Sweet cravings
rachelannette
Posts: 23 Member
I think I realize when a sweet craving hits is when I am: stressed, tired, not having time to exercise, not counting calories. I am looking for ideas on how to quiet the sweet cravings when they come. Thanks
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I always have a Dove dark chocolate caramel with sea salt as a reward for staying within my calorie limit at the end of the day. Knowing I have my treat to look forward to helps me stay on track. Less than 40 calories each.
Some things that may help are move around, read a book, drink a glass water, anything that may take your mind off food. It’s not easy, but you have to keep telling yourself that you are not going to give in to the temptation.3 -
For me a 20 calorie piece of hard candy usually does the trick. I especially like root beer barrels because I think they're tasty but they also leave a taste in your mouth that doesn't mix great with other flavor so it stops me from eating more. I know some people also brush their teeth/use mouthwash when they get a craving for the same reason. I also factor in a nice dessert for after dinner every day so I get a planned accounted for treat0
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I eat some nuts. The high fat content in macadamia nuts can really take the edge off.1
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Dark chocolate or a low calorie hot chocolate! I also like freezing grapes and pretend it’s little bits of ice cream2
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Tootsie rolls are pretty low on the cals/fats.I ate two mini ones for a whopping 40 cals0
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I will second the Dove dark chocolate Promises and mini Tootsie Rolls. If you are a tea drinker, I find mint flavors in general tend to read "sweet" without calories, and I can nurse a cup of tea for a pretty long time!0
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I will second the Dove dark chocolate Promises and mini Tootsie Rolls. If you are a tea drinker, I find mint flavors in general tend to read "sweet" without calories, and I can nurse a cup of tea for a pretty long time!
If you like mint and chocolate, Stash makes a chocolate mint tea that is one of the best craving-buster teas I've ever had. I'm not usually a fan of chocolate teas, but I tried it after my mother gave me some. It's so good!0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I will second the Dove dark chocolate Promises and mini Tootsie Rolls. If you are a tea drinker, I find mint flavors in general tend to read "sweet" without calories, and I can nurse a cup of tea for a pretty long time!
If you like mint and chocolate, Stash makes a chocolate mint tea that is one of the best craving-buster teas I've ever had. I'm not usually a fan of chocolate teas, but I tried it after my mother gave me some. It's so good!
Yum, thanks!0 -
Gum , water , go for a walk . Not sure having chocolate helps ,
Plan ahead , if you’re not counting ? And not exercising? And you get cravings ...maybe you should count everyday ...0 -
For me, making it a point to eat fruit routinely helped me reduce craving for simpler and less nutrient-dense sweets. (I aimed for 3 servings every day at first, but was able to be more flexible later.)
This won't work for everyone, but I've read others here report similar experience.
I'm not demonizing sugar, or arguing for suppressing eating "bad" foods in favor of "good" foods (I don't believe in "good/bad foods", just reasonable and suboptimal overall ways of eating). I'm also not saying someone should never eat candy or baked goods, or that people should eat things that are "good for them" that they don't enjoy in place of things they do enjoy. I think all of that is silly.
I like fruit, it's good for me, and it turned out to help me reduce cravings for more calorie-dense, but less nutrient-dense sweets. For me, win-win-win. That's it.
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@AnnPT77 I completely agree with your philosophy! I’m embarrassed to say that until I cut out sugar I couldn’t smell the coconut in coconut oil ☹️so sad ...
Now 8 months later I so enjoy the naturally sweet foods like strawberries and cream cheese. I will demonize refined sugar because it turns me into a demon 😡4 -
I do fruit, or else, if fruit isn't cutting it (some days it just doesn't!) I do 90% dark Lindt chocolate. 90% might be a bit much for most people but I like it. 2 squares is enough.
Another thing I do is I have a fruit juice icy tube (those kids treats - frozen fruit juice tubes - not the food colouring and water ones, but the 100% juice ones). they're like 36 calories and I suck on it sloooowly and that takes the edge off too. Especially when I don't have the caloric budget for the dark chocolate.
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Phoebe5164 wrote: »@AnnPT77 I completely agree with your philosophy! I’m embarrassed to say that until I cut out sugar I couldn’t smell the coconut in coconut oil ☹️so sad ...
Now 8 months later I so enjoy the naturally sweet foods like strawberries and cream cheese. I will demonize refined sugar because it turns me into a demon 😡
But for many of us eating some sugar on occasion (not only in fruit and the numerous other foods with inherent sugar, but also a cookie or piece of pie) doesn't remotely keep us from experiencing strawberries and other fruit as very sweet, smelling coconut in coconut oil (that's why I love coconut oil, but it has nothing to do with sweetness).
