Depressed when cutting out sweets.

My diet is fairly ok, although I should probably include more vegetables. But... My downfall is my sweet tooth; biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, cakes and the list goes on. The problem is that when I try to cut down or cut sweets out completely, I just become depressed. Life just turns grey... It is ridiculous, I'm a grown woman and I should be able to cut out this stuff, but it just seems impossible. How do you do it?
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Replies

  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 1,049 Member
    Can you try healthier sweets? Instead of Ice cream have a protein fluff?
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    Maybe going sugar free isn't for you. Can you get fun sized candy bars, for example, and just eat one?
  • Opalescent_Topaz
    Opalescent_Topaz Posts: 132 Member
    What has worked for me (and I have quite the sweet tooth) is to allow myself one sweet treat per week (usually a pint of Halo Top or something). It gives me something to look forward to and I can easily make room in my calories for it. If I have sweet cravings on other days, I usually eat fruit.
  • allmannerofthings
    allmannerofthings Posts: 829 Member
    me too - though I think the cause and effect may be in the other order for me - eating sweets sooths the depression, without them it comes front and centre.
  • talkinghead86
    talkinghead86 Posts: 66 Member
    edited April 2019
    Can you try healthier sweets? Instead of Ice cream have a protein fluff?

    Haha...that actually looks interestingly good :smile:

    Have you tried Halo Top ice cream
  • avlucia
    avlucia Posts: 66 Member
    I had this problem and I used a mix of the previous commenters' suggestions. Eating fruit everyday curbs my sweet tooth by an impressive amount, but it takes about two weeks before I notice(I've fallen off my wagon a few times). Then when it's a legit craving I have just a small amount of ice cream, or I make myself a heathier treat - I can't stand a lot of the heathy treats on the market so I make my own. I suggest monk fruit, or if you have the processor to handle it you can make date paste to replace straight sugar in recipes.

    I had an entire crisis of "is life even worth living if I don't get to enjoy sweets?" It is doable though, and it's not even difficult once you get control of the mental hiccup.
  • Foodiemom67
    Foodiemom67 Posts: 22 Member
    i dont cut out anything...but i do everything i can in moderation...i like the fun size candies when i want something sweet but there are also a lot of healthier options if you want more than sweets...maybe you can make yourself some low carb goodies??? It's my mom's bday tomorrow and i m making her an italian cream cake..and it's going to be the sugar free healthy kind so i can have some too...shhhh dont tell her..:)
  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 1,049 Member
    Can you try healthier sweets? Instead of Ice cream have a protein fluff?

    Haha...that actually looks interestingly good :smile:

    Have you tried Halo Top ice cream

    I get it sometimes but it's sooooooo expensive!
  • sarabushby
    sarabushby Posts: 784 Member
    The new ranges of ‘thin’ biscuits are handy if you need something with your cuppa but don’t want to blow your budget.

    Also sugar free boiled sweets and marshmallows.

    Alpen Light bars are quite good for that sweet snack/treat and only 65cal.

    Aldi & Morrison (if you’re in the UK) both do own-brand ‘Halo Top’ style high protein ice creams. 1/4 of a tub for say 75-90 calories, a nice tasty treat. Far cheaper than the branded versions.
  • anl90
    anl90 Posts: 928 Member
    It sounds like cutting down on the sweets needs to happen, but I don't think you need to cut it out entirely. Just be smart about it. I'm sorry it has such a negative impact on your mood, but it will get better. Stay strong, you can do this.
  • GrumpyCat80
    GrumpyCat80 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks all for your replies and good advice. I will have to try and somehow get over this sugar craving. I know if I can keep my carbs around 100 and avoid the sweet stuff, the cravings are much less after just a few days, but life just looses all color... Anyone have a clue how long the sugar withdrawal depression lasts? When I was younger, I could eat sweets in moderation, if I had to, but now it seems like it's all or nothing.
    And for some reason I can't stand the taste of artificial sweeteners 🙄
  • melaniekboe
    melaniekboe Posts: 16 Member
    I had a TERRIBLE sweet tooth until a friend suggested Magnesium as a supplement. I figured - what do I have to lose?!? If my body didn't need it, I'd just 'expel' it. lol It's been a God-send! I no longer have any cravings for sweets and it's been a month. Maybe this will work for someone else! HTH!
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    https://youtu.be/D9YdBfR299s

    Similar to Brandon Wadas, I lost 80 lb and have kept it off 3 years and I've always eaten over 100 grams of sugar and 50% carbs a day, and my blood work and health are "perfect" according to multiple doctors. Disclaimer: I also walk and run a lot.

