Sugar junkie!

katpi47 · July 2014

When it comes to meals, I do everything pretty well: I use fresh, healthy ingredients, eat slowly, and savour my food. I tend to eat bigger portions than I should, although that has been a recent change.

By far my worst eating habit comes from snacking, especially salty chips and popcorn, and my worst nemesis: sugar. My taste in sugary snacks hasn't changed since I was about 5 years old. I love slushies and candy and eat them to great excess, despite being fully aware of how bad white sugar is for me.

Anyone else out there who can relate? I'm trying to decide if the best strategy would be to cut sugar completely out cold turkey, or if I should grant myself the occassional indulgence. On the one hand, the more sugar I eat the more I want, so cutting it out completely might curb my addiction. On the other hand, allowing myself to eat it once in awhile might be a more realistic goal at this time. Any thoughts?

gaymoon · July 2014

hi!! i can relate to this; i've got a big problem with hoarding sugary food and then binge-eating it, which is why i've constructed a v specific food plan for myself, to encourage me to eat well

it really depends on how much sugar you eat weekly, in my opinion, and when/why you eat it. if it's out of impulse like me, then i'd say you should give yourself a small allowance every few days or so to begin with, then cut down slowly until you're almost completely sugar-free. going cold turkey would be super difficult!!!

the way i'm doing it is: if i binge eat some of my hoarded food one day, for whichever reason, i am not allowed sugary/salty products for the rest of the week. the fear of not being allowed ANY sugar for a whole week is enough to scare me off most of the time ;}

katpi47 · July 2014

Interesting strategy

The reason I eat so much sugar is part impulse like you said, and part ritual. I grew up having dessert after every meal, and so everytime I eat a meal I feel entitled to eating something sugary after. Maybe I'll try eating some fruit after my meals to help satisfy the sweet craving.

Thanks for sharing Moon!

KarrinaK · July 2014

I too am a sugar junkie - The only way I have found to really control it is to go cold turkey on all carbs for 1 week and bad carbs for 3 weeks. This will allow your brain to break the addiction to the sugar. Then you can add it back in a very very controlled way. You will find it does not taste the same after doing this.

Luckyfish72 · July 2014

I always thought I was a carb craver, but when it came down to it and I started logging what I ate, I realized it was mainly sugar. Cereal being my #1 addiction. Sugary yummy any kind! I always called it carbs but when you add more sugar to frosted flakes cause they aren't sweet enough, call it was it really is. Sometimes I would skip dinner so I could eat a huge *kitten* bowl of fruit loops. So I am trying to correct this, it's a struggle every single night to go to bed without a bowl of cereal. I also did successfully complete a 10 day detox that was fresh foods and lean meat only, it worked! The cravings were gone and yes things did taste different, I slowly have started to add the junk food back and hate myself for it.

texas_state11 · July 2014

I can relate as well. My cravings for sugar have been more recent (happened the last couple years) I'm trying to lose weight to get wedding ready and for some reason there is always sugar around me. My problem is when i eat sugar i dont eat just a little i go crazy... and i end up eating it everyday. But I keep fighting hoping one day it will just stop or I will be able to stop myself. Since starting MFP ive gotten better because I see how much calories i'm taking in but still its something that takes practice...

katpi47 · July 2014

Thanks for the responses ladies, nice to see that I am not alone

Great idea about the detox Karrina, although I don't know if icould last 3 whole weeks! Maybe I will go for 1 week and then see if I could stand to do another.

Let's make a deal to not beat ourselves up over our sugar addictions. It's built into us, it makes sense if you look at it from an evolutionary point of view. For example, look at honey. It was a very high risk, high reward situation in our ancient past. We didn't have those sweets available in abundance back then like we do now. And food companies take advantage of our natural cravings to add a tonne of sugar into their products, enough to make us reach our "bliss point" and become addicted.

So we've been given quite the uphill battle, but I know we can all curb our addictions! Keep strong ladies, and I will too

Btw I have totally added sugar to my frosted flakes too >. <

EllaIsNotEnchanted · July 2014

I love sugar too.
I follow IIFYM and eat sugar.
Today I had ice cream.
Tomorrow I will have ice cream.
I eat fruit and looooove bananas.
I'm losing more body fat than I ever had before.
it's called knowing how much you put in.
Get a scale and measure your food.

Look, I tried the whole cut it out. How long can you cut out food you like?
The only thing that I could ever really cut out was soda.
Just a thought.

lightandflight · July 2014

Every couple months I will choose a month and completely go cold turkey on sugar. So I did no-sugar-january, and I'm currently doing no-sugar-june/july/august. It really helps me to completely avoid it sometimes. Plus since its not forever, I can always convince myself that I'll eat ice cream or whatever when the month is through. By the end, sweetened stuff tastes WAY TOO SWEET. And naturally sweet things like peaches etc start to taste even better. :-)

sammidean · July 2014

Hey There! Me too... Actually I ate bad meals for dinner at times too..
Sugar as I have finally started to understand is addictive. It took me 2-3 weeks to really get off it and I would say this has been the main contributor to my weight loss so far. After 7 weeks I no longer 'crave' a sugary hit either drink or snack nor chips or popcorn. Instead I have purchased snack alternatives and drink a lot more water.. like 2-3 litres a day...
Cutting sugar out has been by far the hardest part of the weight loss! Try it for a week and you'll feel terrible, try for 3 weeks and you'll feel great! goodluck!

Sugar junkie!

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