Tough to kick the Sweets!!

bigcurt61

My war with my addiction probably started with the first cookie or brownie I had. The addiction I'm speaking of is the sweets/sugar addiction that many of us knowingly and unknowingly battle with or give in to daily. Pre-diabetes has been called America's largest health care epidemic. I'm not a big candy eater (i.e. skittles, starburst, twizzlers, etc), but if it has chocolate I'm all for it Snickers, Twix, cookies, brownies, etc. Since I've joined MFP it has helped out a lot, but I have made the mistake of going to the grocery store hungry a few times and walked out with donut, brownie or something sweet. The thing that has helped the most is eating fresh fruits and oatmeal. When I first went to see a dietician said challenged me to find foods with less than 3g of sugar per serving!! Have you ever tried finding foods with less than 3g of sugar... good luck you can say goodbye to most cereals and yogurts. Unfortunately we have become a nation of sugar addicts and don't even know it. I don't want anyone to get me wrong I do a have a splurge day every now and again, but if I do I'll normally hit the elliptical for an hour to burn 800-1000 cal so I can have some Cheesecake Factory!! :-) The sad thing is all the sugar we eat and don't burn gets stored (i.e. fat). I challenge everyone to take a look at how much sugar you put in for a week to see if you're over doing it or are on target. You can add additional nutritional facts by going to settings/diary settings/ then adding sugar as a nutrient tracked.

Amanda421

HEY WILL YOU POST SOME OF THE FOODS YOU FIND WITH LOW SUGAR. I HAVE A HORRIBLE SWEETS ADDICTION TOO. I ALSO HAVE HAD GESTATIONAL DIABETES TWICE (PRE-CURSOR FOR DIABETES LATER IN LIFE AND DIABETES RUNS IN FAMILY). SO I KNOW THAT IF I DONT GET MYSELF UNDER CONTROL I AM HEADED STRAIGHT FOR A ROADS OF LIFE WITH DIABETES. THANKS!

sippy01

Thanks for the post!! I struggle several times a day with sweets and it is to me one of the hardest things to say no too!! MFP is such an awesome site because you know if you eat that candy bar or whatever it is, you have to write it down and you see the numbers and what you have left for the day and it isn't alot!! Keep up the good work!
April

lutzsher

As a "former" sugaraholic I actually had to go completely cold turkey for almost 2 months before my cravings subsided. Hardest few months of my life, ha ha, but I finally have it beat!
I do not use sugar in anything, cut it out of my coffee and tea, don't drink any soda or diet pop . . . so the only sugar I now comsume is in my fruit.
Truthfully, I no longer hit that brick wall at about 3:30 pm everyday and have constant energy throughout the day now.

gentlebreeze2

I hear you... I've been a chocoholic for as long as I remember. When I started mfp I did a chocolate day, where I had had some sort of chocolate cereal, and a candy bar later... all the while keeping my calorie intake under the calorie goal for the day. This worked well til Christmas, then too many temptations. I did find some of my old favorites no longer held their appeal... just didn't taste that good. ON January 1 I decided no candy until February 15... and so far I'm good. I'm losing weight a little better now that I stopped the candy. If I wasn't seeing results... not sure I could have stuck with it... but I feel so good. It's one step at a time and one day at a time. I wish you luck. MFP is awesome!

bigcurt61

@ Amanda421 when I get home tonight I'll post the low sugar foods I've found (it won't be a super long list!)

Amanda421

ok thanks!

Frozenmango

I too have a sweet tooth that won't relent, and i know that realistically, I'll never completely give up some of the sweet treats I love. But what i have done is found ways to have my treats without processed sugar and extra fats. For example, I love baking, and one of my favorite things to bake are chocolate chip cookies. In fact, at work, I'm a bit famous for them, but the problem is that they were loaded with calories, and processed sugar. So, I'm revamping my recipes. It's going to take some time to perfect, but I'll get there. For example, I made cookies sweetened only with Agave Nectar and some honey, which is much better for your body in that it slowly releases the sugar into your blood stream, not overwhelming your system and pancreas, but you don't lose that sweet flavor. Also, I only use 85% cocoa (or more) dark chocolate. A lot of people think that dark chocolate is bitter, but once you get used to the flavor, you'll learn that it's actually quite rich and often one square will satiate your craving over an entire candy bar. Then using egg whites, unsalted/ lower cream butter or natural oils instead all those things can add up to having your sweet treats with 1/3 the calories and less sugar intake. . Just my 2 cents...

keybler

What do you think of this idea; how about trying to kick the sugar habit by instituting a day of no sweets? We can call it “No Sweets Wednesdays”; what do you think?

glasielady

I also hear you about the sweets. I'm a sweetaoholic (is that a word?). I have been trying to watch my carbs but like you said it's hard to find foods low in sugar. I don't keep sweets in my house because for me it's out of sight out of mind. Like you I will splurge once in a while when I do that I will pick up a extra spinning class to counter act the splurge.

jpondy

@Amanda421 - I was diagnosed with Type II a few months ago and like you wish I had taken the "pre" condition a bit more seriously. Here are some things I wish someone had told me during the "pre" stage that would really have helped me take it more seriously.

