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MyFitnessPal Community

What would some good alternatives for these be?

anxietyfairy

at my worst I have been drinking up to eight cups a day of coffee with milk and three teaspoons of white sugar. I tried with two spoons of sugar and didn’t like it. Another shocking thing I would do is if I was craving chocolate or sugar and couldn’t afford a treat, I would make icing with cocoa, icing sugar and butter. It would be something like eight teaspoons of tablespoons of icing sugar so the liquid would be absorbed. Please don’t judge me, I know this is really bad. It’s one of my more shameful secrets.

Replies

ChadDresnick

What about using flavored almond milk instead of the milk & sugar? This would add protein…

When I crave chocolate, I have a snack size (like what you give out at Halloween) packet of M&Ms. It's about 100 calories. I don't do it often any more.

Julios2k

I would recommend sugar free syrup, cinnamon powder and non fat milk. Maybe swap out some of the cups of coffee for decaf if too much caffeine is a problem. Use a scale to measure the syrup and milk, you don't need allot to make it taste good.

anxietyfairy

I guess I was also wondering if any of you have messed up so badly with sugar

Julios2k

Of course we had, I know I have. It happens, I know I have binged eaten in the past on sugary foods and drinks. In the moment it feels and taste good, but later I always regret it and sometimes feel like crap.

So now before I grab that sugary food I try to remind myself how crappy I'm going to feel later and that sometimes helps me make better choices of what I eat. There is options out there to make food and drinks taste good without over doing it. it's okay to have it once in a while, just don't binge / over eat or drink.

springlering62

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550118#Comment_48550118

oh, honey, Puh-leeeeez.

Sugar? My morning started out with two or three or four cinnamon twist donuts from the Publix bakery, a couple of quick, easily disposable candy bars from the check out for the drive to work.

I also “needed” to pick up a family size bag of M&Ms, and a couple bags of chocolate pecan Geneva cookies, which were almost invariably BOGos. These were usually gone by 10am or so, so I’d start in on potato chips and Coke.

Lunch was fast food, with a shake, or a couple apple pies, or a slice of lemon pie, depending on the outlet.

Then there was candy in the candy jars for clients in my office. No mystery who ate most of those.

afternoons were more chocolate And on the way home from work, it was “necessary” to stop to pick up items for dinner. That would typically include a large package of (you guessed it) chocolate, perhaps a key lime pie, a carton of Breyers chocolate chip mint, and/or a carrot cake or red velvet “bar” cake from the bakery (“Bar” meaning half a rectangular cake)

If it were Christmas or Easter, pile seasonal candies on top of that Milky Way reindeer, Cadbury’s Crispy eggs

I hid this from my husband and literally cried and whined at him,”why am I so fat?”

I am no fricking unicorn, unless you wonder why I wasn’t a chocolate brown unicorn If I can do this, I am telling you, anyone can do it

but you have to be sick and tired of being sick and tired So many times I said “I’ll start Monday, let me hurry up and gobble all the stuff I’ll miss because I’ll never have it again!”

yeah, that never got off the ground

one day I was so sick of it all, I just cleared out the house of everything , including my hidden stashes

it takes two or three weeks to whip the cravings down I do binge occasionally, but not so horribly now.

I make it a point not to keep in the house, and to freeze what I do have

you’ve got to actively look for sweet replacements. For me, that was being patient and eating fruit I used sugar free syrups and they were great til- with my massive sweet tooth- I overused them and had to drop them. One thing that’s really worked well for me (I’m eating some at this very moment) is infused balsamic vinegar It’s super sweet, and low calorie, and used in quantity, well, you just can’t it’s too tart But strawberry or blueberry balsamic over cottage cheese and fruit is delightful I use it on its own as a salad dressing . The Honey Ginger makes a terrific stir fry “sauce”

for my coffee, I started with sugar free syrup and frothed milk.eventually I didn’t like it sweet anymore the frothed heated milk had a natural sweetness I often brew my coffee with a sprinkle of cinnamon in the filter, which gives it a sweet’ish taste. I even found a high quality single source Guatemala coffee that has distinct dark chocolate notes that I can drink black.

All this caffeine? Good lord woman, no wonder you’re the “anxiety” fairy!!!

You’re not the only person out there hiding the evidence from family, or scarfing down tons of sugary foods. If you want it bad, you’ll figure out a way. But you really have to want it. Remaining stuck in the “if I hide it no one will know” phase is just spinning your wheels.

springlering62

sorry, all that was unloading to say “judge you”? Who are we to judge you?

you are amongst compadres here. Many of us have have lived this life you speak of.

(Is anyone else having issues with this cussed new board, with punctuation and such?)

anxietyfairy

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550193#Comment_48550193

I'm not sure how to trim down your comments, I'll try and reply later. I'm not sure what coffee the rest of the world is using, but I'm just using instant powder, I don't think it's that high in caffiene, and I wasn't always having that much every day. But yeah, not super strength (as far as I know). I also enjoy the odd energy drink, but I've been scared to try the stronger ones.

yirara

Why not just log all your sugar and milk and other things added to your coffee. Maybe that makes it a lot easier to make new choices. Other options: what about cardamom coffee from an Arabic/Turkish/whatever shop around the corner? Add a tiny bit of cocoa powder if you like and you get a very tasty coffee. Maybe you do get used to it. Or various teas, fruit infusions, cold water with pieces of fruit thrown in for a bit of taste…. so many options.

elisa123gal

I"m shocked. this is the first post where people aren't judging. hmmm confess a weakness and you get tons of support. Post something you think you're doing great..and nothing but bad feedback. humans.

anxietyfairy

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550819#Comment_48550819

There are lots of posts where people don't post. I've been on and off the site for years, and something I've noticed is that if you are doing badly or sabotaging yourself, people don't tell you off or judge you. They just tell you to learn from your mistakes and try again. Failure is a natural part of the process. Before I joined MFP, weightloss was all about judgement and making yourself feel bad if you didn't diet perfectly. If you fell off the wagon, you had failed and were a loser. It was all very toxic. I think MFP can be an incredibly kind place, as long as you are open and honest.

