I tried. I really did.

Tried to get used to sugar free syrup in my latte, tried to use splenda in my coffee, tried to drink diet cokes...I just dont like it! yuck!

*sigh*

I "generally" eat healthy, I just consume wayyyyy to many calories in my beverages. You would think my brain would be like " Listen Kate, all you have to do is stop drinking regular coke and putting sugar in your coffee and youll lose the extra pounds!"...but instead my brain is like " sugar free yuckkk, real sugar yummy!"...


Anyone else a slave to sugar?

Have you ever tried to just not use anything? I was really into Splenda. I drink a whole lotta coffee and I went through a large sack of Splenda each week (yikes!) Then I just stopped and it wasnt so bad.

Stopped drinking coffee or stopped with splenda?

I dont think I want to give up coffee. I just need to start programming myself to not like it so sweet.

For awhile I was used to drinking diet coke and using splenda etc etc...but then it just started tasting so gross to me, I ran back to real sugar.

I can't tolerate artificial sugars so I use the real thing. I was a real sugar hog and loved it in my coffee. Most mornings I don't add it at all and if I do it's a teaspoon. I use real honey in my tea or again, nothing at all and I think that is ok too. It's good and good for me!

Tastebuds change as we age--we get much less sensitive to bitter, for one thing--so I'd make sure to keep trying for lower calorie options. For example, I absolutely could not drink coffee without cream until I was around 30, and then I could--it was like flipping a switch--black and sweet stopped tasting horribly bitter. I am hoping that just straight black will start to taste good in a few years.

How many calories a day are we talking about from sugar in your drinks? If it's a matter of having a single packet of sugar in your coffee twice a day, it's probably not a big deal. If it's 4 sugary cokes a day, that's hard to overcome and you need to find some sort of alternative you can live with. Diet Coke was absolutely the last diet drink I learned to handle--crystal light, diet citrus drinks, iced tea, all of those seem to mask artificial sweetner better than coke does.

I've found it helpful to explore foods that I like as much as xyzbadforme, and then substitute them.

For example, I enjoy the flavored Laughing Cow Lite wedges spread on a RyKrisp cracker as much or even more now than my old cheddar cheese and wheat thins.

On the sugar front, I too have been appalled at the calories in flavored syrups in coffee drinks at Starbucks, Panera Bread, etc. Then I discovered that if I get a nonfat latte with no whipped cream, and ask them to pour on the caramel sauce, that's actually way fewer calories than is in the syrups! Because it's like lumpy on the top, and you get a mouthful of it, it makes your mouth feel like it's getting lots and lots but it's actually way less sugar that way. I would imagine the same would be true for chocolate sauce.

The diet soda issue, I think the only way around that is to go cold turkey on the sodas and find something you love that's low or no cal. Cost be damned.

I love trying exotic mineral waters with fresh lime slices, different teas (which I enjoy without any sweetener), iced green tea with fresh mint from a plant I kept last summer, and finally I've learned to crave and love ice cold water from the Brita pitcher in my fridge. :-)

Good luck!

Same as me. I don't like articifial sweeteners either, so I just use regular sugar...but less of it and less often.

From what I've read artificial sweetener can actually just trigger cravings and lead to overeating later. Might be better to simply choose one or two things that you allow yourself to have real sugar in and go plain with the rest, like let yourself have one regular cola but stick with black coffee or only add milk.

Celestial Seasonings makes a good tea called "Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride." Tastes like it has sugar, but doesn't. Also, I get chocolate flavored coffee beans, and that helps, too. But I know where you're coming from. I'm totally addicted to sweets.

I don't drink coffee but I'm definitely a tea drinker!! I used to drink 2 sweet n lows in my iced tea (that is a lot of sweet!). I eventually cut back and now don't use any sweetener. I prefer the taste without now.

I'm another sugar-in-moderation person. I don't particularly care for artificial anything, but also it gives me massive migraines and it's the only thing that does. I don't suffer from migraines unless I have artificial sweeteners.

I too have read that artificial sweeteners trigger the desire for more whereas giving up sugar eliminates cravings. Once the cravings are gone, it can be used in moderation.

There is hope for the sweet coffee craving - I used to be a 6-8 packs of sugar, 1/2 cup of creamer person and now I do one 1 tsp of sugar (real sugar, Splenda makes me sick so I avoid other artificial sweeteners just in case) & 1 tbsp of fat free creamer. Sometimes I will even drink black coffee now. I get the flavored beans, too. I've also come to like my tea with little to no sugar as well. It can be done. I dropped one day from all the cream & sugar in the world to the smaller amount and haven't looked back. Hard sometimes, even now, but so much better for me.