I realize people are different, but I get the sense that there's this idea going around that if you don't cut out added sugar you can't enjoy non sugary foods, and of course that's not true for most of us.
Anyway, I love fruit and think it can make a great dessert, but OP hasn't really clarified what her issues are and sometimes when you think you can't eat something and put it offlimits you crave it more than you might otherwise, and that's why I think one possibility is that she might want to try eating a little bit of it (whether she means something sugary or something entirely different, like chips or crisps or fast food or curry) in a way that fits into her calories but doesn't make her feel ashamed or like she ruined everything so might as well write off the day or week.3 -
Phoebe5164 wrote: »@AnnPT77 I completely agree with your philosophy! I’m embarrassed to say that until I cut out sugar I couldn’t smell the coconut in coconut oil ☹️so sad ...
Now 8 months later I so enjoy the naturally sweet foods like strawberries and cream cheese. I will demonize refined sugar because it turns me into a demon 😡
But for many of us eating some sugar on occasion (not only in fruit and the numerous other foods with inherent sugar, but also a cookie or piece of pie) doesn't remotely keep us from experiencing strawberries and other fruit as very sweet, smelling coconut in coconut oil (that's why I love coconut oil, but it has nothing to do with sweetness).
I realize people are different, but I get the sense that there's this idea going around that if you don't cut out added sugar you can't enjoy non sugary foods, and of course that's not true for most of us.
Anyway, I love fruit and think it can make a great dessert, but OP hasn't really clarified what her issues are and sometimes when you think you can't eat something and put it offlimits you crave it more than you might otherwise, and that's why I think one possibility is that she might want to try eating a little bit of it (whether she means something sugary or something entirely different, like chips or crisps or fast food or curry) in a way that fits into her calories but doesn't make her feel ashamed or like she ruined everything so might as well write off the day or week.
Just for clarity, that's not what I was trying to say. I still eat some simple mostly-just-sweet or some that are very sweet with other flavors/textures. (Yesterday was my birthday; I enjoyed the heck out of an ice cream pie a friend made (chocolate crumb crust, chunks of chocolate/caramel that were probably chopped up candy bar), and later some gelato. I also ate a piece of pineapple upside down cake another friend made . . . but on net it was more beautiful visually than worth the calories, over-sweet and not much else going on.)
Eating more fruit, for reasons I don't really understand, helped eliminate cravings for some simple sweet foods that I'd previously eaten more frequently, and made the just-sweet things less enjoyable/satisfying. With that change, it was much easier to let some of those simple/sweet (not nutrition-dense, quite calorie-dense) foods fall off the "less desirable" end of my calorie budget while losing weight.
(I'm glad you're back, @lemurcat2: Some days you save me typing, most days you make me think and encourage me to write more clearly. Had missed your analytic and insightful posts.)2 -
Just for clarity, that's not what I was trying to say. I still eat some simple mostly-just-sweet or some that are very sweet with other flavors/textures. (Yesterday was my birthday; I enjoyed the heck out of an ice cream pie a friend made (chocolate crumb crust, chunks of chocolate/caramel that were probably chopped up candy bar), and later some gelato. I also ate a piece of pineapple upside down cake another friend made . . . but on net it was more beautiful visually than worth the calories, over-sweet and not much else going on.)
Oh, I didn't think that's what you were saying, or even necessarily that anyone else in this thread was saying. It's just an idea I see around and find inaccurate to my experience, and so wanted to address it. I think it goes along with a lot of the sugar is the devil stuff -- people claim that if you eat sugar you can't appreciate other foods, if you don't eat sugar you will find foods with added sugar disgusting and inedible to your now clean palate. I think the idea is that this is the desired state, and happens if you do it right (and so if you do want to eat "rubbish" there must be something wrong with you or you are doing it wrong). I think sometimes that mindset can actually make the feeling that you are out of control worse vs. trying to look at foods without emotion or bad/good labels. (I don't think you and I differ here.)
And apologies to OP for saying she hadn't clarified her issues. I'm an idiot sometimes -- I somehow thought this was the "can't stop eating rubbish" thread and was responding with that assumption in mind. Now people jumping to the conclusion it was all about sweets makes much more sense! And I think OP has a good grip on how things like being stressed and tired play into it. I do think that in those cases especially having some fruit sometimes will work -- often I find I want something because I'm low energy and my body leaps to easy sources of energy. Fruit is perfect (coffee sometimes is too).
