Giving up on moderation. (please read)
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I'm reading a great book, by Dr. Robert Lustig . He talks about our sugar addiction . I can totally relate..
As the child of an alcoholic, I see many comparisons.
Yes I see absolute comparisons to alcoholism too; I'm convinced this is the key to a lot of obesity problems. I've always been amazed at people who can eat just half a packet of crisps/chips or half a choc bar and not be obsessed that it's there waiting to be finished!
I knew it was getting out of hand when I bought a bag of my favourite chips and left them at home when I went on a holiday. I know I thought of them and how I was going to eat them when I got home at least a dozen times. That is not health behaviour :noway:0 -
I relate to you so much, and for me, I think this is the only method to help myself beat the binges too. It's so refreshing to see someone else's perspective, and that I'm not the only one who feels this way after a binge, or days of them! I promised myself I'd start fresh today, then ruined my goals by breakfast, and that just makes me give up on myself for the rest of the day. It's a self-inflicted cycle and it's not worth the shame, embarrassment, and low self esteem any more. Good luck to you if you decide this is how you'll overcome your binges! You can do it!
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I don't know if you know of or perhaps follow the trainer Chris Powell from the show "Extreme Makeover Weightloss Edition", but there is actually a scientific reason for your love of sugar... He says that for some people, there are trigger foods that ~ once consumed ~ are as addictive to that person as would be drugs or alcohol to addicts!! For substance abuse addicts, when they're ready to change, they can keep away from drugs/alcohol... but for people with food triggers it is a million times harder because, as you said, it's everywhere & readily available!
I encourage you to stop beating yourself up; it's chemistry, not your willpower, that's making this difficult for you... I've gone through the same thing, and I literally switched to a whole foods/vegetarian based diet to see if I could rewire how my body feels... Guess what? For the first time in my life, I'm actually full!!! I feel healthier than I have in over a decade, and I'm not even tempted by sweets when they're around at work (because I'm too full from the brown rice! lol) 0 -
I also agree that you need to break your body's addiction to sugary stuff if you are having that much trouble with it. When I first started 2 years ago I did the same thing - no sweet stuff for almost an entire year. Now I am back to moderation and it is NOTHING like it would have been from the beginning. Cold turkey was the way to go for me too but now I can manage all foods, and I bet you will be able to sometime in your future as well. Best of luck to you!!0
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I completely understand. I no longer keep sweets in the house. I've been doing green smoothies for the past month and it's really helped me manage the sweet craving. At work, there are always goodies in the break room; I've trained myself to not go and look at them. I am getting used to only having the sweet that occurs naturally (fruits) as my sweet. Last week, I did have cake, but I dusted myself off and started again. Good luck to everyone who struggles with this.0
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I am an alcoholic, and I can't have just one drink. I am also really sensitive to carbs, and had to give up real Cokes as a result. Not just cut back but give them up. And they were my alcohol replacement. Just keep the stuff out of your house. It's really the only way.0
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I am an alcoholic, and I can't have just one drink. I am also really sensitive to carbs, and had to give up real Cokes as a result. Not just cut back but give them up. And they were my alcohol replacement. Just keep the stuff out of your house. It's really the only way.
Thankyou for sharing that. It led me to look at your profile and I have to ask is that an old pic or do you really look that young and that good??!! Well done on all your success, not easy i'm sure!0 -
Breaking from sugar is hard. Very, very hard. I hope breaking from sugar works for you, but be careful in your early stages. Here's my own story of warning, in case it helps:
I was 160 a year ago, and had been so, reliably and steadily, for six or seven years, but wanted to lose weight for a wedding in June of last year. It was my first time doing a serious diet, so I wanted to do things correctly and carefully. I counted calories, avoided sugar, portioned everything carefully, and paid attention to getting the vitamins I needed through food (and a multi-vitamin, I admit. I could never get everything perfect.) I wanted to get down to 140, (though even 150 would have been nice.)
I got down to around 152-ish before I fell off the wagon, hard. I impulsively bought a piece of cake, meant to be a once in a while splurge, and just never got back on. I binged on everything I had denied myself for two months. By June, I barely fit into the party dress I had bought at my lowest point. From there I kept going. By September I weighed 170. When I started this latest round of responsible dieting, I weighed 171.
I've lost 5 lbs since starting up again, just over a month ago, and I've had some bad weekends, too. But for me, I've found that I have to allow myself these treats. I can't do without them just yet. My control over my diet is too tenuous for me to deny myself foods that I really, really love. I will binge without them and, like last time, probably just add on. So I keep things out of my house, and only buy something small if I'm with a friend, and split it if possible. That way I don't have more than a serving (or at least a sitting) and can get back on the wagon.
