Meal Plan

do you have any medical reason to avoid sugar?

if not, set your goals in MFP and eat what you want as long as it fits your calories

To reduce sugar I had to stop bringing sweets into the house. I'm not one who can eat one square and leave the rest alone.

There was still the occasional dash to buy candy but now it's pretty rare. It took some time. If you HAVE to have something, buy 1 small package. Take tiny bites and make yourself chew a lot. Savor it. Also, don't grab for it when you are hungry. Eat something else first and get full.

I'm not a "Sugar is evil" person. I was eating a ridiculous amount of candy almost daily and that needed to be reduced. I never enjoyed sweet drinks. I still eat plenty of carbs and get most sugars from fruit now.

If it gets close to you, it will get in to you. At least that is what I have discovered.

It, too, have a sweet tooth that I find hard to keep under control. I also have a tendency towards low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which is part of the cause or effect (I no longer remember which) of the sugar cravings. I worked with a nutritionist a number of years ago and here's what he had me do. It's the only thing that works for me to kick the sugar cravings. And every once in awhile I fall off the wagon so to speak (meaning, my sugar consumption, and therefore cravings, gets out of control and have to re-set by doing it all over again.

Go off sugar completely, cold turkey, for about 2 weeks until the cravings go away. And by off sugar completely, I mean no sugar and nothing that your body converts into sugar quickly, no sugar in disguise (ie., nothing malted or maltose, no whey), and no artificial sweeteners, no alcohol. Stevia is fine. Natural sugar in fruit is fine. No molasses, no honey, no syrup. No fruit juice. In the category of nothing your body can convert into sugar quickly, no white rice, no white potatoes, no white bread (he said rye bread was fine, weirdly. I don't remember why.) He also had me give up caffeine at the same time because it directly affects your metabolism, but I've found over the years I don't seem to need to do that when I go on my sugar fast.

During this time, I find it helps to eat "sweet" vegetables such as carrots or sweet potatoes, etc. Whole fruit is fine. Herbal teas are fine. Unsweetened fresh dates are fine. Whole grains are a great idea, and by that, I don't mean whole grain bread or pasta made from whole grain flour, but eating grains in their kernal form: quinoa, millet, amaranth, barley, farro, steel cut oats, etc.

Of course, get all of the sugar out of your house during this time: sweetened cereals, sweets, ice cream, white rice, potatoes, anything that will tempt you.

Your cravings, I'm sorry to say, may get worse during the approximate two weeks of your sugar fast. Resist, or you will have to start over. And then one day after two weeks of intense sugar cravings, you'll realize, whoa, the sugar cravings are gone. You've gotten off that rollercoaster cycle of peaks and valleys of eating sugar and experiencing the subsequent cravings.

After that, you can slowly reintroduce sugar into your diet, but only in small amounts and never on an empty stomach. Basically, after you've had a meal with a little protein in it.

This might not work for everyone, but it does consistently work for me as long as i consume sugar carefully and in moderation. If not, I have to reboot. I hope this helps.