Also, hi! Great to see you are still around. I always enjoy your posts.2 -
Cahgetsfit wrote: »I do fruit, or else, if fruit isn't cutting it (some days it just doesn't!) I do 90% dark Lindt chocolate. 90% might be a bit much for most people but I like it. 2 squares is enough.
I'm a fan of Chocolove 88% dark. I also keep it to a square or two (it's just as high in calories, after all), but I really love it -- just the right sweetness/chocolate mix.
Those unsweetened brewing chocolates are great too for a pleasant evening drink (looking forward to getting back into them this winter). Here's one example, but there are many: http://chocolatealchemy.com/brewingcocoa/#brewing-cocoa-primer0 -
Cahgetsfit wrote: »I do fruit, or else, if fruit isn't cutting it (some days it just doesn't!) I do 90% dark Lindt chocolate. 90% might be a bit much for most people but I like it. 2 squares is enough.
I'm a fan of Chocolove 88% dark. I also keep it to a square or two (it's just as high in calories, after all), but I really love it -- just the right sweetness/chocolate mix.
Those unsweetened brewing chocolates are great too for a pleasant evening drink (looking forward to getting back into them this winter). Here's one example, but there are many: http://chocolatealchemy.com/brewingcocoa/#brewing-cocoa-primer
Brewing chocolate is pretty much where I get my daily fix sweet fix. Unlike lemurcat, I do them up to be pretty cloying. I add sugar free salted caramel syrup and Fairlife milk and make a Starbucks-like drink out of it. Lemurcat drinks her straight.
I find them to be quite satisfying. I like a French roast.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Cahgetsfit wrote: »I do fruit, or else, if fruit isn't cutting it (some days it just doesn't!) I do 90% dark Lindt chocolate. 90% might be a bit much for most people but I like it. 2 squares is enough.
I'm a fan of Chocolove 88% dark. I also keep it to a square or two (it's just as high in calories, after all), but I really love it -- just the right sweetness/chocolate mix.
Those unsweetened brewing chocolates are great too for a pleasant evening drink (looking forward to getting back into them this winter). Here's one example, but there are many: http://chocolatealchemy.com/brewingcocoa/#brewing-cocoa-primer
Brewing chocolate is pretty much where I get my daily fix sweet fix. Unlike lemurcat, I do them up to be pretty cloying. I add sugar free salted caramel syrup and Fairlife milk and make a Starbucks-like drink out of it. Lemurcat drinks her straight.
I find them to be quite satisfying. I like a French roast.
So I had never heard of brewing chocolate before seeing it mentioned somewhere here. Where has it been all my life? Do you steep it and remove it like tea? All the early links I'm finding online are about adding brewing chocolate to your beer making process, which I would totally do if I made beer!0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Cahgetsfit wrote: »I do fruit, or else, if fruit isn't cutting it (some days it just doesn't!) I do 90% dark Lindt chocolate. 90% might be a bit much for most people but I like it. 2 squares is enough.
I'm a fan of Chocolove 88% dark. I also keep it to a square or two (it's just as high in calories, after all), but I really love it -- just the right sweetness/chocolate mix.
Those unsweetened brewing chocolates are great too for a pleasant evening drink (looking forward to getting back into them this winter). Here's one example, but there are many: http://chocolatealchemy.com/brewingcocoa/#brewing-cocoa-primer
Brewing chocolate is pretty much where I get my daily fix sweet fix. Unlike lemurcat, I do them up to be pretty cloying. I add sugar free salted caramel syrup and Fairlife milk and make a Starbucks-like drink out of it. Lemurcat drinks her straight.
I find them to be quite satisfying. I like a French roast.
So I had never heard of brewing chocolate before seeing it mentioned somewhere here. Where has it been all my life? Do you steep it and remove it like tea? All the early links I'm finding online are about adding brewing chocolate to your beer making process, which I would totally do if I made beer!
You make it in a French press. I steep mine extra long because I like it to be strongly flavored since I don't drink it straight.
It's expensive, but to me it's worth every penny because it's dessert. A whole pot of the brand I drink (I think this probably holds for most of them) is 40 calories.
Until recently when I started feeling hungry in the morning, it was breakfast too. I'm not much of a coffee drinker.1 -
Yeah, French press. It's delicious.1
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I recently found Cacao Shell Tea. It's the taste of chocolate without the chocolate nibs. Add a touch of sweetener and milk and yum!
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