If I have a weak moment and bring something into the house, I'll eat a serving, maybe two... and promptly feel guilty. I'll throw out the bag. Immediately. It's a waste of money, I know... and I'll be the first to admit I'm fairly cheap... but it's either that or sabotage myself. I'll gladly give up two to five dollars to save my efforts if I have to. But again, that's what works for me. If I keep it, I'll go through a box in a day or two, of whatever it is. (Oreos, cheez-its, fill-in-vice-of-choice)
Good luck in giving up moderation! I hope to be there someday, and with all the other people who have posted in reply saying that they don't crave such things anymore. Maybe a year I can try that. 0 -
You sound like you have a binge eating disorder. This is something I used to struggle with. There are reasons why you do these things, avoiding stuff for now will help but you need to deal with the cause.
Go talk to your doctor about counselling sessions and cognitive behaviour therapy. The CBT helps you deal with thought patterns differently when you have a trigger to binge.
I found there was a lot more to why I binged than I thought. Dealing with it helped tremendously and over time it got better and better now I can have treats in the house, have one portion and leave it alone no problem.
Early days if I had a treat in that was bought for me, I'd immediately portion it into bags. Some how for my brain it worked that I had my one portion and that was it until tomorrow.
Now and Then I still buy a food in that calls my name from the cupboard (Nutella was the last one). As bad as it sounds I just grew itnin the bin. Once you've done it your glad.
Get yourself some therapy and know that over time you should be able to have these things in moderation. Just not right now. I was depressed also and got on a good antidepressant.
Few days ago I had a pig out. Logged it and I was 152 cals over. Not the end of the world. Giving myself a good calorie allowance helps... So I can eat plenty and not feel deprived. At one time my binges were easily. 2-3000 calories!
Going low carb (120g per day). Not crazy low, but a lot lower than I though helped my craving tremendously. For me having lots of carbs, leads to wanting lots more. Found 120g was enough to not feel deprived, but not so much that I constantly craved them. Now if I have a high carb day, I find I just want more! Maybe this is a tool that can help you. It's also been a great weight loss tool.
When I find I'm getting overly stressed and I'm wanting to eat more than I should again, I sit down and write down what it is that is bothering me. I then make sure I work on one thing at a time! Need to be proactive.
Hope that info helps!
Zara x0 -
I TOTALLY feel your pain. When I started trying to lose weight waaaay before MFP, I would go get a bag of fat free gummies or a 100g chocolate bar, saying I would only have 5 gummies, or 1 square of chocolate. I would always cave and eat the whole thing that night. I gave up eating sugary treats completely for months. Where I would normally have budgeted calories for chocolate, I tried to enjoy a rich and satisfying savory treat, like a fresh bakery croissant (200 cals) or a rich cappuccino with maybe one sugar packet.
Now, 3 years later, I can actually only eat 1-2 oreos before I feel sick from the sweetness. Frosting disgusts me and I have to scrape it off cake now. Sugar is an addiction that has to be kicked. BTW, I think fake sweetener counts too. It wasn't until I quit diet coke that sweet treats started to overwhelm my taste buds.0 -
After fighting this battle with my weight for literal years, I honestly have gotten to the point where I'm fed up with trying to moderate foods that I always end up over eating. I posted a thread a few weeks ago about how sugary pastry-like foods such as cookies, pies, cake, snack cakes, etc, were always my ultimate vice when it came to weight loss & maintaining a healthy weight, & have always been the reason why I either fail to lose weight, or I gain it back once I've lost it. I said that I was going to try limiting my intake of them to 200 calories worth a day in order to practice "moderation" & to somehow re-wire my brain to realize that I don't *have* to overeat on those things, & that I could enjoy them in small portions.
Boy was that an epic fail. First of all, 200 calories worth of a food that I'm typically known to binge on felt like a crumb. You ever try giving an alcoholic just one glass of wine? How well does that ever work out? Once I'd eaten my 200 calorie serving I'd sit there & try to convince myself "Okay, Angie. That was enough. Now continue on with your day like nothing happened." But here's the thing - I couldn't. The voice screaming "MORE, MORE, MORE!" was always so ridiculously strong & unwavering. It was almost scary sometimes. It made me realize why I usually say "**** it, I'm eating the whole box" after the first bite without even trying to fight it. Because trying to fight it literally becomes an exhausting mental battle & focusing on anything else becomes difficult. It's like my mind can't rest until I've had more.
I know I probably sound crazy, and I'm not sure if any of you out there can relate to me on this, but I truly believe that all the years of binging & over eating on sweets has corrupted my brain somehow, in that once I get a taste, my will to stop whittles to nothing. I can honestly say that just not having any at all is MUCH easier than having one & then wanting a thousand more but attempting to fight that urge.
