Candy Addiction

06shadow06
06shadow06 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 27 in Health and Weight Loss
My problem is hard candy, red hots, jawbreakers, hot tamales, now laters just to name a few! I have no control when it comes to portion control I know that is what sabotages my eating for the day. BTW sugar free is a joke! I love Halloween an for candy corn an valentines for the conversation hearts!!

Replies

  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    There are two ways you can go with that:

    1. Learn to moderate them. You might track exactly what you eat and then strive to eat a little less each time until you reach a small amount.

    2. If you can't learn to moderate them, stop eating them entirely. Don't have them in the house, don't buy them, say "no thanks" when someone offers you some.

    You may be able to moderate them later if you stop completely for a while.

    I know it's hard but it's up to you how you want to handle it and if you are ready to handle it.
  • tlblake84
    tlblake84 Posts: 48 Member
    I know how you feel. I'm a secretary and that means I stock the candy bowl daily. It sits on my desk for others to come and get some. It only helped a little, but I moved it so it was out of sight. And though it seemed rude, I stopped discussing my candy assortment with those that stopped by. I do everything I can to keep it out of sight out of mind.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    06shadow06 wrote: »
    My problem is hard candy, red hots, jawbreakers, hot tamales, now laters just to name a few! I have no control when it comes to portion control I know that is what sabotages my eating for the day. BTW sugar free is a joke! I love Halloween an for candy corn an valentines for the conversation hearts!!

    You do have control, you just need to remind yourself of it.

    You have the control of it being around you, control on if you choose to eat it, control of how much you eat of it.

    Take the control back, it isn't stronger than you are and you need to believe it!
  • cessi0909
    cessi0909 Posts: 653 Member
    I also have an issue with sweets -- mine is more the form of cookies, cakes, etc but it is killing my calories for the day. I have curbed it by starting with cutting out certain sweets, so maybe for you go a full week without chewing candy, then do a week of no chewy candy and no hard candies, etc. At some point I had to just cut out sweets cold turkey, the first 3 days was really hard but after that I didn't really want it that much anymore.

    I won't lie, it is hard but it can be done!
  • brynnsmom
    brynnsmom Posts: 945 Member
    I love candy too. As others said, moderation. I always leave a little room for a piece of hard candy, be it jawbreakers or a butterscotch from my work candy dish. Really that stuff isn't overly calorific if you just have a piece or two a day.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    tlblake84 wrote: »
    I know how you feel. I'm a secretary and that means I stock the candy bowl daily. It sits on my desk for others to come and get some. It only helped a little, but I moved it so it was out of sight. And though it seemed rude, I stopped discussing my candy assortment with those that stopped by. I do everything I can to keep it out of sight out of mind.

    Can you buy stuff you dislike? A co-worker has a candy dish (not in my office, thankfully). When I feel the need to "chip-in" I buy Butterfingers...for some reason I hate them.

    OP - log everything. Be honest with yourself. I do allow myself a treat everyday.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Candy and pop were my problem "foods" too. I had to treat them like an addiction and cut them out completely. I also went low carb because I found other carbs led to cravings too.

    Once they were gone from my diet, my appetite went down and losing weight became easier.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    dont buy it.


  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    So don't keep it around.

    I am the same with ice cream and cheesecake, so i just don't keep it around. In situations where i MUST be around it, it takes a whole hell of a lot of willpower.
  • erinc5
    erinc5 Posts: 329 Member
    Yeah. Hard candy is probably the best choice as it usually takes a while to eat. I like the sugar free jolly ranchers, as they last quite a while with very low calories. I know you said sugar free was a joke, and I agree for most things it is, like in chocolate or peanut butter cups, but the SF jolly ranchers are different - I can't really tell a difference. Even if you did the full sugar jolly ranchers, but limited yourself to a few per day, that wouldn't be too bad.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    self control is something that needs to be exercised and practiced...the more you exercise it, the easier it gets, just like anything else.

    don't call it an addiction...when you do that, you immediately are giving whatever it is power over you, and you are not powerless here...you have registered that you have a control issues so you just need to exercise self restraint.

    when i started out a few years ago, my big thing was soda and i often labelled my compulsion as "addiction"...when i stopped doing that, i took the power back. i went pretty much immediately from a mindset of, "I can't control this" to being able to have a soda here and there in moderation. these days i rarely drink it...i went from having anywhere between 3-6 sodas daily to having maybe 6 sodas per year.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    Do you really feel like you are addicted ? When you say addiction, do you mean addiction or do you mean that you have self control issues ? Those are two different things. If you asked a heroin addict if their need for opiates felt the same as your need for candy, what type of answer do you think you would get? ( the heroin addict would have withdraw symptoms including but not limited to - diarrhea, nausea, joint pain, cramping, hot flashes and so on . so I don't think the two are really comparable )

