Cutting out sweets/'sugars'

tgcakef
tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
in Motivation and Support
The new month is upon us, and I'd like to get a hang on my need for desserts or just sweet snacks throughout the day. Yes, I know as long as it fits my calories it is fine, but I'd like to gain more control over it. I'm going to do this slowly, one day at a time, but I hope to finish up this month, and August without any sweets. I know this is unlikely since we'll go out, and that dessert will be too good to pass up but if I can at least make it 50-75% it's good.

Note: I know this isn't necessary to weight loss, I know this wouldn't get rid of those mysterious 'toxins' that my liver, and kidneys take care of. This is solely for self control.

Food I will be cutting out:
Desserts
Chocolates
Pastries with chocolate/sweet stuffy in them
Cookies
Biscuits
Desserts when going out
Honey coated nuts
Ice cream, and its variants

Foods I will not be cutting out:
Fruits
Breads
Starchy vegetables
Glucerna shakes
Carnation Instant Breakfast
Milk
All Bran Buds
Mints - I take a couple a day

I could really use some motivation here. I have a massive sweet tooth.

If you're looking to reset or clear 'toxins', then I'm sorry but you're not someone I want to help me out here. If you're looking to try to break the habit of wanting something sweet after every meal, then please help me out. Add me! Talk to me here! Send me messages!

Note: If this comes out garbled, sorry. I'm on my pain meds, and they mess with my head.

Replies

  • CaliMomTeach
    CaliMomTeach Posts: 745 Member
    I have to have something sweet every day, and I don't mean fruit. I'd love to get to a place where I didn't want this. I think about the nutritional density of foods (something I learned a million years ago in a college nutrition class) and would feel better if almost all of my food offered something nutritionally. I'm guessing my half the fat mint chocolate chip icecream cone really doesn't other than a small amount of calcium. Whenever I take a "break" from counting calories, usually on vacation, I start ordering dessert at restaurants and eating whatever dessert is offered at get-togethers. I'd love it if I could get to a place where I just didn't want it. I'm not sure that will ever happen, but it would be great.
  • cbeutler
    cbeutler Posts: 667 Member
    I cut out ,out of the added sugars, it has made my moods much better. Plus I like the volume of fruits and veggies I get to eat. This change and drinking very few calories makes it easy to stay under. Good luck.
  • tgcakef
    tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
    CaliMomTeach wrote: »
    I have to have something sweet every day, and I don't mean fruit. I'd love to get to a place where I didn't want this. I think about the nutritional density of foods (something I learned a million years ago in a college nutrition class) and would feel better if almost all of my food offered something nutritionally. I'm guessing my half the fat mint chocolate chip icecream cone really doesn't other than a small amount of calcium. Whenever I take a "break" from counting calories, usually on vacation, I start ordering dessert at restaurants and eating whatever dessert is offered at get-togethers. I'd love it if I could get to a place where I just didn't want it. I'm not sure that will ever happen, but it would be great.

    I don't think I'll ever get to a place where I don't want sweets, but it would be nice to feel like I have more control over it. Like I could have sweet X or sweet Y but not both. I'm hoping just stopping for awhile will get me there.

    I also cannot eat praline coated nuts. I will eat a whole bag of those *kitten*.

    On the plus side, I love fruit for dessert.
  • Ca7cher
    Ca7cher Posts: 15 Member
    I definitely have the same issue!

    I've found out that drinking a lot of water helps a little. I usually fill half a litre bottle after a meal and drink it slowly within the hour. It's more about having something to do, I guess. I also drink some (black) tea sweetened with a sweeter and a dash of milk. :)

    I also keep some sugar free mints and humbugs (boiled sweets) with me at all times to avoid worst cravings!
    Depending of the brand they're usually between 1 to 10 calories each, so having one or two to kill my sweet tooth isn't going to make me over my goal.

    Yesterday I had a little bit of chocolate cake because it fit into my calorie intake (god, I love CICO).
  • GetteJ
    GetteJ Posts: 27 Member
    I'm not a huge sweet eater. I like a good dessert as much as anyone, but I don't crave those. I'm more likely to go for a sweet/tart or sweet/salty combo when I do go for dessert. That said, I've been trying to pay attention to "hidden" sugars and get mine from more natural sources. As far as detox goes, lots of water and trying to sweat more. Let the body do its thing!
  • Carriebear174
    Carriebear174 Posts: 50 Member
    I also have a sweet tooth, i love fresh strawberries w fatfree whip cream or sugarfree jello also with fatfree whip cream. It helps me to not feel so deprived , and i dont feel guilty because i ate it good luck.
  • MoyMG
    MoyMG Posts: 312 Member
    I had a sweet tooth, but started using Stevia in the Raw instead of white sugar in my coffee and tea, and stopped all types of sugar aside from the stevia. I'll clean strawberries and have a bowl of them sprinkled with a little stevia. After several weeks of no white sugar, I just don't crave it anymore. I did get several Lily's Chocolate bars, no added sugar, and I'll eat a quarter or half of one (each is 80 grams) when I'm craving chocolate. Yep, still want chocolate, but I'm satsfied with the dark chocolate. Good luck! Sugar habit isn't easy to break, but it can be done, just keep trying.
  • jackie_van_d
    jackie_van_d Posts: 75 Member
    I cut soda/pop for a month.. I had to ween myself off or the withdrawal headaches would be unbearable
    I was mostly shocked at how much sugar is in processed foods!
    Read your labels and you CAN do it!!
  • tgcakef
    tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
    Ca7cher wrote: »
    I definitely have the same issue!

