I have the biggest sweet tooth!! I literally cannot make it through the day without a piece of licorice,a scoop of ice cream, or some type of sweet. I tried to quit cold turkey on sweets and it made it worse. Some weeks are worse than others. How do I get it under control?? Any helpful suggestions?
I am also a sweetsaholic. I don't really have any helpful suggestions unfortunately :-) I try and build it in so that it doesn't wreck my day totally- frozen yoghurt/popsicles are your friend. Also if you just decide what your sweet is for the day that could help.
First of all, I think you need to determine what kind of willpower you have...are you the type of person that can have a small piece of something and be satisfied, or will a small piece of something trigger a binge? With me, even a bite of something naughty will trigger days of poor eating...
If you can have a small treat daily, and not get off track, work it into your daily calories, and make it something as healthy as possible. Like a square of really good dark chocolate!
joy bauer, the nutritionist who always is on the today show, addressed this topic during one of her live chats (i read the transcript). she said to quit cold turkey for a week to kind of wean yourself off the sweet taste. after that, allow yourself 2 artificially sweetened products each day, and one "sweet treat" that's around 150 calories.
i never went cold turkey, but i this seems like a pretty reasonable adjustment... it's worked pretty well for me so far.
I have had a serious candy problem most of my life and was up to eating 8-16 ounces of pure sugar candies every day. I had to go cold turkey on the candy itself as there was no safe dose for me, but here's how I got past the cravings:
A sour apple jelly for my toast for jelly belly substitute (green apple were my fav)
Made sugar free jello jigglers in fruit flavors for gummi bears
Cinnamon flavored toothpaste for hot tamales
dried cherries for red licorice.
Think you get the idea. I did not give up chocolate, just the all-sugar stuff.
I can now happily report I have eaten no candy in more than 5 years.
The good news was better overhaul nutrition and my triglycerides plummeted.
The bad news is I did not drop a single pound in process, as my body still wanted the same number of calories it was used to but now getting them from much better sources.
The annoying news is I still have to fight the candy urge nearly every day. I am proof though that it CAN be done. Good luck!
Fruit is your friend, and skim milk. I was an absolute sweetaholic before getting myself together, and these days I grab piece after piece of fruit when I feel like something sweet. And there's also a bit of sweetness in skim milk - but without the fat!
Sugarfree hard candy is what I lean on. I have always had a problem with sugar. It was nothing for me to go to the store and get a bit bag of spearmint leaves (gummy type candies coated with sugar) or a box of chocolate covered cherries and eat the whole thing in the car (by myself, LOL, I don't share my candy) Now I find all I really need is a taste of sweet to get over the hump.
omg i LIVE on sweets. always have....that's why i'm here haha. i'm a calorie counter and i found the best way for me to do it is to pick WHAT sweets i have. i depend on ww fudgcicles (heavenly) and ice cream sandwiches. also, the slimfast snack bars are pretty good, the one type kinda tastes like butterfingers so i love them. 100 calorie packs are great, they now have chocolate covered pretzels, which while they don't fill you up, they do fulfill your craving for sweets. i don't eat any of these when i'm hungry because frankly they don't do anything as far as making me feel full, but they do make the craving go away and i know that i didn't go off my diet or anything so i still feel good afterwards.
I follow Weight Watchers and I always make sure I have 2 points left at the end of the day for a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich. I definitely have a serious sweet addiction. Even if I am full I just neeeeed ice cream so this has worked for me.
Ughh - I feel your pain. I work for a candy company, and some days are better than others... You know how they say you'll get tired of something once you're around it all day, every day? Well, I'm seven months in and it hasn't happened yet!
Fruit has definitely been my friend though - sometimes it amazes me how a bag of cherries can actually taste sweeter than a vending machine snack. That, and for some reason, sipping on a bottle of flavored sparkling water seems to kill the sweets cravings for me. As a last resort, I'll pop a piece of gum in my mouth when I'm around the candy so that I have a good excuse not to take a bite.
Sweets are always my downfall.. I always gain weight when I binge with sweets.. and given that my family has a history of diabetes, I had to control it.
I went cold turkey with my diet and when I get cravings, I'll have a SF hard candy..
I make milk shakes out of unsweetened cocoa and some sort of sugar substitute..
Also, I love yogurt, so I'll use plain yogurt and add in a bit of extract of something and sweeten it to my liking (regular flavored yogurt is too sweet for me now).
For me, going cold turkey has really helped because now I can taste and appreciate the slightest bit of sweetness and assuage my cravings. Last time I had a binge with candy and sweets, I just wanted more and more.. nothing I had was satisfying! Now, I get satisfied with the slightest bit of hard candy or even a spoon of honey.
Also, I have an ice cream maker.. so sometimes I'll make up my own batch and use a sugar substitute like Stevia and various extracts to give it flavor.
I love dried fruits.. sometimes it is really just the texture of candy that I miss, and the chewiness of dried fruits, not to mention the sweetness, helps me out.
That's just what worked for me, I think everyone is different, but I can totally relate to being a sugar-addict.
Last edited by Starrynight; 06-19-2009 at 09:21 PM.
I have a crazy sweet tooth too!!
I really really try not to eat any candy or icecream, but I slip up. Just try to make the best choice in that case. Other than that fruit is your friend! Seriously, it is. After a while of little or no sweets or candy you will find a LOT of natural foods taste super sweet.
How about Pineapple? I know it's no Mars Bar.. but it's super sweet and good for you I am more of a salt nut, but I feel your pain.. It's so hard being addicted to something you love and then realizing.. gotta give this up!
I was / am a sweets person, but now I allow myself something small once a week. WW has some great chocolate/caramel bars that are pretty good.
I also found "Sweet & Salty" granola bars which give me the sweet I need to get through the day.
If you can't go a day without sweets, I think you should really try and cut back. I think cold turkey is hard, but it's something that you may need to do to cut off the craving completely.
Sweetsaholic
) Now I find all I really need is a taste of sweet to get over the hump.
