Tips for sugar addiction?

Holland_K

Addiction runs in my family. I have never had any problems with drugs or alcohol but sugar is my nemesis. I often wish I had a problem with something I could cut out completely instead! Anyone else have this issue? What did you do to finally kick it?

Tammybarb65

I have the same issue. I just sit and crave sweets. I crave it at night when I go to bed. I want to get up and eat sweets. I think that's where most of my weight came from.

ReenieHJ

I was addicted to alcohol at a much younger point in my life. Having children helped reverse that and I hardly drink anymore, maybe 1 drink every couple of years.

But yes, the sugar craving is one I just cannot get a stronghold on. I restarted eating healthy a couple days before New Year's Day this year, after gaining 20 hard lost pounds. I did oh soooo well for a month+, then dh bought me my favorite ice cream this past Friday. He meant well, I know. And I should've been stronger, just let him eat it like he offered. But no. I ate it all, in one sitting. Saturday I did ok but had stopped counting calories. Sunday we went out to lunch, which wasn't bad, but then Sunday night came and I went crazy with binge-ing. I made cookies for him Monday, gave some away and left him about a dozen. Grabbed 2 for myself. Now all I want to do is eateateat all the sugar and carbs.

I need to start logging my calories in again, this morning. It's the only thing that saves me from myself. Well, that, plus not having anything in the house that I can't say no to. Those 2 things right there, have been the best way to avoid all the sugar and carbs that I don't need.

It was weird, after a month of not eating that stuff I found myself not craving it. But as soon as that ice cream showed up in the freezer, it was all over.

ninerbuff

I don't consider sugar and addiction. You can LIVE without addictions. Just cut them out completely. Can't really live without sugar because it's still needed in some form to create energy for the body to move. Whether through vegetables or carbs. Yeah, yeah, yeah you'll get some ketoer saying it's not necessary, but still haven't met a keteor yet that HASN'T abstained from ALL SUGAR in their life.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

lemurcat2

So some ideas without getting sidetracked into the "addiction" word and what it means (a common debate around here, but one that we usually put in Debate and which I don't think you are asking for!). ;-)

If you want to treat it with a cut it out model, you actually could cut out sweet dessert type foods or even added sugar (I did the latter for a while, although I don't think it is actually all that useful other than as a fun experiment). Of course, you will still have sugar in your diet (your body will make it from starches also), but generally people are more having issues controlling tasty foods or foods they find comforting, and for some the foods they most crave or have trouble controlling are sweet ones (plenty of us others have similar issues with non sweet foods, of course).

If you don't want to cut out sweet dessert type foods, which I would totally understand, you might try a couple of things, depending on your specific issues with control:

(1) if you are someone who tends to see eating well as some thing that is on or off and thus generally thinks eating something sweet is a bad thing or a failure or ruins the day or the diet, trying to work on that attitude could help a lot. In my own experience, that kind of thinking tended to mean that if I ate off of my general planned way of eating would trigger a "well, the day is ruined, might as well go nuts" kind of response. Others may have the idea that they blew it but will quit donuts or cookies or whatever it is after tomorrow, so should eat it all up right now, last chance and all. Again, you can see how that would make control more difficult. For me it was much easier to say "I will have this much today, but if I want more, I will be able to have it tomorrow."

(2) Some of us find structure and personal rules to be very helpful. When I was losing, the rules included not going over my planned cals for the day, and I was pretty stringent about that. So if I had ice cream (as I often did after dinner), I could have whatever fit in my cals. When you eat might matter too -- for me eating something I had trouble with controlling when hungry or early in the day often made portion control more difficult, whereas having a small dessert after dinner was pretty easy to control.

(3) Meal planning -- this is really a subset of (2), but for me control is often made more difficult by not having a plan (not sure what to eat, oh, this snacky food is easy and doesn't require cooking) or not having a system in place to prevent mindless eating -- for me snacking is something that I find both unsatisfying (it doesn't make me feel satisfied like a real meal does and having smaller meals available because I used the cals on snacks compounds that), so when I stopped grabbing a few peanut M&Ms a as a snack, mindlessly, and then went back and back and back, but instead scheduled in a dessert after dinner, it was much easier to control (especially if I logged it when first starting out). Similarly, I think lots of people have weird ideas that they should be able to just eat out of a pint or bag or whatever and stop when full. My mind doesn't work like that, but if I choose a sensible portion and put the rest away or make it mentally off limits, that can make it so very much easier to control myself.

Finally, (4) if you don't want to cut out desserts forever but find you struggle to control them because of the emotional or comfort element -- it is what you gravitate to when having a bad day or whatever -- then sometimes taking a break with the understanding that once you break the habit and work on other coping mechanisms you will add them back in can help. I found taking a break and really examining why I was wanting to eat at different times/craving certain foods to be very helpful for me (this was combined with eating only at meals although I am sure one could do it with any eating pattern that you prefer).

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

mvarga1972

I totally feel your pain! I also have a sugar addiction & have been fighting it for years.

One of the main things that has helped me in the past year, surprising as it is LOL, reading labels for hidden sugars. They are every where! I even did a modified Whole30 to help cut my sugar addiction. It did really help! Then I listened to a Podcast where they talked about how sugar is hidden in everything and how to change your diet to break free. I have tried to substitute fruit in place of sweets. I find they are sweet and I can have several of them with each meal. I do still use Truvia (only 1 though) in my coffee in the morning but I can really tell when I go too heavy on the creamer. I will notice days later when I feel like I want more sweets.

It has really helped me by switching out products I use for a brand that doesn't have loaded sugar ingredients. Plus adding more fresh fruit, vegetables. I adopted the mindset farm to table, the fewer steps between the two the better it is for me. I use this for fruit, vegetables & meat, frozen is OK, canned stuff I read the ingredients.
I really don't know if this will help you but it certainly did me. If your interested I can also share the Podcast that really helped me, I didn't go extreme as she suggests but I did defiantly adopt a lot of what she says and do feel better.

Crystalr489

I'm a total sugar addict myself too. Every time i crave it, i try to get some natural ones from fruits rather than the processed stuff. It's a process, but you eventually get used to it.

scarlett_k

I like sweet things and I don't see it as a problem. As the commenter above suggested, getting your sugar fix from things without added sugar is a great idea.

I still eat stuff with added sugar, just a lot less than I used to.

cwolfman13

Fruit...nature's candy

perryc05

https://www.healthyfood.com/advice/6-simple-ways-to-stop-sugar-cravings/?utm_source=Healthy+Life+Media+enewsletters&utm_campaign=6b640f345e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_6_22_2020_13_30_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ad9190b03e-6b640f345e-203911064&mc_cid=6b640f345e&mc_eid=86f122a3f1

fancyqtr

I have a problem with that, too. For a while I was able to look at all those things that I liked that were full of sugar and then walk on past. Now I can't manage to stop eating sugary things. When I get upset I have to have ice cream, which is a problem in more ways than one because I am lactose intolerant and have diabetes. So I am hoping to follow this discussion.