    I've found out that drinking a lot of water helps a little. I usually fill half a litre bottle after a meal and drink it slowly within the hour. It's more about having something to do, I guess. I also drink some (black) tea sweetened with a sweeter and a dash of milk. :)

    I also keep some sugar free mints and humbugs (boiled sweets) with me at all times to avoid worst cravings!
    Depending of the brand they're usually between 1 to 10 calories each, so having one or two to kill my sweet tooth isn't going to make me over my goal.

    Yesterday I had a little bit of chocolate cake because it fit into my calorie intake (god, I love CICO).

    I'd love to have some boiled sweets around but even if they're sugar free, I just want to eat them all. I'm really, really bad at this. The mints are alright since they're a strong flavour but mint sweets never seem to get that strong.

    We're picking up an anniversary cake in a couple of months, and oh my god, it is the best cake I've ever had. So that's going to be a dessert heavy week or two.
    flutatious1 wrote: »
    Drinking lots of water helps me. I'm going through the same thing again.... several months ago I cut all added sugar out and stopped eating the treats. I got a back injury and ended up having cervical surgery 2 weeks ago. I'm also not working (out of my routine) so not snacking is almost impossible for me. Trying hard but definitely struggling. It's tough!!! Get everything out of your house - that helps too. While I was going through the detox/withdrawal from sugar, I tried to avoid situations where I would be tempted to fail. Sugar is seriously like crack. (Not that I'd know what that's like though! Lol)

    Sorry about your back! I hope you recover soon.

    Yeah, I'm working on getting everything out of the house, and not by eating it all. There really isn't too much at the moment, so that's good. I know I'm going to fail at some point but if it gets me to the point where I'm thinking "Do I really want to eat this? Is this the smart choice?" that's good. At least it's mindful eating.
    walkingbymyside wrote: »
    I definitely have a sweet tooth and never gave too much thought to it. I didn't need to loose weight and I thought it was all good. 2 months ago, I learned I had a brain tumor and went through surgery to remove most of it. It is the same kind of cancer that John McCain has, so there is a pretty poor prognosis to this disease. I started a clinical study on the effects of a strict keto diet with no sugar and >20 carbs a day to see if it helps the chemo/radiation to shrink the tumor. Anyway, all that to say, when you look at your loved ones and think that your sacrifice of sugar may be beneficial to them, it gives you a little more courage to walk away from the deliciousn things you used to eat! It is possible!

    Well, it's not anything to do with a health benefit for me, just for a will power/self control thing. I'd like to be less controlled by my urges. I am diabetic but I take insulin so my blood sugars are always in a good range. So yeah, not really beneficial to anyone but me, but hey bettering yourself is always a good thing. Cultivating will power in this might help me in other things too.
    Carriebear174 wrote: »
    I also have a sweet tooth, i love fresh strawberries w fatfree whip cream or sugarfree jello also with fatfree whip cream. It helps me to not feel so deprived , and i dont feel guilty because i ate it good luck.

    I love sugar free jello. And the sugar free pudding that jello makes. Also sugar free popsicles.

    ...

    I'm still cutting those out for now, though. I might reconsider in a bit since it's not like I've stopped drinking diet soda or having splenda in my tea, etc.
    MoyMG wrote: »
    I had a sweet tooth, but started using Stevia in the Raw instead of white sugar in my coffee and tea, and stopped all types of sugar aside from the stevia. I'll clean strawberries and have a bowl of them sprinkled with a little stevia. After several weeks of no white sugar, I just don't crave it anymore. I did get several Lily's Chocolate bars, no added sugar, and I'll eat a quarter or half of one (each is 80 grams) when I'm craving chocolate. Yep, still want chocolate, but I'm satsfied with the dark chocolate. Good luck! Sugar habit isn't easy to break, but it can be done, just keep trying.

