
   Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
6. Extinguish conditioned cravings through cue exposure without response
   Repeatedly expose yourself to a craving cue without performing the associated behavior to weaken the conditioned urge.
   Classical Conditioning and Habit Triggers
7. Locate the urge in your body
   Describe where and how the craving shows up physically instead of arguing with it in your head.
   Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
8. Write an if–then plan for your most predictable temptation
   "If I feel the urge to [temptation], then I will [alternative action] instead."
   If–Then Planning, Made Practical
9. Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving
   Urge surfing means treating a craving like a wave — observing it rise, peak, and fall instead of either fighting it or acting on it. Drawn from Alan Marlatt’s mindfulness-based relapse prevention, it works because urges are time-limited and pass on their own when not fed. It is a well-established clinical technique for everyday cravings; for serious addiction, it belongs alongside professional support, not instead of it.
10. Meet the urge without judging yourself
    Treat having an urge as normal and human, not as evidence of weakness.
    Urge Surfing: Riding the Wave of a Craving

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