My biggest weakness is sugar. I absolutely cannot resist anything sweet. And, I can't have just one bite, I will finish off whatever it is. For example, today, I ate 4 big *** cookies. Today was supposed to be my first day of not eating that crap!

When I quit smoking, I just stopped. No problem at all. But sweets? Ugh, frustration.

Anyone else here have a sugar addiction? How do you deal with it?

Something that works for me is that my sweets have changed. I hate dark chocolate with a passion, and guess what? That is the only chocolate I allow myself to eat on occasion. My candy bars now are fruit leather, dates, dried fruit (yes, I know they are calorie-laden, but I used to binge on bags of candy EVERY night, I think the dates are better). This stuff satisfies my sweet tooth and I don't binge on them. Milk chocolate I might just give up forever. I don't trust myself with it. For a birthday party I hosted for my MIL, I purposely got carrot cake because I HATE it!!! These little changes have actually helped me quite a bit.

Giving up sugar was hard for me, too. I used to put two spoonfuls to sweeten a tall glass of iced tea, and I had like four glasses of that on a daily basis, plus the soda I couldn't live without. Giving up soda was easy because I could always justify it with the idea that I'm saving money by not buying soda. But sugar with my iced tea, it's another story and I have to fight myself every time I make one.

Fattymcfatty, thanks for the input. I actually do love fruit leather, which is kind of strange since as a rule I dislike fruit. And, coicidentally, I forgot that I bought a tub of dried dates at TJ's a few weeks ago. Good thing there are no more cookies for me to have; I can have the dates instead.

I too have a big issue with milk chocolate... and I too hate dark chocolate. I've actually found a few kinds I do like, Scharffenberger mostly, so maybe I can just buy those instead when I'm craving chocolate. I don't love them enough to binge on them, but they do satisfy.

Marianne, funny you mention the ice tea. My husband is from the South, whereas I'm a CA transplant... He loves Southern-style sweet tea, but I've never been able to get used to it. It's probably the one thing on the planet that I can't stand to have with sugar!

I gave up soda awhile ago, but it was less about the sugar than about the additives and the high fructose corn syrup. Now my liquid vice is beer, the darker and more potent the better.

I gave up sugar about a month and a half ago when I started doing The Belly Fat Cure (limits sugar to 15 g/day). Like you said about smoking, I just did it cold turkey. I went through some minor withdrawal symptoms a few days in but they passed quickly. I won't say that I never want to eat it anymore (last night my husband ate chocolate cake in front of me, but I just smelled it and was satisfied), but it's pretty rare and so far always resistible. I had a bit of a sweet tooth before, too, probably more so than the average person. It's so much easier to just break the addiction in one fell swoop than string it out by just trying to eat less. I find that I'm now enjoying meats and foods with high fat content instead of the sugary tastes. So I guess my advice is that if you really want to give up sugar for whatever reason (I have very strong motivation of my own) stop teasing yourself with those first bites and try eradicating it from your diet. I didn't think I could do it either but so far so good.

I was/am a flat out soda addict. At first, I was truly addicted to Mt. Dew- I used to drink it at 6AM on my way to school in the morning (45+ min drive each way) so that I wouldn't fall asleep while driving. (My dad has done so and ended up jumping the median of the Walt Whitman Bridge- and landing on the other side... and my cousin died from falling asleep at the wheel )... so I fixed that problem by being totally ramped up on Mt. Dew.

Then, realizing I was really addicted to the sugar and caffeine.. I eventually got myself off the Dew, but on to Pepsi.

I would drink 96 oz of Pepsi a day.

96 ounces. That's a 2-liter bottle of soda

I cannot, and have never been able to do cold turkey. I get extremely painful headaches.. in fact, I had my first migraine in my entire life when I started this diet last month and started cutting back on the pepsi.

I'm not completely off it yet. I'd say I'm down to 4oz to 8oz a day. (I get those little 100 calorie cans.. they are sooo cute! anyway.. I open one, and I end up taking a few sips.. and then forget about it.) I think I might be at the point where I'm just into the taste and not hooked on the caffeine and sugar. Which is good. I'll take two sips out of a can a day over 96oz any day of the week!