In the past I've thought it impossible to give up those foods for good. "How could I ever give up cookies & cake & pie forever? There will always be some event that has it. What if I go out to eat & they order some great dessert? etc. etc." But then I thought about it this way. People who go vegetarian or raw vegan or gluten-free have to say no to WAY more foods. They can't eat 9/10 of the stuff at the average grocery store or restaurant, & I'm worried about saying no to dessert? Plus, when I actually take the time to look back, 95% of the time I overate on dessert, it was when I was alone in my room with no one around. People rarely offer the stuff to me. I always choose to eat it myself & in private. And when I think about the benefits - having a body I'm actually proud of, fitting into my old clothes again, no longer losing weight only to gain it back after slipping back into the sugar trap, being able to enjoy the vast amount of healthy food available to me instead, no longer spending nights alone in my room ashamed & sick to my stomach after a binge session, avoiding the risk of diabetes that runs in my family - it seems worth it.
But I can't lie, I still have some doubts & worries about changing my life in such a drastic way. I think about occasions like Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving & birthdays, where there's bound to be sugar involved, & wonder how I could possibly evade the urge to have any, especially if I'm offered it or it's being given out. I'm scared of doing well for a period of time and then relapsing. I want to hear opinions/possible alternatives to my plan, or if any of you have faced similar struggles. It's a really big decision & I know in order for me to succeed in it, I have to decide 100% that it's what I want to do.
Hang in there and I agree completely- sometimes you can't even try a taste bc it will only torture you. I tried something that usually works which was to omit all flour and ice cream- weight comes off pretty fast. Good luck.0 -
Thanks for posting this, it has been kind of a wake up call to me. I've been a sugar craver for as long as I can remember. My mom always watched her weight and didn't keep snacks in the house, so as soon as I was old enough, I would ride my bike to the store to get candy or chocolate chips to make cookies. I was never a "have one piece" or "have one bite person" either. Years ago, I did low carb for awhile and it really helped me to kind of reset everything. I can relate to those who have said that really sweet things are too much now. You can, I think, change how things taste and what you like and can tolerate. But for me chocolate is still something I crave daily. I had been keeping dark chocolate in the house and only having a square a day, but just had the realization how much I've actually been eating in a week. One square turned to 2, 2 to 3, so maybe it is time to get it out of the house too?
A lot of people on MFP preach that you shouldn't deprive, you need to have moderation, balance, etc., but for some that is easier than others. I would try what some have suggested to cut out sugar entirely for a period of time, which will be difficult, but might help in the long run.
Oh, and I just dumped out my coffee that I had put a bunch of sugar in!0 -
I hear ya. I've completely stopped shopping down the "snacks" aisle at the grocery store for the same reasons. If I was to buy a box of Oreos or a cake I'd just end up demolishing the whole thing rather than limiting myself to a 200-300 cal snack.0
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Sounds so familiar to me. As I write this, I have a batch of monster cookies sitting in the kitchen. I sneak one every time I walk by, because I know my husband would be disgusted if he saw how many I can eat in one go. He has no issue with sweets - can take it or leave it - and always says that everything in moderation is okay. Yes, it is....if you can DO MODERATION. I've agreed with so many things in the comments here. I know if I go cold turkey (2 weeks usually kicks it) I won't even want it anymore. It's this painful first few days.0
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OP - this is such a wonderful post...so honest and well explained. I don't have this issue but my BF does. All people are different. I can do moderation and be fine......I believe my BF struggles in his mind like you mentioned. I do think that you must do what works for you. Clearly moderation does not work for you at this time in your life, so follow your brain and heart and walk away completely. Hopefully this will create the discipline you are looking for, and it may be a while and it may never get to moderation however it should get easier.
I wish you well in your decision.0 -
One day at dance after Halloween, I had a brain wave that every bad relationship song applied exactly to my relationship with sugar. As a result, I have lots of phrases I can sing to the evil chocolate cake that is calling my name.