    I stopped using sugar ages ago unless it was for cooking/baking shared meals. I don't really miss it, but I still like sweet things, unfortunately.
    jjansen39 wrote: »
    I cut soda/pop for a month.. I had to ween myself off or the withdrawal headaches would be unbearable
    I was mostly shocked at how much sugar is in processed foods!
    Read your labels and you CAN do it!!

    Thanks, but I'm not doing added sugar; I'm just doing stuff like desserts, chocolate, candies, etc. I've been reading labels for a bit now so that I can calculate insulin, and I honestly don't have a problem with how much is in food. I do think it's important to be aware of the calories, of course, or anything else you're monitoring for health.

    Were your headaches caffeine related?
  • tgcakef
    tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
    So that was a long post. Here's how my first few days have been:

    Not good. The medications I'm on make me both hungry, and shred self control so I ate way too much of just anything. Thankfully, I got it under control yesterday, and that was a good day! Today's shaping up to be a good one too. Only sweet flavoured things I've had are Glucerna shakes, mints, diet soda, and Splenda in my morning tea.

    How is everyone else who is in the same club doing?
  • KeepOnMovjng
    KeepOnMovjng Posts: 44 Member
    I'd love to join this, I've got bad cravings for chocolate/cake and cookies. I keep trying each month but failing.

    Started again Thursday just gone after giving in after a week but I know it is possible as I gave up sweets 5 years ago and not had any since. Found it was mind over matter but just can't cut or control the ties with chocolate/baked items.

    What was suggested by a MFP friend is that they enjoy expensive chocolate then when they do crave it, they have one piece. So this time round I've only got shell shaped chocolate in the house that is low calorie and cost close on £5. The fact it is so expensive may make me limit myself hopefully or if it doesn't taste so nice il still limit myself that I just register the horrible taste until it has been finished but only going to try and eat one piece when craving chocolate... hopefully. Other than that the only sugar I have is lucozade. Had my first ready meal the other day in a long time... not doing it again and don't have sugar in anything else.
  • tgcakef
    tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
    @KeepOnMoving

    Welcome to the club!

    How'd you manage 5 years ago?

    I might try the expensive chocolate thing when I'm ready to bring it back into my life. There's a chocolatier in town, and they might have something good. Buy it in small quantities. Of course, I have no idea the calorie content, but I'll figure that out when it comes to that.
  • VoyagerX
    VoyagerX Posts: 6 Member
    Used to hate all diet soda until I had my first Diet Dr. Pepper. Even at the time, I liked it better than regular Dr. Pepper. I don't drink much soda at all anymore, but if I do, that's my go-to. I had a regular, sugary soda about a month ago and nearly winced at how sweet it tasted.
  • fjmartini
    fjmartini Posts: 1,149 Member
    Why not eat sweets that are fresh from a bakery?
  • tgcakef
    tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
    fjmartini wrote: »
    Why not eat sweets that are fresh from a bakery?

    What difference would freshness make?
  • fjmartini
    fjmartini Posts: 1,149 Member
    No preservatives
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    edited July 2017
    There are 600 calories in an apple turnover, 1210 in a jam rogelach, 420 in a double-chocolate muffin (According to the labels printed on the fresh pastries from my favorite bakery). I don't think preservatives are the issue.
  • tgcakef
    tgcakef Posts: 111 Member
    fjmartini wrote: »
    No preservatives

    Yeah, preservatives aren't a problem. I don't have any problem with the ingredients. I'm just trying to get a hang on my sweet tooth.
  • KeepOnMovjng
    KeepOnMovjng Posts: 44 Member
    For the sweets, there was a shop that used to sell them at a 1/3 of the price. I stopped going there, and used to spend extra on the vending machine juice, that was better than the soda/pop from the shop. I then cut down as favourite was haribo, I went for the 10p size bag that had about10 sweets in rather than the larger bag. The extra journeys would give me time to decide against it.
    Plus at worst my family all got me some for Christmas which was over bearing for the amount I had in total especially with cutting down on the amount. The sight of them constantly in the end just made me just go no I don't want any.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    When I started my journey 3.5 years ago I took out added sugars for 3 months as much as I could. Only the added stuff, not all carbs.

    However I did took them out, not because I think they are bad, or because I need to rid myself of toxins (body doing fine there), but to break a habit of just grabbing it. A habit of being polite to people offering cake and stuff, a habit of walking to the central table where there is always something sweet. In that respect a bit like what you are doing.

    It worked, it changed my habits. I now think before I grab/accept. I now feel it is more polite to say no thank you instead of accepting if it is not to my taste/calorie goal. My taste changed. A lot of sugar added foods taste bitter to me now. I avoid commercial bakes as much as I can as I really do not like them (home bakes often taste better). Added sugars are back into my diet but at a much lower level than before and they are total treats.

    I am now in maintenance at a BMI of 22.5

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