LR

I'm up there with you, and like a small child I insist that a life with no sweets is not a life worth living. Problem is, a life with the occasional small portion of sweets is harder than a life with no sweets at all.

When I go cold turkey, it sucks for a day or two but I lose weight and feel great. When I don't (and now is one of those times - I feel like a crack addict), I gain and feel guilty and all I can think about is how to go about getting more sugar.

I think I'm a sugar-a-holic, too. Which is weird, because I never was what I considered a "sweets person". But I have discovered in this journey that if I eat any sweets at all, a monster gets loose and I have cravings for days! Yesterday at work a gal and I were talking about our diet plans, and she mentioned that she likes the skinny cow ice creams. As I pondered this, huh, 100 little calories for something sweet at the end of the day, I realized if I started doing that I'd be turning on a switch to eat SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR! Just like krampus, if I stay away from it, I'm fine. Occasionally, I will eat a couple bites of dessert if I go out to eat (which is rare) and I'm okay usually. But it just can't be part of my daily diet. Makes it too darn hard to stay on plan.

Cold turkey for me too. I never thought I could do it, but once I go without for a little while, I don't miss it. One little bit though, and I'm fiending for more.

I just can't do sugars -period. I found eating a low carb, high fat/high protein diet has been the biggest and easiest switch for me. If I don't have simple carbs, I don't crave them. And I'm not talking going full out atkins or eating all meat and dairy, but plant oils and lean meats and beans. I have an apple with cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of peaunt butter every day. The apples now taste so much sweeter. Blueberries now have such an explosive flavor - because I've gotten away from cane sugar and corn syrup.

If I REALLY feel like I need something sweet and I don't want fruit, I drink a high protein, high fiber, very low carb chocolate shake. Totally kills the sweet tooth for me.

But like others said, once I have carbs (cookies, cakes, candies) I want them more. So, it's much easier for me just to stay AWAY!

Sugar is the Devil in a pure white suit!

Sugar was my first true love. Before booze, before cigarettes, before nachos came sugar. It was my childhood sweetheart. Just like an alcohol can't take one drink and stop, I can't take one bite and stop...And just like an alcoholic CAN live without alcohol, I CAN live without sugar. There is no chemical compound, nutrient or vitamin that is vital in sugar to sustain life.

I have given up alcohol. I have given up cigarettes, but for some damn reason I keep thinking I can control my sugar. I can't. I am WAYYYY better off when I just say no. Easier said than done.

Am another sugar addict here!!! Reg/fake/,,candies/cakes I can eat them non stop..but now am 2 days binge free from the sugar/sweets.... I gave up on coffee/sodas and now drinking seltzer water..so far doing good.

Good luck with your efforts..

One thing that has really helped me is drinking herbal tea with licorice or just straight up licorice tea. Not only does it have a naturally sweet taste without sugar, but my friend who is a naturopath/herbalist told me that it actually decreases cravings for sweet things. Not everyone likes the taste of natural licorice, which doesn't taste anything like the candy (even the black kind), but I really like it. I would definitely recommend giving it a try if you like herbal tea.

I always ask myself why it was so easy to quit smoking and so hard to lose weight - and I am a sugar binger. Baked goods, bread, pasta...can't stop myself. It's crazy.

But you know what? I didn't "just quit" smoking. I had a plan. I really WANTED to quit. I knew my quality of life would be better without smoking. I took it seriously and had a strategy. I QUIT BUYING CIGS AND HAVING THEM AROUND. I quit doing the things that I associated with smoking and if I couldn't quit, I found a replacement habit. And I told myself if I went out with smoking friends and I REALLY REALLY wanted to smoke, I could. There. In the bar. No bringing anything home, throw out whatever was left of the pack and walk away.

So I guess for a long time I really over-simplified how I approached quitting smoking. I'm trying to take what I learned and apply it to my problem foods.