Cutting Down on Sugar

If I have cookies in the house, I will eat a dozen in a day. So...I don't keep them in the house. Out of site, out of mind. What are your cookies? Is it feasible to simply not keep them in the house?

I am still at the stage where I don't keep sweet treats in the house. If I really want something, I go to the store and buy a single cookie or cupcake or one candy bar or one donut, etc.

Are the cravings real cravings or just poor impulse control? That is something you have to decide for yourself and act accordingly to limit the sweet treats. Mine is poor impulse control. If they are not in the house, I don't want them.

I don't bring them into the house or my car. I'm cutting out all things sweet starting yesterday. Even fruit, and the sweetener in my coffee.

That's not because I think it's bad. I'm just trying to retrain my taste buds to prefer less sweet things. I'll eventually re incorporate them in moderation.

What worked for me, is picking something that I liked, but not ever 'wanting' regularly. Ex: When I first started on my healthier path, I ditched the sweets BUT knew I would need something (because I su*k at cutting out anything completely), I would have a box of Apple Jacks or CapNCrunch on hand for those desperate times. If I had to have something, I would have a cup of that with milk in the evening. Worked for me for keeping the desperation at bay. Once a week went by, I didn't want the cereal anymore. However, if I have sweets on occasion, I find I want more sugary stuff - so I go back to that. Works great for me and I'm happy I like sweet cereals.

LaurenPell123 wrote: »

when I'm stressed it's an impulse thing
I can have things in the house for months without eating them usually

I don't want to cut them out entirely just cut down on the stress sugar intake

This can be a tough one as it definitely gets difficult at times to manage cravings effectively. You get stressed out, or sleep deprived, or a combination of them and cravings can improve and your ability to exert willpower can diminish so the combination of the two can certainly results in extra calories coming into the diet.

There's a few things you could consider but I don't think this will be a "quick fix" type of scenario. It's likely something that you'll try to gradually improve over time.

This won't be a cohesive, complete guide to mitigating the issue, more of a set of bullet points or ideas to consider collectively.

- You could identify lower calorie options that satisfy your sweet tooth.
- You could (should) manage your food environment so that the energy dense, "junk" types of foods are both less noticeable and less convenient. For example, keeping the ice cream in the basement freezer under 3 feet of frozen vegetables rather than keeping it in the upstairs freezer in the front where it's viewable and reachable every time you open the freezer. Same for your general living space.
- You could journal your hunger/cravings for a couple of weeks to see if there's a specific time or times that this occurs so that you can possibly identify a cause.
- Before you eat whatever candy or snack you are trying to minimize in your diet, you could ask yourself (literally) "am I hungry". If you are not, you then say (literally) "I'm not hungry but I'm going to eat this anyway". This particular bullet point probably sounds ridiculous but it's apparently an effective tool over time.
- You can and should identify sources of stress that exist in your life as well as sleep quality to also attack the problem from that angle.
- You could look for areas in your life that you can simplify so that you're not having to exert willpower as frequently. Managing food environment is a huge part of this process as this will reduce some food decisions that you may have previously been making that were strictly environmental.
- I'd also evaluate on an individual basis, how restrictive you are attempting to be with your diet. Many people don't do well long term by overly restricting food selection. But having said that, it's important to note that some people do just fine eliminating foods but I think it's quite important to acknowledge and accept that a given food is never OFF LIMITS, you are just choosing not to eat it because you'd rather spend the calories elsewhere or you're not satisfied with the minimal quantity of whatever that food item is.


To elaborate on that last point, when I'm restricting calories to lean out I'm not likely to eat pizza very often. I love pizza and I know I could fit a couple of slices into my diet if I wanted to, but I'd rather smash an entire pizza, and if the choice is to smash a full pizza or just have two slices or have none, I'm either going all in or none. So I'll not eat pizza often when dieting, and occasionally I'll go destroy one.

I'm being careful on this last point because there's a difference between "these foods are bad and I can't have them" and "I can have whatever I want, but I'm better off not having these few foods because of my preferences or my adherence to my diet".

Anyway, this is just a start but hopefully these ideas lead you somewhere productive.