Sugar?!
 

I need help!
I'm really bad when it comes to consumption of sugar. I thought I had cut down but I'm really struggling! I would love any suggestions on how to break the habit
Thanks x

Hey! I'm a sugar addict too. I just did the hardest thing you can do - stopped eating a lot of it. After about 2 weeks I stopped craving it and now (after a month) I don't even think about it. Now the taste of fruit (strawberries and raspberries especially), or fig newton cookies are enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. Find things that are low calorie that taste good and start eating those instead of the high sugar things you'd usually eat. I also consumed a bit of splenda and diet colas to help get through it too, but minimally as not to start relying on those.

Thanks for the advice! Sounds the best place to start :D x

For a sugar fix, I generally rely on fruit. If I can't find fruit at a reasonable price (Japanese fruit tends to be really expensive since so much is imported), they have zero calorie/low calorie energy jellies coming out the wazoo here. I don't know if they sell them where you are, but they tend to be pretty tasty.

If those aren't available, maybe some sugar free jello? It's hard to even taste the difference between sugar free and regular, there's a teeny little bit of protein in it, and gelatin is supposed to be really good for your nails and hair. Looking online, it looks like 1 serving (1/8 of a package prepared) of sugar free strawberry has 10 calories.

eat more fruits;D

I cut out all refined sugars 2 years ago. It was the best thing I've ever done for myself honestly. I used to obsess about food but once the sugar was gone my obsession tapered off. I did have a 1 week "withdrawal" where I was super crabby, but once that ended I really felt good. I get my "sweet" fixes from fruits and try to make sure I'm eating a balance of protein and fat to help too.

The first thing I did was start reading labels because you'll find sugar in stupid things like your bread, your ketchup, your spaghetti sauce...

I started going to the organic aisles in my grocery store and for a while I read everything very carefully. Now I am pretty quick about it, but I find it I don't read all the ingredients I'll often get home and see at the bottom that there's a bunch of crap like High Fructose Corn Syrup and Sugar.

I have some go-to breads and sauces now so it's not so difficult.

The next thing is stop drinking sugary drinks and don't add sugar to anything that doesn't need it. I make Pumpkin Hot Chocolate with cocoa powder, unsweetend almond milk and pumpkin and I'll either at a very small amount of sugar or I'll use just a bit of Stevia. Even without those things the pumpkin and cocoa powder make it savory and just a bit sweet.

I like my coffee black so I never add sugar to that either.

I haven't completely stopped having sugar. I just don't add where it's not needed. Bread is good without it, sauce is good without it, ketchup is good without it. I make room for treats though and I accepted that, while sugar isn't the best for you, getting rid of it completely kind of sucks. If I have a sugary treat I count it in my calories and I try to make sure it's no more than 300 calories, because that's a small portion of what I eat in a day.

Do you keep a food journal? If that's something that interests you, maybe you could start there. Let's say you find out that you drink 4 regular sodas per day. Try and cut it down to 2 sodas. After a week or two, you can try to cut it down to one or none.

Where else is the sugar coming from? Chocolate/candy?

Hey thanks for all the suggestions guys! I do keep a food journal and I've started replacing chocolate and sweets with fruits and Im only drinking water at the minute. The only issue is when I'm sitting watching tv at night Ive gotten too used to sitting and snacking on sugary foods it's really the worst to try and break it!

Oh what I'm mostly bad is getting the sugar from cakes and buns because I love to bake, it's so bad I know! But I'm thinking that maybe going cold turkey for a while may be the answer to controlling it better

You could try chewing gum while you watch TV instead. Or drinking a lot of water.

i had to completely stop my baking adventures when i started dieting because sweets are my downfall too...and i LOVE to bake any kind of sweets especially from scratch...so i had to stop doing that for a long time and even now, it's at a minimum and not like i used to :(

I'm a pastry student and I decorate cakes. I am surrounded by sweets! Right now I am only having fruits, and at night I allow myself a bowl of cereal. I don't do anything that is too sugary, and I make sure it is high in fiber.

i am a sugar addict. i love sugar. LOVE sugar. but i am also VERY conscious of my consumption.

points of importance:

1. sugar gathers in your muscles. this makes you less flexible. more sore, and more stiff.

2. the more you have, the more you will crave. your body craves 2 things when you are tired. sugar, and carbs. this is an immediate energy fix, and will send you crashing. please get enough sleep, and lots of water.


Now, alternatives.

Sugar in coffee: splenda.

Sweets after dinner - a piece of fruit. If you find the fruit causes an insulin spike and makes you want actual sugar, eat low glacymic index fruits (like grapefruit, they are naturally very sweet if you let them ripen, alternatively put a little splenda on it).

Do not completely stop- for me, I would much rather EAT my sugar, then drink it. I do not use sugar, drink only diet coke/other diet pops (maybe 2-3 cans a month). i have never met a peice of cake, or cupcake i didn't like. but the thing is- if it's not absolutely decadent, DONT EAT IT. why you ask? well why eat something only mildly delicious, when you can eat something fantastic?

the key is moderation, not deprivation!

I discovered that even chobani or oikos yogurt has a surprisingly high amount of sugar. It stinks. I always end up high on sugar and sodium. It's a learning curve, I guess.