Corina1143

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springlering62

@corina1143 may be on to something.

I very vividly remember you describing a lot of these symptoms in another post.

It’s def something to consider.

If you need an alternative, my daughter drinks some kind of coffee flavored roasted something or other that she started drinking while still vegan. She’s on a cruise right now so I can’t ask her.

And yes, there’s a whole world out there of non-instant. I didn’t ever drink coffee at all until about four years ago. Now I find it a sort of soothing pleasure to set up my Aeropress, brew, and froth some milk.

I treated myself to an electric frother yesterday (meh, I’m going back to my faithful-and way more effective Ninja hand-pump frother) and a coffee grinder.

I brought some whole bean coffee back from a trip last week, and can’t wait to see if freshly ground is worth it.

If you can’t (or won’t- I balk at the prices) afford locally roasted, Lidl carries a “noir” ground coffee that’s excellent, and inexpensive. Community brand coffee is also pretty good they make a coffee cut with chicory that might be lower caffeine? Both brands are generally about $5 for a bag.

Maybe a better quality cup would help you reduce quantity?

After visiting a coffee plantation last week, I’m flabbergasted at the effort that goes into producing a bag of coffee. It’s a wonder it’s not ten times the price.

littlegreenparrot1

It might be worth trying tea, if its a different taste in the first place it might be easier that its not so sweet.

Then there are all sorts of lovely options with different flavours, none of which involve sugar.

patriciafoley1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48553783#Comment_48553783

I agree. Get the black tea - I like Tetley irish or british blend, 3.99 for 80 bags. It's strong and flavorful. Add lemon to it. If you don't want to bother with real lemons or measuring out lemon juice (I don;t) then toss in a packet of Trulemon powder. You can get it at Walmart or online. And there are All kinds of teas. When I lived near a tea shop, they had a chocolate flavored tea that really did taste like chocolate.

For chocolate cravings, try Swiss Miss Reduced calorie (40 per mug) cocoa. It's very chocolatey. And it takes a while to drink. I also like the Russell Stover sugar free chocolates - they taste fine to me, but you should limit yourself to two a day because 1. they have calories (110 for two) and 2. They can have a laxative effect if eaten in quantity (though not for me). I also like Lily's sugar free dark almond bar. 1/3 of a bar is like ten squares and 130 calories. When I want a chocolate treat this is what I go for.

anxietyfairy

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48549823#Comment_48549823

Alternate milks are too expensive here. I just need to cut back on milk in general. I think I'm better avoiding snack packs of chocolate because I'm likely to eat ten. I'm not great at portion control with anything, except, maybe icecream.

anxietyfairy

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550009#Comment_48550009

Thank you

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550158#Comment_48550158

I don't always feel sick afterwards, but I had a large popcorn at the movies a few weeks ago and felt sick for a while after. I keep buying things and finding I can't finish them.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48550193#Comment_48550193

Thank you for typing all that out! I've been having rice crackers instead of chips and sugar free chocolate and confectionary. My mother saw me wipe out a whole packet of rice crackers for being 350 calories, and I was like, excuse me, do you know how many calories my usual binges are? (probably like 4000).

anxietyfairy

I've decided to stop drinking coffee for now, and am having cocoa with stevia. Thanks for the comments everyone!

springlering62

I’m going to go out on a limb here. Your mother was watching? She was critiquing your eating?

My mom was morbidly obese from the time I can remember. She had a tough childhood, and adulthood wasn’t much kinder to her. . I get it, she compensated with food. Even when we couldn’t afford meat, there was always a stash or two or three of candy and Little Debbie’s hidden around the house.

She hated that I was underweight, and took me to doctors or some idiot barber who sold nutritional supplements (I kid you not) to try to make me gain weight because I was “unhealthy”.

I worked with my parents for three decades, gained weight by the end of the first decade. She was so damn happy. “I told you you’d be fat, just like me”.

Any time I would try to lose weight, she would sabotage me. She’d bring in all my favorites, leave them in the kitchen and say “oh I didn’t like these, let’s put them out for customers” knowing darn well I’d eat them. Or she’d bring in a box of doughnuts, sacks of candy, a cake. I didn’t care for hard candy and wouldn’t touch the ones in the customer candy dishes. So she filled them with Tootsie Rolls. She always watched what I ate, and when I tried to watch what I ate without saying anything or she thought I’d lost weight, she’d go to work on me.

Yes, my fault, for caving in so easily. I should have had the balls to stand up to her, but I didn’t. She bullied me with food, and my outlet was to bully her for being incompetent on the computer. We were a toxic pair.

Do not let your mother pass judgment on what you eat, or tell you you’re doing this wrong or that you need to be that person.

I’m sorry to go off like that, but your describing her reaction just sent me off like a rocket.

You do you. It’s NONE of her business.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48556796#Comment_48556796

If you've been drinking a large amount of caffeinated coffee daily, I'd strongly, strongly encourage you to taper off caffeine quite gradually. Quitting caffeine cold turkey - especially a routine large amount of caffeine - can trigger some powerfully severe and unpleasant headaches.

I'm not necessarily saying to taper coffee. There are other ways to get caffeine, including lower-calorie beverages or even caffeine pills. By tapering off, bad headaches can be avoided.

It's your call, but I don't think introducing possible very unpleasant consequences is an ideal way to change habits, if there's a reasonable alternative.