1. Diabetes is irreversible which means the damage done in the pre-stage is also irreversible (you can only move closer - you can't move back!)

2. Fasting blood glucose levels over 100 and Post Meal levels over 140 ARE damaging your body.

By the time I found out my "pre" was now "full" my levels were well over 140 and 180 respectively.

See the study results here: http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045678.php

Hope this helps you - it sure would have me.

bigcurt61

@ Frozenmango when you perfect that recipe please let me know. I love cookies!!
@ Jpondy thanks for the info, I never new that about the damage caused. Type II diabetes runs in my family if you have high BP/Chol and are obese it's only a matter of time in my family.

@glasielady I'm going to try a spin class this year!
@keybler it's tough for me to keep myself under control if I eat sweets everyday, but one. I have to do no sweets most day! :-)

@amanda421 I just took a stroll down the cereal aisle today looking for low sugar cereals and this is what i found: the great Fiber One Original 0g, Cheerios 1g, Kellogg's corn flakes 2g, Kix 3g, Special K 4g, Kashi Heart to Heart 5g, Life 6g, Kashi Autumn Wheat 7g. The good/ok Cinnamon Life 8g, Honey Nut Cheerios 9g, Pops 10g. The use very sparsely/bad frosted mini wheats 12g, Kellogg's Raisin Bran 17g!! Raisin Bran is suppose to be good for you... Anyway something to keep in mind is that natural sugar is fine i.e. sugars from natural fruit. You have to be careful because sometimes the food will fail you. For example for the longest time I was having the Yoplait Smoothie blends for breakfast until I looked on the label and saw all the extra sugar being added on the ingredients label. Who would have thought they would add sugar to a strawberry banana smoothie blend. Now i just by frozen strawberries and fresh banana's. Also the Lara fruit bars are good b/c the are made of natural sugar.

hummingbird314

I am like you and crave sweets especially chocolate. Thanks for the tip about adding the sugar grams to the calorie tracking. I'm going to start looking at how much sugar I am eating.
Teresa

myladyelliott

Okay, I thought that I made up the term sugaraholic! It's amazing to me to find so many others with the same challenge, makes me feel like I'm not quite so odd after all.

I love the idea of a no-sweets day! And I'm also a second vote for the cookie recipe!
:^>Wendy

Amanda421

Thanks you all. I have been trying all kinds of techniques to overcome/ get in control of this sugar-holic thing. Some days I am just fine w/out. Doesnt even cross my mind. Others days, well not so much. But so is life. Good luck to you all.

robindonny

Has anyone tried Publix no sugar fudge pop? I think it has 2g of sugar and 40 cals. I love chocolate too and even though its not a snickers it is better than nothing. It also takes awhile to eat so unlike the 100 cal snacks you can eat in two bites, you can enjoy it!

mrsgcnaylor

I wanted to share that I buy lots of sugar-free snacks. Quaker has Sweet Chili Quakes ( flavored rice cakes) 1 gram of sugar per serving, serving size is 18 pieces for 130 calories. My mother is diabetic and while the snacks still have some sugar, it's not very much. Extra brand gum has a whole line of sugar free gum that tastes like ice cream, pie etc with only 5 cal per stick. I love the mint chocolate chip and I have used it many times to get rid of my cravings. I mean they have , strawberry shortcake, and even key-lime pie. What about J-E-L-L-O? There is many sugar free versions of classic favorites. Example I am having Lime Jello, 0 grams of sugar and only 10 cal per serving. There are solutions out there, you just have to be open to shopping in the diabetic section of your super market and be open to trying out packages that are labeled "Sugar-Free". **** Be cautious- if the label says "No Sugar Added" does not mean that there is no sugar in it!!!! Check your Nutrition Info on the back. No Sugar Added does not mean no sugar, it means that the manufacturer of the food did not add any. Things such as applesauce already contain sugar naturally. Oranges, grapes and most all fruits have natural sugars don't be naive in thinking that you won't ingest any sugar. Just about every thing we eat has some sugar. Try to stay a way from foods with large amounts.

jpondy

A few cautions about just looking at the sugar content of snacks. Sugar is sugar is sugar to your body - it can't tell the difference between glucose, fructose, sucrose, raw sugar or any other kind of sugar. A much better measure of what you are eating is the Carbohydrates which INCLUDE the sugar. When you eat carbohydrates your body converts them into sugar (glucose) and releases that energy into the blood stream.

Your cells can only use energy in the form of sugar (glucose) so your body is all about converting food to glucose and insulin is what controls the sugar levels in your blood stream. Eat a bunch of food and your body lets loose a bunch of insulin to try and maintain a narrow range of glucose in the blood.

A low sugar snack may be very high in carbohydrates so be careful about checking the labels. In general a serving of carbohydrates is 15 grams (which includes the sugar) - consuming more that 45 carbs for a snack is not recommended if your trying to lose weight.

I try to limit my carb intake to 45 grams for breakfast and lunch and 60 for dinner with 2 optional snacks in the AM and PM.