Trying to loose weight and control my sugar addiction...

The best way to handle any addiction is usually to give it up. Some people don't need to do that but it was the only way for me.

I had about a week of cravings and they were gone. Done. . I think the thinking about it and anticipation was the hardest part.

tonyamarie3511 wrote: »

You can ask your doctor for a appetite suppressant.

just no.

you can still have sugar, dear. simply limit it, and make sure it fits in your daily calorie goals. I have chocolate/ desert on a pretty regular basis. switch to no calorie sodas, and work on replacing every other one with water (which is how i broke a nasty nasty dr pepper habit).

you dont have to give up anything, you just have to learn how to make it fit in your new lifestyle.

The little everyday approach never worked for me. Well it does as long as I'm wholly focused on my diet and exerting extreme amounts of willpower but that just isn't sustainable for me. Before long my attention would shift and I'd give into the cravings for more, more, more. I'd be right back to square one -- habitually abusing sweets and uncontrolled eating.

I've found it's much easier to just not eat the foods that cause cravings on a regular basis in the first place. It's hard at first -- like quitting smoking hard -- but it was worth it to not feel out of control around food anymore.

I save the desserts and high carb foods for special occasions these days when I make a conscious decision to indulge. And then I'm prepared to exert the extra effort to withstand the cravings that inevitably follow.

1. You are not addicted to sugar. You like sugar a lot.
2. You can eat whatever you like within your caloric goals and lose weights.
3. Retraining habits takes time and conscious effort but it's very achievable.
4. Calling liking sweets "addiction" demonstrates a severe lack of understanding what physiological addiction is.

tomteboda wrote: »

1. You are not addicted to sugar. You like sugar a lot.
2. You can eat whatever you like within your caloric goals and lose weights.
3. Retraining habits takes time and conscious effort but it's very achievable.
4. Calling liking sweets "addiction" demonstrates a severe lack of understanding what physiological addiction is.

While "addiction to sugar" is a MYTH of horrifying proportions, it's true some people cannot locate their willpower around certain types of foods. If sugar is that food for you, there's no reason not to cut down on it. You can't cut it out entirely, since there's naturally occurring sugar even in foods like broccoli (I dare anyone to find anyone who behaves like an addict around broccoli, which contains 2.5g of sugar per NHEA serving), but if you're the kind of person who bites into a donut and ten minutes later you ate a dozen oops, sure, cut it out. Just bear in mind that there is nothing inherently wrong with sugar. It's just a carb like any other carb. In moderation, like anything up to and including exercise, it poses no danger to your health or weight loss efforts. If it's easier for you to cut it out of your diet as much as possible than to simply buck up and white-knuckle it so you don't over-indulge, that's fine. Please just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons, and not because of some serious misinformation that's been spread around okay?

tomteboda wrote: »

1. You are not addicted to sugar. You like sugar a lot.
2. You can eat whatever you like within your caloric goals and lose weights.
3. Retraining habits takes time and conscious effort but it's very achievable.
4. Calling liking sweets "addiction" demonstrates a severe lack of understanding what physiological addiction is.

Completely excluding the category of Behavioral Addiction demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of addiction.

I'm with you on # 3, however. Cognitive behavioral techniques is how I got my drinking and eating under control.

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tomteboda wrote: »

1. You are not addicted to sugar. You like sugar a lot.
2. You can eat whatever you like within your caloric goals and lose weights.
3. Retraining habits takes time and conscious effort but it's very achievable.
4. Calling liking sweets "addiction" demonstrates a severe lack of understanding what physiological addiction is.

QUOTE AGAIN BECAUSE IT IS SO RIGHT!

You like to eat sugar. It's tasty. Our body need glucose to function and eating carbohydrates (specifically processed carbs) gives an ample supply of it. But it digests quickly and does not tell your body to release the same "full" feeling chemicals that fat and protein will. In order to not feel so hungry, you could try eating more protein and fat with the carbs that you choose.

THE BIGGEST THING I believe you can do to help yourself, is to STOP giving away your power. YOU are in control of what you eat. You are not a victim of sugar. You are a fully capable adult who deserves to treat herself as such. Will it be hard to eat less of something you really enjoy eating? Sure. But that doesn't mean you're addicted to it, it just means that you haven't found a way to deal with how hard it is, yet. I 100% believe that if you can work your brain around this, you can stop feeling so limited and can learn that you don't have to go all or nothing.

tomteboda wrote: »

1. You are not addicted to sugar. You like sugar a lot.
2. You can eat whatever you like within your caloric goals and lose weights.
3. Retraining habits takes time and conscious effort but it's very achievable.
4. Calling liking sweets "addiction" demonstrates a severe lack of understanding what physiological addiction is.