    In the 80s people thought fat made you fat and went on low fat diets, but people still got fat.

    Now the same thing is happening with carbs/sugar, but people still get fat.

    Yes, you can lose weight both ways, but ONLY if you're happy eating that way AND if you don't eat too many or too few calories so you can stick to your diet long enough to lose the weight and not crash and burn.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    edited April 2019
    I love snacks and could eat nothing but snacks. But I found out that I don't long for snacks if
    a) I'm not hungry in general. Thus food that keeps me full
    b) if I'm not bored but have interesting things to do, hobbies, learn something, anything but sitting behind the telly in the evening
    c) work out. While the other two things might work for many, I think this might be specifically me. But it absolutely fits into doing something instead of sitting behind the telly.

    Btw, I do eat two small candy bars each day. If I want something more substantial than that then I won't have the two bars and don't go too much over my calories. If I really want a bag of crisps then I won't have dinner. The crisps also keep me full, and have quite a few more calories, but not too much relative to the dinner. As I like my dinners I don't do this too often.
  • staticsplit
    staticsplit Posts: 538 Member
    The sweet things I like but that also have more nutrients:

    - Toast with peanut butter and smashed raspberries or banana
    - Protein shake with frozen cherries, whey chocolate protein, almond or oat milk, maybe a bit of peanut butter if I fancy
    - Halo top (usually half the pint, husband eats the other half)
    - Pulsin raw chocolate brownies
    - Some protein bars are quite tasty
    - Skyr/yoghurt with micowaved/stewed apple with cinnamon, with a small sprinkle of granola for crunch. Apple pie!
    - Dates filled with almonds
    - Clementines, mango, various fruit

    I eat these sorts of thing every day, plus sometimes I will just have the pecan tart because it looks good. Once it stopped being 'offlimits' I calmed down around things a lot. Used to not be able to have them in the house because I'd binge. Now, sometimes I'm over on fats on my macros if I eat a piece of cheesecake or whatever, but I'm usually in my calorie range so it doesn't matter. The next day I try to up the protein or whatever so it evens out.
  • cakeymoo
    cakeymoo Posts: 2 Member
    I bought a multipack of funsize chocolate bars and made my mum hide them and only let me have one a day. Haha. I was always big on the sugar addiction, but unfortunately I don't think there's any easy way other than just push on through it. I wouldn't cut it out completely because it's all too easy to fall off the wagon that way. I ate three chocolate bars yesterday and only went over my calories just slightly (2 were low calorie) but most days I'm either just having a little chocolate bar or fruit. I always need sugar after a meal, sadly
  • Trendline15
    Trendline15 Posts: 48 Member
    Berries, especially blueberries, and strawberries are low in calories, but also sweet. Fruit. Also, what about exercise? I regular exercise to help boost and maintain my mood.
  • gregc50
    gregc50 Posts: 47 Member
    Interesting, I have no intention of giving up my candy. I already gave up beer and pepsi.

    I usually have 300 calories spare at the end of the day to splurge as a grown man child which is a lot of sour jelly beans.
  • solieco1
    solieco1 Posts: 1,559 Member
    So don't cut them drastically. just pick a reasonable number to save for sweets everyday.
  • Dgil1975
    Dgil1975 Posts: 110 Member
    Most people that have commented already will disagree, and that is because they successfully have worked the sweets into their calories, but reading your post, it sounds to me like you need a period of complete abstaining from sweets. If you can go 3-4 months you can retrain you tastebuds and you will crave new foods, stay away from items that use calorie free sweetners as all they do is make you crave those sweet items. Like yourself I had a major sweet tooth and the everything in moderation was never going to work for me. It’s been six months, and I can now have a piece of cake without it leading to a second piece of cake. But things like Chocolate bars are still off limits, they are my cryptonite, and way to convenient and easy to pick up in day to day life and I don’t want to have that constant temptation over me all the time.

    I always say we are all different, but I think for every person who is a successful moderator there are a 100 of us who aren’t, which is why yo-yo dieting is the most prevalent form of dieting. It sucks but the truth is somethimes you just have to buckle down and put the crappy foods aside and move on, if your goal is long term sustainable weight loss. There is a reason we all ended up on a site that is primarily used for weight loss, and that is we weren’t very good moderators of our food intake or type of foods. I don’t think many of us magically get good at that right away.

    Whatever path you choose, I wish you the best of luck on your journey. It won’t be easy, but it will be rewarding as you work towards your goals.