Help! I am a sugar AND carb-aholic!!
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i see OP never came back to this thread…shocking...0
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thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
I wish that people that had nothing of value to contribute would stop sharing their negative voice with the world, but here you are...so I guess we will both just have to live with it-1 -
Hi, as a suggestion for sweets try eating dried apricots instead of sugar. For carbs the best solution is to decrease slowly so if you are eating white bread, rice etc switch to brown, then whatever portions you are eating of the carbs regularly try decreasing by a quarter/half. in the case of rice you could eat less by adding low glycemic veggies etc. for the chocolate you can still eat it but try and buy it without added sugar [ie dark chocolate/chocolate for diabetics]etc. you might also want to try meeting with a dietitician or nutritionist who could also offer you advice. Whatever you do STAY STRONG and move forward one step at a time. Lasty if you do falter don't beat yourself up, as long as you try you have not failed. Good luck!
Thank you
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bethjones5623 wrote: »
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
Admitting to an addiction does not by default displace accountability - just saying. I don't understand why people attack semantics and then give no useful insight to the original question. The OP is obviously trying to improve themselves which is a show of accountability. Instead of focusing on the fact that they used the word addiction why not focus on posting meaningful tips as they requested.
Thank you!!
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bethjones5623 wrote: »
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
Admitting to an addiction does not by default displace accountability - just saying. I don't understand why people attack semantics and then give no useful insight to the original question. The OP is obviously trying to improve themselves which is a show of accountability. Instead of focusing on the fact that they used the word addiction why not focus on posting meaningful tips as they requested.
then OP should join a 12 step program if she is truly addicted to sugar...
Isn't the first step admitting it? Lucky you...you get to be a part of my 12 steps!!0 -
mamapeach910 wrote: »Katerina9408 wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
Carbs and sugar are important,your body body runs on glucose.Just substitute chocolate,with non-dairy dark chocolate ,white sugar with brown or coconat sugar and eat more fruit and veggies.Restricting on fruit is restricting on life.Just cut the nasty dairy and meat from your diet and you are good to go and try to restrict gluten if you can (eat more brown rice and whole wheat pasta).Belive me I am vegan for 3 months and I have never felt more positive and happy in my life !
You tell her to restrict gluten and the recommend whole wheat pasta???
There's no need to avoid gluten unless you have celiac disease.
What's so nasty about dairy?
OP, make gradual changes. Are you using the site to log your intake? Start with looking at how much protein you consume. You should be consuming somewhere between around .75 and 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass. That's 75 to 100 grams of protein. That's 300-400 calories. Next you'll want to look at your fat intake. For satiety, a nice ballpark is around 25-30% of your total calories. That leaves you with 40-45% of your calories for carbohydrates. The bulk of those should be fruit and veg. You can work a treat in there, but make it something you really enjoy. Time it after a meal so you're not starved.
I also find anything that you find daunting in life is helped by a simple visualization exercise. Right now, you're giving the foods you crave power. In your mind, visualize yourself standing next to the food, and the food is GIANT. It's dwarfing you. It's going to overcome you. Right now, that's what you're allowing it by saying that you're addicted.
Okay, in your visualization, slowly shrink that food down to its actual size and think about how you're bigger than it while you repeat to yourself the idea that you are in charge of your choices. Take back the power that you've given to the food.
Thanks for the advice on checking my percentages. I do log everyday but havent really looked at the percentage ratios0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
To try to focus on the problem, and not the language choice (although I think it actually makes the problem worse to think of it as an addiction when it's not), this is what comes to mind:
If you are telling yourself that eating particular foods is "bad" and "ruins you diet" or the like, I think you are setting yourself up for failure, because that often creates a dynamic of all or nothing, where if you screw up at all, well, might as well go nuts, since it's already ruined for the day. Or, similarly, where you feel like a bad and worthless person for blowing it, so if you are an emotional eater you tend to eat more (or have a lot more pressure to do so).
So first I think you need to adopt a more self-forgiving attitude. It's NOT bad to like sugar and sweets, but normal. It's also pretty human to struggle with this at first and to have emotional eating tendencies. I certainly did (and do).
