Help Me Get off the Sugar!

Lupercalia

Track your Macro's. And if it fits your Macros Eat dat sugar brahette

I think sugar and refined sugars are making up at least half of my daily calories:(
All I drink in sweetened drinks. Mostly coffee with tones of sugar. That's all day every day. I don't drink any water. Just for example today I ate a Hershey pie for breakfast along with a brat and a giant cup of coffee with about a 1/4 cup sugar in it and cinnamon slavered syrup. Then for lunch I had about 2 cups of pasts with about 1/2 cup of shrimp. Then I went on to drink a couple cups of Lipton iced tee. Then I had a chocolate moose (the one from Applebees.) I also had 2 of the real little bags of Cheetos. Oh and I had one package of oatmeal with about about 3 teaspoons of sugar on it. I'll probably have a bowl of chocolate/ peanut butter cereal before bed. Soooo, Yeah.... It's bad and I don't think I should just keep eating it Kind of wish it were that simple! I have an insane amount of willpower and determination. I feel like this is one thing that I am definitely going to need some help with and some tools.

Yep - that was me 10 years ago.
You have to go cold turkey. Honestly, it's the only way.
I tried moderation, substitution, reduction.
All that worked was cold turkey.

I was a sugar monster, too. I also found completely cutting myself off was the only way I could do it. I stopped back in July 2012. Changed my diet to one based entirely around whole foods. I started cooking EVERYTHING from scratch, and I mean everything. I make my own condiments these days.

I've had to carefully watch my fruit intake as well, as I found I can get a bit crazy with that if I let myself have as much fruit as I want. I try to keep mostly to berries these days, but have the occasional apple or orange, sometimes a bit of grapes.

At the same time as I got off the sugar, I realised I would also need to cut out a lot of the grains and starchy carbs I was eating, in order to better control my blood sugar, so I wouldn't have to deal with cravings and awful hunger pangs. That worked a treat, let me tell you. I felt pretty crap for a couple of days during the first week, but quickly got over that and felt great. Tons of energy!

So yeah, I eat a paleo/primal whole foods, low carb diet these days and I have never felt better in my life! I never have cravings or fight with hunger pangs. Never! I eat lots of veggies, meat, eggs, fish, and healthy fats...a little fruit here and there, and the occasional sweet potato.

ikinga

Hi, I had (and still have) a similar problem to yours. First step is to be aware of it and to admit it, so you are one step closer to solve this. I was 138lbs when I have decided to change something as I was getting fat, I had 32% body fat... At that time I wasn't doing sports and I was eating a lot of sweets. I have managed to loose 18lbs. When I have stopped training, my bad eating habbits were slowly getting back and I gained again 10lbs when I have decided to not let my self gain more weight. Then I've started working on a plan to keep me on track on the long run.
So, here is what I have learnt. Don't change your diet sundenly, don't cut sugar in a way like: "from tomorrow I won't touch any sugar". It affects you psychologicaly in a negative way and your body will miss a lot the sugar. If you resist to the carvings, when you'll give up you'll eat up everything you would find in your house. So here are some trick, some small steps you can take to improve your healty habbits.
1. For the beginning, replace white sugar with brown sugar. For example, if you usually get your tea with 2 tablespoons of sugar, reduce that to 1 and half the first week, then try to slowly decrease quantity to 1TBS and so one. This is how I got used to drink tea without sugar and I enjoy it. If it doesn't work (you can't give up to the 1TBS sugar), replace that with honey or even better with stevia (natural sweet herb with no calories). The idea is to reduce sugar slowly, not to eliminate it.
2. Your diet starts in the supermarket when you choose your food. Don't go when you are hungry. Make a list at home with what you need and stick to it. Don't buy sweets. You know many times I feel I need something sweet but I don't have any at home... so it is easier to resist.
3. Treat yourself now and then with something sweet. Instead of cookies with 200 incredients, chemicals, satured fats etc, but something sweet that is not so bad for your health. You can have that after a nice 2h workout. Not every day, but 2-3 times a week you can have that, IF you give up to all other sweets, of course. Here is what I eat: icecream! One cup of icecream (not filled to the top tough, but more than half cup): 80g. It has around 150kcal. Not bad, huh? If you keep quantity lower (60g) even better. It has also some proteins. On top of it you can use delicious berries and 1TBS of ahorn syrup (tastes like caramel). So you have a super delicious sweet treat with less than 200kcal. If you worked out and burned, let's say 600kcal, and keep the rest of your diet clean and kcal near the goal, you will still have a deficit of 400kcal for that day, even if you cheated with a nice sweet. Plus, you will feel satisfied of your day, happy and the next day it would be easier to stay away from cookies (you can tell yourself that "tomorrow" you can have again some delicious icecream, if you work out).

In time, your sugar carvings would get easier to deal with. Another secret is to eat small quantites. If you can't resist to something (in my case, colleagues bring sweets to work, homemade cakes etc), instead of saying no than think about it everyday, just eat a small bite.

Keep track of everything you eat so you can keep under control the small bites.

By the way I am starting my diet today... I need to loose 10lbs, but this time is different, my body fat is at 20%.

appelsiinipuu

Go read Sarah Wilson's blog. She has written an ebook and a cookbook 'I quit sugar':
http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/

ikinga

Sorry for the long post, I forgot. In order to "burn" that cup of icecream, you would need to:
walk for 45 minutes
swim (at a good peace) for 20minutes
HIIT for 20 minutes
bike for 30minutes

Think about that when you walk, so if you plan to have your ICEcream but still loose weight, you'll have to walk at least 1h, or just make sure you slowly raise training intesity every time you go to gym, so that you can burn more!

travel_kat

I read this book : http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/i-quit-sugar-ebook/ on how to do it.

Its full good of really good tips and advice. Not saying I don't get cravings every now and again, I do, but I can walk away from them. Which for someone who 'HAD' to have chocolate/sweets every day is a bit of a miracle. Its been over 2 months now, and for the first month it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but by blood/emotions/weight have stabilised so much its incredible.