31-Day No Sweets Challenge

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MePlus20
MePlus20 Posts: 55 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have started a personal No Sweets Challenge that lasts for the month of January. In February I'll have sweets again, but since until now I have been a sugar binge eater, I first need to break the habit. Then next month will look at healthy ways to incorporate sweets that I can maintain over the long term. (No sweets ever again is NOT realistic!)

Just wondering if there is anyone out there who is doing this as well, or others who want to do this along with me? It would be great to have the support and companionship and we can help each other along.

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  • MePlus20
    MePlus20 Posts: 55 Member
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    Really? No one?
  • katya_be
    katya_be Posts: 227 Member
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    I did this last February, I remember dreaming about eating sweets! It was hard but i did it for 30 days. I don't think I got rid of my sweet tooth, I still eat sweets to date but have learned to eat in moderation (sometimes I binge on sweets). I have lost 22 pounds since last February.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
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    Typically, on this forum, you aren't going to find much support for giving up any one type of food, most people would suggest that if you like those kinds of foods, to figure out a way to include them in your day while maintaining a deficit. Jump starts, kick offs, detoxes, or anything that sound like a short term thing are usually frowned upon.

    I'm not saying it's a bad thing for you to do, if you feel the need to do this in order to get a handle on what you consider binge eating sugar tendencies, I guess, go for it. You can still have those food in your day and lose weight.

    I cannot join you mainly because those things aren't a part of my daily life already. But, when I want chocolate, I work it in.

  • katya_be
    katya_be Posts: 227 Member
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    I agree ^^ When I first started I eliminated all sweets, but learning moderation will help out with the rest of your life! You can only go so long without dessert ;)
  • MePlus20
    MePlus20 Posts: 55 Member
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    Great feedback and I agree that this is not maintainable over the long term. Right now it's just a matter of breaking a terrible habit and starting fresh. If someone has ideas on healthy ways to incorporate sweets, I'd love to hear it, as that will be my next step in February.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
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    Good luck! I honestly eat so much fruit (always over my sugars according to MFP) that I just don't really have those cravings.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I did this when I started as I was using sweets to some extent as a crutch--emotional eating and all that jazz. I wanted to teach myself I didn't need that, and didn't need to snack between meals at all, and the easiest way was just to stop eating them for a while (like many, I'm extremely good at justifying things, so a hard and fast rule until I got used to eating them less was helpful to me). I found that after that moderation was pretty easy.

    Over the holidays I've been eating them too much again, and finding any excuse to make an exception--free chocolates from vendor we work with, yay!, restaurant out with fancy desserts, yay!--and also having trouble imagining my evening without my regular moderate amount of ice cream, so much that even on a good day I'm focusing too much on saving the calories, which has interfered with my creativity in planning meals. So I decided to cut desserts, sweets, whatever you want to call them, them out for the month again, starting this past Sunday. (So that's my long-winded way of saying I'm someone else out there doing it.) ;-)

    Obviously I haven't been doing it long yet, but I am enjoying it so far--I used my extra calories last night for some avocado with dinner and a lovely piece of cheese afterwards and replaced my usual chocolate or Quest bar in the afternoon with some dried cherries and nuts today when I discovered yesterday that I was hungry without it.

    I'm not at all an anti sugar or anti moderation person, but I think for some of us this kind of thing can be helpful from time to time.

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