I did not find it useful to think of "cutting sugar" from my life or to think in terms of "bad carbs," but I cut down on both sugar and carbs and have focused more on nutrient dense foods while reducing calories.
What I did was, first, to understand what in my diet was a problem and what this was related to. Some things were easy to fix, like have a real breakfast, rather than a bagel that would leave me hungry in a couple of hours and set up to crash and spike my blood sugar all day long (and I don't even have blood sugar issues if I eat normally). Or cook dinner most nights instead of being unprepared and working late and using it as an excuse for Indian take out. Or don't eat every sweet that appears in my office as if that were a sign from God that I was intended to eat it.
Others were more challenging, as they related to temptations or habits, and required some understanding of what was going on. For example, I am prone to habitual eating (from having done it in the past) or emotional eating under certain stresses, so I try to be aware of them and use the consciousness to avoid it or be prepared so I can avoid the temptation (if I am working late I will bring some sort of healthy food so I don't go eat cookies because I'm hungry and tired). If there's a place (like in front of the TV) that you are in a habit of eating, maybe try not to have your usual food choice available so easily for a while or do something else instead when tempted--eat something else or choose a different activity. Also, be aware that when you are tired or stressed your will power will be weaker and try to protect yourself at those times.
I cut out sugary treats for a couple of weeks to teach myself I didn't need them, and that helped me do moderation, but that's going to be individual. After that I told myself I could eat a dessert after dinner when I had the calories, but only if it fit. But I also told myself that it was always available tomorrow, so no need to go crazy tonight. And, for me, I found that it was pretty easy to limit sweets IF I focused on first getting in the protein and veggies I needed and not eating between meals as a practice. At first I just wanted to munch (did carrots and such) and soon enough that feeling went away.
It's really about understanding your own triggers and habits and not being too hard on yourself, as shaming yourself generally is counterproductive. Hope that helps some.
Thank you for the advice!!0 -
i see OP never came back to this thread…shocking...
This 'OP' is a full-time University student with 3 children under 6 so I don't have the same time to devote to the trolling of threads to argue someones use of the word addiction and to talk about tacos as some others that have made their way on here. But thanks for taking the time to notice and provide your ever so memorable feedback....-2 -
There is a huge push to classify fat people. They have to figure out whether they're going to classify obesity as an eating disorder or an addiction or whatever, but they're going to start classifying it as some damn thing. The anorexics have their label. The muscle dysmorphics have their label. The fat people will get one, too.
OP, I had a serious issue with white pasta and breads. If I had some, I wanted more. It would drive me nuts. Even if I ate more, it wouldn't help. I'd still want more. It would go on all day long until I slept.
I finally just eliminated them. I was just so sick of fighting it. I kept looking for and eventually found whole grain alternatives that I liked. That seems to have done the trick for me. The whole grains are better for me, too, so it's all good. I don't know if it would work for you.
Potatoes were never an issue for me. I never crave more of those. I love them! But I don't crave them.
People always say it's an issue of personal weakness, but if think that's BS. There are PLENTY of things I like more than white bread - berries, Starbursts, etc. I don't crave those like mad.
I'm confident that they'll figure out why some people have issues with white bread, pasta, et cetera, and why some don't. I hope I live to hear it. 0 -
herrspoons wrote: »imjimenez2011 wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
Sugar and the sugar in carbs activate the same sensors in the brain that drugs do, so sugar addiction is real. The dependency is real. Check out this article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/
Review paper speculates on rat studies, small sample studies, and unrelated studies to come to inconclusive conclusion.
It's been debunked more times than a sleeping seaman in a hurricane.
I knew someone around here had a rebuttal for that paper!
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thedomesticmum wrote: »bethjones5623 wrote: »
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
Admitting to an addiction does not by default displace accountability - just saying. I don't understand why people attack semantics and then give no useful insight to the original question. The OP is obviously trying to improve themselves which is a show of accountability. Instead of focusing on the fact that they used the word addiction why not focus on posting meaningful tips as they requested.
then OP should join a 12 step program if she is truly addicted to sugar...