I agree with this.

It sounds very much like the issue is that there are certain things you trained yourself to expect. I used to eat snacks (ones I didn't even like much) pretty mindlessly when they were available at work. I trained myself to only eat at mealtime (including a small dessert after dinner). At first I missed food when I expected to have it, but that went away. The dessert gives me something to look forward to if tempted to grab peanut M&Ms or whatever at work -- I say would I rather have this or my planned ice cream (or chocolate or cheese or whatever) after dinner?

I personally think getting out of the habit of routinely drinking lots of calories can be very helpful, so I'd try drinking water instead. There are also lots of artificially sweetened beverages you might like (diet soda, flavored water), and I personally really enjoy homemade fruit-flavored iced tea, non sweetened (just pick a kind you like, brew it, chill). But if you really love the soda save calories for a moderate amount of it or drink it on special occasions. Some do this with alcohol, you could do it with soda.

As for desserts, there's really nothing wrong with enjoying a dessert if you have the calories. It doesn't have to be tons of calories. The problem is if you eat dessert type stuff constantly or beyond your calories. What works for me is planning my day to include lots of nutrient-rich foods that will meet my nutrition needs (I aim for protein and lots of vegetables at every meal and adequate fiber, among other things). After I eat that, I fit in an extra (often sweet, sometimes a piece of good cheese or I use it to have a higher calorie meal than normal, like at a restaurant or something like lasagne). Being active makes this easier, also. I find that if I focus on eating a healthful, balanced diet I don't tend to have issues staying within my calories or being uncontrolled around foods, and having the extra to look forward to helps (as well as filling my diet with food I find delicious not "diet" stuff). There will still be habits to break, which takes some effort, but it gets way easier.

sheermomentum wrote: »

The problem with calling your fondness for sweets an "addiction" is that it mentally excuses you from having responsibility for and control over it. If you want to eat fewer sweets, I would actually suggest that you begin by not using that particular term, especially when you are talking to yourself. Think of it instead as a few simple habits that you have that just want to change. You want (for instance) to start having water or tea or even diet soda with lunch instead of soda with sugar. You want to have only one small sweet snack after dinner, or maybe you want to have dessert only once or twice a week. Maybe you want to cut out dessert and soda altogether, but I don't personally see why that is necessary, since you like dessert. In any case, think about the specific, small, manageable acts that you want to do, and not about a large, general state of "addiction," which is just a mental trick that you are playing on yourself anyway, to excuse the habits you want to break.

This is only true if one buys in to the powerlessness model of addiction, which many, including myself, do not.

And neither is the OP - she is looking for help.

queenliz99 wrote: »

@PeachyCarol

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10226257/food-addiction-a-different-perspective/p1

I was excited for a minute thinking she was back, but her home page still suggests she is gone :sad:

Like you I had soda with lunch and dinner, one when I got home from work. You get the idea. I recently went cold turkey on the soda (and yes experienced horrible headaches and had to go to bed at 8pm every night for a week). For 9-10 weeks I drank the occasional low fat chocolate milk but mostly water or sparkling water.

While I was cold turkey I changed my habits. I dont have a drink with any meal now. I fill up my drink bottle after I eat lunch and then drink and I drink sparkling water while cooking dinner and again afterwards but not with. Filling up the car, I wouldnt even buy a sparkling water while I was paying for fuel. You get the idea. I changed the triggers of when I would mindlessly drink soda and forget I'd even consumed it.

Now I am back to drinking soda, not every day. I am trying to keep it to a weekend thing but that doesnt always happen but now its quite a conscious decision to drink it rather than a habit.

Can help you on the dessert thing. We rarely had dessert as kids it was more of a special treat thing, my kids dont really think dessert is an everyday thing either. I do tend to buy things they eat and I dont (icypoles) for them.

New Research Shows How the Liver Fights off Sugar Craving

http://fortune.com/2015/12/29/liver-sugar-cravings/

writerchick83 wrote: »

I am motivated to eat healthier and have less calories. I am even walking my dog after work. My biggest problem is I'm addicted to sugar. I always drink a soda with my meals and as a child I always ate dinner to get dessert. I do that now. I wish there was an easy way to curb my sugar cravings. Is there spill out there, like they have for smokers?

How about diet soda?