    But when I had issues moderating my sweets, I used to remind myself of my goals and why I began this process. I would say, " will over eating this candy bring me closer to my goal?" The answer was no, so I had to make a choice. How badly did I want to lose weight ? I wanted it badly so decided to keep practicing portion control until it stuck.
    I personally didn't want to go without treats and sweets forever , so I knew I had to use moderation. If I was to banish all treats forever, I would end up binging and that would also bring me further from my goal. I learned portion control instead. It isn't easy , and takes lots of practice. Until I had it down, I would only allow myself to bring single servings of the treats home. Its hard to overeat sweets when its just one single package available in your pantry. I made the one serving fit into my day along with a healthy well balanced diet. I found that when my diet was finally up to par, I didn't really want to overeat the sweets anyway. I was satisfied with having a wide variety of foods and a small amount of treats at that point.
    It comes down to this, how badly do you want this? If you want to be fit and healthy, you'll make it happen. If your not ready, you'll continue to make excuses . I loved food, and still do. But I have learned portion control and moderation so no longer feel the need to overeat.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    1. Grab your garbage can
    2. Throw it all away
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    1. Grab your garbage can
    2. Throw it all away

    exactly. my ex gave me a stocking FULL of PB cups (my kryptonite and he knows it) while it was meant as a sweet/nice gift (i think.... lol) i cant control myself around it. i took a handful and literally threw the rest away.

    yes, i cried.

    lol
  • MsJulesRenee
    MsJulesRenee Posts: 1,180 Member
    06shadow06 wrote: »
    My problem is hard candy, red hots, jawbreakers, hot tamales, now laters just to name a few! I have no control when it comes to portion control I know that is what sabotages my eating for the day. BTW sugar free is a joke! I love Halloween an for candy corn an valentines for the conversation hearts!!

    You do have control, you just need to remind yourself of it.

    You have the control of it being around you, control on if you choose to eat it, control of how much you eat of it.

    Take the control back, it isn't stronger than you are and you need to believe it!

    “Never say that you can't do something, or that something seems impossible, or that something can't be done, no matter how discouraging or harrowing it may be; human beings are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by: our own minds. We are each the masters of our own reality; when we become self-aware to this: absolutely anything in the world is possible.

    Master yourself, and become king of the world around you. Let no odds, chastisement, exile, doubt, fear, or ANY mental virii prevent you from accomplishing your dreams. Never be a victim of life; be it's conqueror.” -Mike Norton
  • kbmnurse
    kbmnurse Posts: 2,484 Member
    Really? STOP buying the junk. Just STOP.
  • midge_m
    midge_m Posts: 1,085 Member
    TeaBea wrote: »
    tlblake84 wrote: »
    I know how you feel. I'm a secretary and that means I stock the candy bowl daily. It sits on my desk for others to come and get some. It only helped a little, but I moved it so it was out of sight. And though it seemed rude, I stopped discussing my candy assortment with those that stopped by. I do everything I can to keep it out of sight out of mind.

    Can you buy stuff you dislike? A co-worker has a candy dish (not in my office, thankfully). When I feel the need to "chip-in" I buy Butterfingers...for some reason I hate them.

    OP - log everything. Be honest with yourself. I do allow myself a treat everyday.

    This is what I do. I have a candy dish on my desk with coffee Nips in it. I can suck on one for about 10 secs before I want to spit it out, but lost of people who visit me love them.
  • Story of my life. What finally helped me was to stop keeping those items in the house. Luckily, my husband and children are not candy eaters so these items have no reason to be in the house. I still eat them but I buy one small pack when I have a craving for candy. I enjoy it and when it's gone it's gone. Another thing that has helped me is to pre log my candy ahead of time. A lot of the time the calorie count is not worth me even bothering to buy some. Hot tea also helps. Good luck.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    There are two ways you can go with that:

    1. Learn to moderate them. You might track exactly what you eat and then strive to eat a little less each time until you reach a small amount.

    2. If you can't learn to moderate them, stop eating them entirely. Don't have them in the house, don't buy them, say "no thanks" when someone offers you some.

    You may be able to moderate them later if you stop completely for a while.

    I know it's hard but it's up to you how you want to handle it and if you are ready to handle it.

    Ya, some foods, like peanut butter, I now moderate successfully. Some foods, like Oreos and M&Ms, I just can't have in the house.

    What's helped me is:
    1. Being up to date with my logging
    2. Eating sufficient protein in relationship to carbs
    3. Weighing out a problematic food
    4. Putting the bag or container away
    5. Eating it slowly and mindfully
  • rekite2000
    rekite2000 Posts: 218 Member
    I pre-log my candy. I love conversation hearts and can easily eat a huge bag. I put them in snack bags and then put them up high. I can't have a box/bag with me or I will mindlessly eat.
  • 06shadow06
    06shadow06 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks everyone this is great support. Yes I acknowledge it as a serious issue because when I don't have it I crave the sugar an as far as chewy vs hard I get a ???? Don't know what to call it but I like the crunch so I consume more because I don't allow it to naturally dissolve the same with chips which is not hard to give up but it's not about the taste with chips it's the feeling of the crunch. It's not just a no I won't buy it I have to talk myself down! But you are right I'm in control of it thanks!!!
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