Sweet tooth

SuperWoman46

Ever since I started the post menopause stage, for some reason I am craving sweets lately and I never had a big sweet tooth. Today I had a bowl of vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries and chopped pecans. I have gained weight in my midsection, and now I have a hanging belly, which is so uncomfortable to the point where I don't want to go out because no matter what I wear, you can see my belly literally hanging in the front and the sides. My best friend just bought me a walking pad for my office because I work from home, so I can get in some exercise because I have a sedentary job. What can I do to fight the, all of a a sudden, sugar cravings? Sorry for the long novel. I just feel stuck and obese.

Thanks for reading this.

Nancy

AnnPT77

For me, one thing that helped reduce sweets cravings was making it a point to eat several daily servings of whole fruit. This doesn't work for everyone, but I'm not the only one here who's said they found it helpful.

It took a bit of self-discipline at first, but in a fairly short time of eating around 3 servings of fruit daily, my cravings for things like baked goods and candy were greatly reduced to the point of being manageable. After that, I could be more flexible about fruit intake - still eating quite a bit of it and definitely some daily, but not always that many servings - and I would still keep the effect.

It's an option to try, maybe.

SuperWoman46

Thank you very much!

claireychn074

I also find stewed fruit (like apples or berries) with cinnamon, help when I’m craving something sweet. For breakfast I had protein pancakes made with vanilla protein powder, stewed bramley apple and Greek yoghurt. Low in sugar but tasty and filling, and the protein powder gives it a sweet taste.

SuperWoman46

@claireychn074- I will definitely give it a try. Thank you very much!

neanderthin

Try consuming sweet things after a meal and one that is hopefully composed of mostly whole foods. This minimizes your insulin response sending your hunger signals on high alert encouraging you to eat more. It's hormonal and if your consuming sweet things on their own, that is basically a signal to keep eating for the people that are susceptible and that includes you and me. Basically when your blood sugar stays fairly even throughout the day the less likely a person will have cravings. I don't eat a lot of sugar period, I'm on low carb/ketogenic diet but do consume lots of berries, especially blueberries and generally eat them with a full fat natural yogurt and if it's a hockey day I'll add some local honey or I'll make pancakes with almond flour and berries to go with my eggs and bacon. In season and in season only I will eat some local fruit and right now asian pears and peaches are happening and will also add these to my yogurt. Sweets for me is very very dangerous and I can go completely out of control but these seem to be just fine in the smaller quantities and always restrict my fruit to 1 piece only.

springlering62

Instead of ice cream, what about putting it on yogurt or cottage cheese?

Something that helped my sugar cravings tremendously was sweet balsamics. Not the thick glazes in the squirt bottles. These are as thin as water, available at gourmet shops, and come in tall green glass wine bottle type packaging, come in a myriad of flavors, even chocolate infused.

They’re so sweet to the point of tartness, and a little goes a long way. I simply cannot use more than a tablespoon. My faves are strawberry and blueberry on fruit and cottage cheese. I also use them as salad dressings. Again, a little goes a long way. The honey/ginger makes a banging stir fry “sauce”.

I get mine from Oli + Ve. They’ll ship, but the same wholesaler sells all over the US using similar bottles relabeled per shop, so they should be easy to find locally.

Another thing, Ninja makes a Creami ice cream maker. I can make a great (and nutritious) homemade vanilla ice cream for under 100 calories for half a pint. My husband loves with with diet Barq’s as a root beer float. It’s a super easy appliance to use. Tonight we’re having a pineapple sorbet made simply of a frozen can of pineapple tidbits. It spins to a lovely creamy, fluffy texture and will actually poof up to more than half a pint. We use our creami every single night.

Vanilla Creami I e Cream: (fills three one pint containers:)
3 servings skyr or Greek yogurt (510gr)
1.5 boxes sugar free vanilla pudding mix
Vanilla extract and/or bean scrapings
28gr Jordan’s Simple Syrup
Enough ice water to top off to eight cups

Mix well, divide into three creami containers and freeze overnight.

springlering62

pS if it “has” to be pecans, try ground pecan meal. A tiny pinch may be enough to satisfy the itch.

Corina1143

Laughed when I read this, cause it did the opposite to me.
I always loved sweets when I was young! Old age hit and I eat dessert on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
My figure changed a little at menopause. I had a hysterectomy at 72 and WOW!
My figure went from "X" to "O" almost overnight!
Can't help with hints, sorry.