Something that helps me is to replace the bad treats with good ones. As an example, I love raspberries. Yes, they are expensive, but not really as expensive as all those bad treats! So I allow myself wonderful fruits and vegetables, the tasty kind, to replace the bad treats.0 -
I, too, am a sugar addict. I've never had any issues with salty things like chips, fast food, soda, alcohol or drugs. Just sugar. I was never able to have 'just one' unless the 'just one' applied to the entire box/bag of cookies or chocolate (Lindor chocolate is my biggest weakness!). At some point I happened to be reading an article on how treatment centers for alcoholics were having good results curbing cravings for alcohol using the amino acid L-glutamine. The article also mentioned that there was promising evidence that L-glutamine could help curve sugary food cravings, too. I started looking in to this and came across a book called The Diet Cure by Julia Ross (the revised and updated version). I think it's a terrible name, but I assume it is named as such because it is supposed to 'cure' you from ever feeling like you have to diet again. The premise is that due to poor eating/drinking habits over an extended period of time, you end up with some biochemical imbalances and you can help restore that balance by supplementing with the correct amino acids. Long story short, I read the book twice (it can be complicated and there is a lot of info in there) and I started supplementing with L-glutamine and my cravings have significantly lessened. It took about 2 weeks for me (the book says it can happen really quickly for some. It was not immediate for me) and I can honestly say that I really only have serious cravings for about 2-3 days before my period starts. This month I upped my L-glutamine dose just for the week that is always the worst for me and I made it through remarkably well. I used to get cravings bad enough that I would head out at 10pm at night to get some Ben & Jerry's or some other equivalent to try to satisfy them. And of course I would then proceed to eat the whole thing. That wasn't necessary this month, for the first time in years. The idea with the supplementation is that once balance has been restored you can stop taking the amino supplements, and you are able to maintain that balance through eating a healthy diet. It's not something that you will have to take for the rest of your life.
I'm not saying that this book is correct, I'm not saying it will work for everyone, and I would appreciate it if anyone with negative opinions about it would not direct them at me. Obviously you should feel free to share your opinion and that should only help to give more information to everyone on here. I'm just saying that the supplementation that this book recommends greatly helped me. I will say that I think supplementing like this would be much better if explained/supervised by someone medically versed in it. I will also mention that depending on how much of how many supplements you need, it can get a little expensive, it might be tricky to determine your dose (I just started at the low end and that has worked well for me, with the exception of upping it for PMS week), and you need to take them at specific times of the day (which may be difficult or frustrating for some folks). However, you only need to take them until things are back in balance and for me, so far it has been so worth it. It is much easier to eat healthy when you aren't constantly fighting cravings!0 -
Like you, I have been down this road many times. While I really wanted to lose weight, I wasn't setting reasonable or sustainable goals for myself. I have followed every "program", "food plan", fad, diet, trend, restrictive, low cal, low carb, you name it, I've tried it. I started out great, for the first week or two and then as that deadline approached (the unrealistic one) I would get overwhelmed, know there was no way I could ever do it, feel like a failure, start to fall off, feel more guilty, binge, guilt again, done. (Sorry for the run on but kind of out of control like the way you feel at the time). The fact that I was not fueling by body or my brain enough didn't help my thought process. Back then I could run and exercise like crazy.....oh, those were the days.
I've lost the same 40 - 50lbs probably 20 times and now I'm looking at losing over 100. This time, and for the life of me I can't tell you why it just "clicked", it will be the last time. My head is finally in the game, and unfortunately, yours doesn't sound like it is. Oh I get that you want to lose the weight, but you don't want it more than you "think" you want that food. I have no "expectations" for myself, I am not doing anything that is something I wouldn't do every day of my life. I follow MFP recommendations, I will eat what I exercise, even though that isn't even in the cards yet and I am still losing weight. That being said, I am doing it in a healthy, slow, reasonable and sustainable way.
I don't wan't to be looking back a year from now and say "That could have been me". I will not omit anything so I don't feel like I am missing out on anything. I can have just one piece of cake or what have you, heck I can have the whole cake too if I want, nothing stopping me. The difference now is that I want to be successful, confident and happy more than I "think" I want that cake. The other turning point for me is if I did eat the whole thing, I wouldn't beat myself up, feel guilty, or quit. That entire cake would be in my food log to remind me that this week I didn't lose a pound or gained a couple and that is that. No guilt, no blame, just a simple fact.
I have also found that I used to reach for sugary treats, actually anything that was in reach and edible, when there was something else going on. For example, mindless snacking when you are watching TV, when you get stressed or excited,sad. Maybe there are some other factors holding you back? This is definitely not easy for me, and there is no magic pill or plan it really comes down to willpower and patience. Not something I had back in the day. If you really put your mind to it you can do this! Good Luck!0 -
I had to give up pop and candy for health. I is easier to do the impossible then you think. Cut those binge foods out, think of them as rat poison. Good luck!0
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I felt this way when I was undereating. I'm not suggesting that you're undereating - just sharing what happened with me. I constantly craved sugar and when I would eat any type of sugary, pastry, dessert, icecream, etc. I'd overindulge. There was no turning it off - I felt like I HAD to it, and ALL of it, like an addict or something. It was scary and it really stressed me out b/c I felt like I could never be successful. Now that I'm eating more I feel so much better. It's still a struggle b/c I still love those foods and want to keep eating just because they taste so good, but the needy-addict feeling is gone. Do what you need to do to be successful. Hopefully you can find a balance eventually, but do what you've got to do to get there.
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