Does anyone reward them selves an indulgence like if you do great all week work a decadent dessert into your calories for one day?
I am thinking about doing that but dont know if it is a good or bad idea! We have a great boutique cupcake shop that I JUST found and love it so I was thinking about making it my indulgence reward. After 5 lbs have one then at 10 have another then once a week if I can keep in my calories and eat well all week. What does everyone think?

If all you're doing is counting calories I think that's appropriate. When I was counting calories I took a day off once every two weeks ish. But if you are trying to get off sugar this will probably ruin the progress that you have made in reformatting your tastes in that week. I have noticed that with eating radically less sugar I am better able to appreciate subtle flavors, especially in foods like berries that I formerly found only slightly sweet. They now blow my mind when I eat them and are so enjoyable! I can hardly imagine eating a sugar-packed dessert now, nor do I want to. So you just need to decide for yourself what your goals are. Are you just trying to lose weight or is your sweet tooth really a sugar addiction that you want to shake? You might be surprised at how your dependence loosens once you stick to getting off it for a while.

I do have a bit of an addiction to sweets I have a type of migraines that causes an increase in sugar cravings so I should probably stop them all together for a while. Thanks for everyones input it has all been really helpful. I am not yet on a specific diet I hope to try jenny craig soon I am starting by getting back into exercising and keeping calories low I want to know it is something I can stick with before I pour money into it.

I AGREE with this! I've been doing this more and I'm loving the homemade goodness of my decadent treats as well as the nutritional control over what goes into it!

OP, I too have a HUGE sweet tooth (often heard saying that I would live off sweets if it would not cause me to die) That said, I have an EXCELLENT cookbook called "The BEST Light Recipes" from America's Test Kitchen. It contains "lower" calorie/fat versions of your favorite foods and, of course, DESSERTS! I've made the carrot cake (350 cals/slice) and I've gotta tell you...SUPERB! Everyone agrees (even my non-dieting friends didn't know it was reduced calorie)....simply the BEST carrot cake recipe in the world..haha!

Anyhoot...enjoy your goodies...in moderation, of course.

Joyful - I'm in the market for a new, quality cookbook. Is this the one you're referring to? Just checking before I invest!

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Recipe-E...1513805&sr=8-8

Thanks!

I am addicted to sugar. I had to go cold turkey I cut it out of my diet the first week. I added some fruit back this week. . I think for me right know I have to stay away from the low-fat version of that stuff. Maybe try some fruit or sugar free jello it helps me so far. Good luck!

I have found different ways to manage this throughout the years. One tactic was to allow myself 5 hershey's kisses every day. I just added the calories into my total (it isn't really that much).

Now, I try to take a healthier approach. Protein shakes and protein bars help in a pinch. Also coffee or tea with a little coffee mate.

I microwave an apple with cinnamon. It tastes kind of like pie. You can also bake them, just takes longer.

Mix fat free greek yogurt with some fruit (pineapple, strawberries, etc.) and sprinkle with some coconut (I liked the organic unsweetened.) Frozen grapes taste really good in the summer. Italian ice or sorbet is also low cal and good with fruit.


Those cinnamon sugar almonds are REALLY good, and they really don't have too much sugar in them at all. Plus the container they come in has a an "ounce" measuring system on the side, so you know exactly how much you've eaten.

A little bit of fat free pudding or jello doesn't have many calories. Not really the most nutritious of snacks, but better than binging on cake! Same goes with frozen yogurt, if you can limit your portion size. I liked the ben and jerry's single serving ones!

Fat free cream cheese and a little pie filling on a whole wheat english muffin is a low cal alternative to a danish. I don't know what possessed me to do that one day, but it tastes pretty good!

Wow, I've become pretty good at defeating the sweet craving I guess. Hope this helps!

Thanks for this thread - I am trying to wean myself off sugar a bit, as well! For me, I think it's the main thing standing between myself and weight loss - because eating lots of sugar just makes me want to snack more, and that causes lots of bad habits! I know it's not feasible to go completely sugar-free, but I think limiting things that are purely sweet will go a long way...

I am also a "sugar addict" - have been all my life! - so it's very difficult to cut it out, or even just cut it down! But thru-out my yo-yo dieting years, and what I've learned does & does not work for me, a very important lesson I've learned is this: I LOVE SUGAR! - but sugar DOES NOT love me!! It makes me FEEL HORRIBLE! - the more of it I eat, the worse I feel!

I have successfully cut sugar laden foods from my diet (candies, cakes, cookies, sodas, etc) twice in my life. The longest I went without a single sugary food was 8 months. I substituted sugar in my coffee with Equal or whatever else, and just stayed completely away from anything that was "processed sugar". I FELT GREAT! And yeah, I lost weight! (but important to note here that I was exercising & eating less as well... so that wasn't "just the absence of sugar")

Right now, for the past 3 months, I have been eliminating sugary foods from my diet once again. Eating more fruit really seems to help a great deal! Natural sugars don't aggravate my body like processed sugars do! Also, when I get a craving for chocolate (yup, 99% it's around my monthly surfing of the crimson wave!) I go for something small & simple like SUGAR FREE Chocolate Jello Pudding. It calms my chocolate craving without over-sugarizing me (PLUS - BONUS! - they're so low in calories, I can have TWO & not de-rail my diet!!!!... yay!!!)

I eat fruit for breakfast 5x a week (protein brekkies on Sat/Sun). Usually a big ol' juicy grapefruit or a strawberry/banana smoothie. I drink only diet when I feel the need for a soda (Diet Mtn Dew is my drug of choice there!) but I drink water 80% of the time. (Also, anytime I DO drink "regular soda"... it's soooo sweet... TOO SWEET! - I can only withstand one or two sips before I'm reaching for my water bottle again!!!)

I do have regular sugar in my coffee - but I only drink 2 cups per morning, and I use sugar-free creamer so I don't get ANY extra sugar.

...here's an interesting tidbit: last week was "birthday cake day" at my work. (We celebrate everyone's b'day every 2 months with cake or ice cream) I had one small piece of cake - an END PIECE (with all that sugary icing... YUM!!!!!) ...and OMG... I went into sugar-overload almost immediately afterward!!! I was flying high & bouncing off the walls for about 15-20 minutes, and then suddenly - CRASH!!!! - I felt awful!!!! Which just proves to me how much SUGAR DOES NOT LOVE ME!

Yup... I feel much much better when I really curtail my intake of sugar.

I hope this helps you in some small way!

Oh me too the more I eat it the more I want it and I have days that the tought of anything but sweets makes me sick I hate it!
I am stopping all sweets including fruit for 2 weeks then slowly adding fruit back in seems like that might help