Isn't the first step admitting it? Lucky you...you get to be a part of my 12 steps!!
good, now if you are truly addicted do the next 11.0 -
thedomesticmum wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
I wish that people that had nothing of value to contribute would stop sharing their negative voice with the world, but here you are...so I guess we will both just have to live with it
i wish people would learn the difference between lack of self control and addiction ...0 -
I am the same way…the best advice I can give is to cut them out in a good way…I have a 40% carb limit…when I was in college I cut them out completely…I mean 10-20 carbs max…I did lose a lot of weight, but when I binged I binged hard. Now, 4 years later I gained all the weight back and then some…So now I am just trying to eat whole grains and not go crazy with my carbs…at the macros I have I can eat a good amount of starches if I plan my day around them.
Sweets - frozen grapes are amazing! I also keep some dark chocolate squares around the house (ghirardelli are my favorite!)0 -
I find it very unusual that people talk about being addicted to carbs when they really mean that they find specific foods such as breads, sweets, soft drinks etc hard to eat in moderation. Carbs are a macro that your body needs for energy and you can make calorie wise choices such as berries, beets, vegetables, legumes, greek yogurt etc. If all these foods also can't be eaten in moderation then maybe you have a carb problem. Do you get the shakes or get angry at someone if they try to remove a plate of beans or quinoa from in front of you? Would you get on your hands and knees and lick carbs off the floor? Probably not. This is how people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol behave so I hope you can understand that saying you have an addiction might seem like a misuse of the term to those who are in recovery. Out of respect for those that have conquered serious addiction I think we should all just talk about strategies for avoiding trigger foods that we tend to overeat.
It sounds like the OP has a problem resisting food that to her taste really great. Most of us have food that we need to make sure we don't buy and bring home because we will likely eat it all at once. We may have this much self control but know that having it lying around is too much. Most of us would refer to this as something that is too tempting rather than an addiction.0 -
herrspoons wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
I wish that people that had nothing of value to contribute would stop sharing their negative voice with the world, but here you are...so I guess we will both just have to live with it
So basically you just wanted people to validate your own false preconception.
Ok then. Keep believing you're addicted and keep failing. Up to you really.herrspoons wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
I wish that people that had nothing of value to contribute would stop sharing their negative voice with the world, but here you are...so I guess we will both just have to live with it
So basically you just wanted people to validate your own false preconception.
Ok then. Keep believing you're addicted and keep failing. Up to you really.
My response had nothing to do with the validity of it. The response literally offered no helpful advice other than to provide their opinion on A word I used.0 -
Just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean it doesn't have value. It may actually have a tremendous amount of value but you don't see it because your views are misguided to begin with.thedomesticmum wrote: »thedomesticmum wrote: »I know how bad it is but I am totally addicted to sugar and sweets! I try to only have one indulgence a day (3-6 squares of chocolate, etc) but whenever I have cravings that's the first place I go and the same with carbs. I literally gag by the end of my salads if I don't have a carb to go with it....
Has anyone had success cutting sugar and/or bad carbs from their life and what tips do you have?
No you are not. I really wish people would stop misusing the word addiction.
I wish that people that had nothing of value to contribute would stop sharing their negative voice with the world, but here you are...so I guess we will both just have to live with it
Also, multi quote
You mean like people not agreeing with the term addiction and food? I seem to not be the only one misguided on this thread with their one-sided views...if we are following your view of coursecourt_fritch26 wrote: »I am the same way…the best advice I can give is to cut them out in a good way…I have a 40% carb limit…when I was in college I cut them out completely…I mean 10-20 carbs max…I did lose a lot of weight, but when I binged I binged hard. Now, 4 years later I gained all the weight back and then some…So now I am just trying to eat whole grains and not go crazy with my carbs…at the macros I have I can eat a good amount of starches if I plan my day around them.
Sweets - frozen grapes are amazing! I also keep some dark chocolate squares around the house (ghirardelli are my favorite!)
