How to kill a sweet tooth??

calitj

Hi there,
My name is Joanne and I am really struggling with craving sweets. I have always had a desert and now the deserts are what I am craving more than a meal.
Any suggestions would be helpful on how to deal with this frustrating, nagging person in my head!

Montgomery29

I used to drink sodas every day instead of water, but I was able to quit them by drinking tea with 2 sugar cubes and milk (not the proper way to drink tea, I know) which helped me to eventually quit the sodas entirely. I don't even drink tea now.

movgrl1

Hello Joanne, I have a big time sweet tooth! I was eating smaller amounts of candy, but that led me to going over my calories and gaining some back, so I've learned I'm not at a place where I can do that, yet. To get my sweet fix, I use peanut butter, sugar free Jell-o, greek yogurts, and fruit, such as strawberries with splenda, grapes, apples, etc. Feel free to add me if you want, my diary is open to my friends, so you can see what I eat. Good luck and you've got this!

VeroniqueBoilard

Use strategies, if you want this to be sustainable long term!

Find low calories option. I like Fiber-1 bar, they are round 90 calories and taste like a soft cookies. I also buy halloween size candy bar (like 40-50 calories each) and have one EVERY afternoon at work.

If I crave chocolate at home, I will weight chocolate chips, melt them in the microwave and eat a portion that fits my calories.

Use the craving to add a work out. If I run, I can have a snack after dinner, whatever fits my calories. I love a salty treat at night, so I try to have 200 calories for a portion of chips or popcorn. If I don't have it, I do a small workout on a video until I do! (I have a fit bit with HR so this helps).

You can also save 100 calories every day of the week and have a 500 calories treat on the week end.

Hope this helps! Good luck

CSARdiver

Reset your sweet.

Take a few weeks without any sweeteners, or severely limit your intake.

Many Americans note how sweet our food is after living abroad for months. The same is said for salt.

Sugar and salt are cheap and easy ways to extend shelf life and minimize bacterial contamination.

rheddmobile

I have successfully used two different approaches at different times. As stated above, cutting out highly sweetened foods cold turkey for a time will reset your taste buds. For me, it took about two weeks before Coke and candy cravings stopped, and when I went back to them, they tasted overwhelmingly sweet, while naturally sweetened foods such as berries tasted much sweeter.

Long term I deal with limited calories and wanting dessert more than a meal by sometimes eating a dessert instead of a meal. Or, more often, a dessert-like meal. For example my breakfast yesterday was a big bowl of steel cut oats made with milk, cinnamon, walnuts, and stewed apples, with cacao powder, Greek yogurt, almond butter, and raspberries added. The cacao powder and yogurt turns it into basically a giant bowl of delicious raspberry chocolate cream cobbler. And it’s a ton of protein, healthy fat, and fiber, and not any more calories than a normal breakfast.

I also eat dark chocolate every day. If you eat a small amount of really good chocolate, it can be just as satisfying as eating a whole bag of M&Ms used to be. In fact I popped an M&M out of my husband’s trail mix into my mouth and was shocked that I used to think they tasted good - now there’s barely any chocolate taste, they just taste like vaguely chocolate flavored sugar balls.

SnifterPug

For me the trick was cutting out sweet stuff as much as possible. I stopped having sweetener in tea and coffee. I avoided desserts as much as humanly possible. Like rheddmobile says above, this caused the artificially sweetened stuff to be far too sweet. Dessert-wise - could you make your own with gradually reduced sweetness to help wean you off the taste?

92019start

What time do you usually start eating your treats? Start with this time, and try to make yourself wait 30 minutes before indulging. And then have the treat. Over time, gradually increase the time of day to later and later. Eventually you’ll have less time on the day to eat treats. My window used to start at 2pm, and now I wait until 8pm to have my treat.