Hi Ireactions. I hope you're still here and hanging around.

IMO, those mental desires *are* somewhat physical. Yes, you're feeding your body well, but I consider it an addiction issue and your brain is still seeking out a high. What works for a lot of us is to just go ahead and eat LC snacks, at least at first. This is like methadone. It keeps you clean. Compliance is the most important factor.

Eventually, my brain figured out that there's no high to be gotten from 90% chocolate, from pork rinds, natural peanut butter, diet soda, and other LC snacky treats*. Those snacks become less appealing as you get used to not getting high.

Something else that's helped me is to have the habit of "closing the kitchen" after dinner. Clean up, get ready for the morning, and that's it. Then, I'll relax doing something that occupies my hands: I like knitting, and playing puzzle games on my iPad. Try to find something like that.

*This is highly subjective! Some folks can't have those in the house because they'll binge. That's why we have to experiment and figure out these things for ourselves.