Woo hoo rdbaslie. Proud of you! May the force be with you today!

Anyone still out there? I miss hearing from y'all!

Thanks for the good example and encouragement! I have done really great so far, and feel much better, but I know I could lapse back very easily. It helps to communicate with like minded people on this site.

For myself, I am just saying no refined sugar. Like white sugar, corn syrup, etc. I do use raw agave and maple syrup & raw honey. I know these are technically refined also, but I think they are still pretty much whole foods. If I said "nothing sweet at all" I would have totally bonked after a few days. When I first started, I used my allowed sweetners every day, but now it's only a couple times a week. It is harder to make recipes or buy pre-made treats that I love (and binge on) with these more natural sweeteners and so I have had to find new recipes that are more healthful. I do eat fruit. I also use dates as a sweetener in things like crusts for raw "cheesecakes." I am eating fruit. My goal is to get myself away from all the processed stuff. I could eat a whole bag of cadburry mini eggs - all day long, and nothing else. I had such bad cravings (addiction possibly) that I knew I couldn't do "moderation." I just had to say "none" until I got it all out of my system. I do feel a lot better, and the cravings are less and less. But, I'm scared to try going back just yet.

People ask - what about ketchup and stuff. (I guess ketchup technically has a lot of sugar in it.) Well, yeah. I eat ketchup. I am in no danger of binging on a bottle of ketchup. Haha! So I don't usually read labels and forbid something if it has the word sugar on the label. I just look to make sure it's not in maybe the top four ingredients.

But you have to decide what works for you according to your goals. I don't want to dictate my rules onto someone else. I'm just looking for general support, swapping ideas, commiserating when we mess up, Saying hooray when we do good,etc. Maybe you could say you are allowed icecream a certain number of times a week, so you don't go into panic mode thinking that you are absolutely never ever going to be able to eat ice cream again. I have also seen recipes for icecream or frozen trats made with agave, or other whole food sweeteners.

What I did (still do) when I feel like I am craving sweet stuff: I make a quart of peppermint tea and put several teaspoons of agave in it. That is sweet and also gets more liquids in my and helps me fill full. I made some raw cheese cake with cashews, dates, lemon juice & some other stuff and froze them in individual portion sizes. It is a dense rich tasting dessert that totally makes me feel like I am having a nice suggary treat, but I don't feel sick and heavy afterwards, and I also don't have the desire to eat 3 pieces like I would if I had real cheesecake available. I have a recipe for pumpkin pie made with maple syrup that I will try, and I even found a fudge recipe that uses raw and healthy ingredients. Sometimes at the beginning when I was really desperate, I would go stick a spoon into the bucket of raw honey and eat it straight. I couldn't do that now. It doesn't even sound good, but at first, that was the only thing that would satisfy my intense sugar cravings in a legal way.

Whew! I got carried away! But it is all stuff I have been thinking about. Good luck to you and I hope you don't beat yourself up and quit. I'd LOVE to hear things that you do to manage!