I have realised that i have a serious sugar addiction. I have been trying to keep a food diary of late and have noticed that recently barely a day goes by where i dont eat something sweet. How did that happen??!! I have a diploma in nutrition and i realise what i should and shouldn't eat but i love cakes and chocs so much.
I have become so week willed, we have lots of cakes and sweets at work for different occasions and i can never say no. I am a little over my desired weight but nothing too serious but i wondered why i could not loose my belly fat and now i know, i have been sneaking all these little "goodies" or "treats" way too often. I exercise frequently so i feel like i reward myself for the hard work 🙂 My husband has a sweet tooth also and we often eat out and i cant resist a nice carrot cake (yes i tell myself its the healthier option hahaha). I am even using these nasty little sachets of vanilla sweetners in my herbal tea - something i really dont agree with as the norm and i enjoy coffee like never before purely because i sweeten it. I am officially off the rails.
Has anyone else battled with this?
Yeperooni.....
I needed to go on a sugar free diet once because of my excema.
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Me too. I will purposely not buy chocolate when I'm shopping but then knowing we have none in has the opposite affect and makes me want it more! So then I sulk because I haven't got any!:p
Me too! 😮 Though I am GRADUALLY getting to the end of it. I have been reducing my intake over the last couple of years. I haven't stopped all things sweet, but nearly, thank goodness. The trouble is if I weaken then my body seems to want more - I think it's those pesky bad bacteria/fungi :035: in the gut shrieking for more again!!!
At least I can understand how difficult it is for my clients!
In holistic living being a "sugar junkie" is an out of balance condition, and therefore something that needs to be brought back in to balance.
When something is out of balance there are several steps that need to be taken:
- Take responsibility, if you want change, only you can make the change happen. It's human nature to look for a soft landing and seek things out the will "help" us change. But in reality that's just passing the responsibility on, i.e. "that diet didn't work for me", etc.
- Recognise the culture, we're brought up to think sweet things are treats. Sweets things are given as rewards for good behaviour and at special times of the year we celebrate with sweet things. So our defences are down, we can see no harm in sweet things, and therefore become blinded the power of marketing that's targeted at our cultural weeknesses.
- Understand there are 2 parts to addiction, Chemical and Psychological. Chemical cravings will pass, and psychological cravings can be dealt with by occupying the brain and hands with something else equally absorbing.
- Stress and emotional issues need to be dealt with at the same time, because if they're not, they will drag you back.
- If we think we're giving something up, then we're telling ourselves we're losing something, and therefore attitude is essential. It's not about giving up, it's about gaining; better health, protection from disease, looking better, and of course on thing that is good to lose - that extra weight.
- I found it easier to break the habit of snacking. Snacking leaves temptation in the way, so if there's no healthy snack available, then I'm more likely to grab something else.
- Start eating more fruit. It's hard to start with because sugar has taken away our sensitivity to the more subtle fruit sugars. We also use honey to sweaten things, especially breakfasts. But be aware that fruit smoothies are high in sugars.
- Avoid fizzy and energy drinks.
This is what worked for me, and I'm sure others have techneques that have worked for them.
Myarka
Darcy, you might like to have a look at this very recent thread in the Diet forum, which in turn links to another, older one on the subject. Please see my post #4 here:
I hope this is useful 🙂
Holistic
Thanks all, i am not alone i see 🙂
Thanks for the links also.
I had a good day today. Went all day without sugar but it played on my mind a lot and i felt really moody earlier...not sure if its related this time but even so i would normally reach for some comfort food when feeling out of sorts and i couldnt.
I ate some lovely fruit during the day and a nice chicken salad in wholewheat pitta for supper a moment ago. So far so good 😀
Wise words Myarka - thank you.
Holistic - I meant to thank you for the link in your previous post - very useful too.
Hi i'm the same.... sugar 3-4 in tea, 5 in the morning as I cant taste it.
chocolate, anything sweet, dont always eat cooked meals just binge on sweet things like choux buns, chocolate eclairs, always have a pudding if i go out for a meal , i'm 12 stone 5'7 in so not too bad with the weight but that is just the way I am and always have been . I dont let it bother me just enjoy life and eat what I feel my body is telling me to eat. Sorry not helping much with your need to come off the sugar but it's just the way I am x
Kendra, I hope you're feeling better knowing that you're not alone. I've been 'clean' from sugar fro 195 days now (got the event on my ipod!). I have come off sugar loads of times but always gone back onto it. This time I decided I was never going to have a 'Trainspotting-syle' cold turkey every again. So I went through it for the final time ... and I'm still alive! I found Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and the principles taught in AA were very helpful.
Good luck with it 🙂
I had to get rid of the white sugar. That took years from me. All what I have done is I learnt use fruit sugar. It does not give "highs" like white sugar. And I was so bad with my sugar addiction that people usually do not believe what I tell so I do not even bother anyone for that.
I love sugar too, and it's hard to make changes at first like with any addiction.
Fibre, brown bread, rice and pasta helps stabilise blood sugar levels. Like me with my smoking, prepare yourself and take one day at a time.
We can do this! lol x