Thanks! I forgot about frozen grapes!!0 -
I find it very unusual that people talk about being addicted to carbs when they really mean that they find specific foods such as breads, sweets, soft drinks etc hard to eat in moderation. Carbs are a macro that your body needs for energy and you can make calorie wise choices such as berries, beets, vegetables, legumes, greek yogurt etc. If all these foods also can't be eaten in moderation then maybe you have a carb problem. Do you get the shakes or get angry at someone if they try to remove a plate of beans or quinoa from in front of you? Would you get on your hands and knees and lick carbs off the floor? Probably not. This is how people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol behave so I hope you can understand that saying you have an addiction might seem like a misuse of the term to those who are in recovery. Out of respect for those that have conquered serious addiction I think we should all just talk about strategies for avoiding trigger foods that we tend to overeat.
It sounds like the OP has a problem resisting food that to her taste really great. Most of us have food that we need to make sure we don't buy and bring home because we will likely eat it all at once. We may have this much self control but know that having it lying around is too much. Most of us would refer to this as something that is too tempting rather than an addiction.
I completely understand your point of view and absolutely agree that my level of addiction is no where near a substance abuse such as drugs or alcohol. However, I would agree to disagree on our views of addition, much like many other members that have taken the time to comment on my use of the word addiction. I believe there can be different levels of addiction and what I describe is minor compared to what many on here think addiction involves as a whole.
When you speak about trigger foods, a trigger food is something that is a trigger food because it triggers me/my brain to feel/react a certain way when around it or consuming it. To me...that is at the very least a mild addiction.
If you have two people who have burned themselves and one has just burned themselves on the frying pan but it is a first degree burn and you have a second person who falls into a fire and suffers from third degree burns....did the first person then not have a burn because the second persons burn was more severe? No. They both burned themselves but at different degrees that both require different treatments.
This is my own personal view as everyone else has their own as well. I am in no way invalidating severe addiction as I have lost a few family members due to severe addiction, so I am not comparing my addiction to those extremes.0 -
It is obvious that my only mistake was using the word "addiction" on this thread. I am new to the app and trying my hardest with what has been a life-long struggle with food. While it is easy to say that I should just remove it (trigger foods) from my house, I also have a husband who doesn't have any issues with food and 3 young children who are constantly bringing home treats from outside sources. While this may appear to be 'an excuse' for many of you, I assure you that it is not, but it most definitely is a daily struggle.
My thread was asking people who have been in the same situation to reply with what has worked for them, but most of the replies have been centred around my wording, offering no advice from their own personal experiences other than to take time in their day to voice their strong opinions on the word addiction and food. Clearly as none of you have offered any advice from your own experiences, this goes to show that you have no idea what I am referring to. Consider yourself lucky and please note that going forward, I will not be responding to any of your condescending comments.
To those that have offered insightful advice to what has worked for them, etc. I thank you for taking the time in your day to offer advice you can.
I actually don't eat any white bread/rice/pasta as I learned years ago that it bothers me, so I always have whole grain breads, brown rice or whole wheat pasta, etc.
So far, what I have taken from the positive advice was that if I think I can't have it, then I will want it. Going forward, I am going to make sure that I make room in my calories to have a piece of whole grain toast with a salad or soup and I will buy my favorite chocolate, divide it into small servings (in a little baggy) and be sure to make room for those in my day while continuing to make healthy choices the rest of the day. I will also have to take a look at my percentages of what I am currently eating for Carbs, Protein, etc. to see if there are any other changes I can make.
Thank you!0 -
You will just need to find what works for you. I tend to eat the majority of my carbs at the end of the day, but it's just personal preference. Breakfast is a spoonful of peanut butter and a protein shake. Lunch is some kind of lean meat and veggie (whether in a casserole or just shredded chicken and some green beans), and an afternoon snack of greek yogurt. Dinner is usually again, a protein and veggies, plus a dinner roll/bread of some kind. If I have room in my calories, I'll work in a serving of beer or ice cream.
I have no idea why I do better with carbs at night, but it definitely works for me.0
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