OK- I NEED to do something different. I've been "maintaining" for months, more like stalled- cause I eat CRAP! And I hate the way my body feels, I want energy & I want a serious change asap!
I know sugar is my main problem, & I do want to move towards a lower carb lifestyle, but I need- for my body, my genes, I know I NEED to give up desserts, refined sugars, etc.
I'm an all or nothing type of gal- and if I plan on one dessert a week or 50 calories of delicious dark chocolate a day, that just sets me on a day, week, month (s) of sugar filled eating. So FOR NOW- for this part of my journey, until I am strong enough to handle the right things in moderation, I need to give it up.

So my question- What things do I need to look out for in processed foods? I know I've pretty much gotta say buh bye to fast food, which is fine- but as far as stuff in the grocery store- I know HFCS & even trans fats can go by other names (I forgot what though??) Also, as far as sweetening my oatmeal in the morning or eating a piece of whole grain toast- is honey a trigger for making one crave sweets?
I dont want to give up fruits either- I want to stay natural, & I feel in general, what God gave us food wise before we dumped chemicals all over it is allowable... so that will stay!

Anyways, any advice, tips, etc. ANYTHING you all can help me with would be surely appreciated. I know this is going to be very hard to do.. but I feel I need to do it & I hope God gives me strength to get through these cravings!

I have the same problem, so I totally avoid highly processed foods. I follow the glycemic index to determine if a certain food is likely to raise my blood sugar too fast, and the subsequesnt crash causes terrible cravings. I just can't tolerate processed carbs. I try to eat really simple clean foods- the withdrawl from the sugar was hard, so I'm really careful because I don't want to go through that again. I do occaisonally use honey as a sweetener- it has a much lower glycemic index than sugar!

Honey makes me crave so I rarely use it. Same thing with artificial sweeteners so I gave them all up including stevia.
As far as fruits go I find that berries do not make me crave sugar. Bananas do so I eat them with something else like oatmeal and a protein (a boiled egg) and limit them to half a banana. Apples do not. Cantaloupe does not as well as peaches, nectarines and pears.

I do not exclude fruit but I also do not eat it every day and when I do have it I try to kleep my servings limited t one or two servings. I also rarely eat dark chocolate because I always want the whole thing.

Try berries in your oatmeal or mash a half banana in it. Works for me and then I don't get massive sugar cravings later on....unless I am close to my TOM but then that is a whole different ballgame.

Oh...anything ending in -ose (sucrose, dextrose) is a sugar. Some artificial sweeteners end in -ol (malitol, sorbitol) and can trigger cravings too.

I use Truvia. I'm not sure if that's unhealthy, but it's a natural plant. You can find it in any grocery store, especially health food stores.

Calories determine fat loss or gain. You're not stalled because you're eating crappy foods you're stalled because you're eating the number of calories your body needs to maintain it's weight. Eating "healthy" foods is good for a variety of reasons but you can gain weight eating healthy foods just as you can lose weight eating junk. Calories matter.

If you want to quit sugar - just quit. Sounds like you're not big on cooking. No biggie. Every food product you buy has a food label and on it you will be able to see how much sugar the product contains. Read before you buy.

I gather from your post that what you're trying to do is to cut out most refined sugars and/or overly processed foods.

Sugars generally are the "oses": Lactose, Fructose, Sucrose, Glucose. So if you're trying to avoid sugars in processed foods watch for the 'oses'.

You might also consider something like "no white carbs" to be a side step from that. Whole wheat breads instead of white breads. Brown rice instead of white rice.

As to what will cause a trigger... that is very individual. Some people might be okay with a little honey or agave nectar or maple syrup (hey, they're all from nature, right?) , and for others it might be too sweet and too close to pure refined sugar. You're going to have to find out. Maybe it's best to cut those out to start, too.

Oh I absolutely agree with this, but the problem is that eating sugary foods makes me crave more sugary foods- which has led me to stall- so yes, the root of is it the amount of calories, but I personally feel I need to let go of sugar to be able to eat the correct amount of calories my body needs to loose weight.

Awesome, thanks for the tips!

It takes about 30 days to establish new habits. Thus - you just need to maintain your will power for 30 days and then things will get easier.

I think to a certain extent we're all hardwired to love sugar. The more we eat the more we crave it.

To be healthy we need lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, good fats and dairy. Sugar has NO nutritional value only a ton of calories and it sets off cravings. You quit it by not using it. Shop the outside perimeter of the grocery store and avoid prepared, boxed and processed foods. Artifical sweeteners set off cravings in me and have been shown to cause cravings so I don't use them either.

To get off sugar, you just have to get off and stay off. I've been under 15 g of sugar a day for about 6 months now and that's working for me (just to give you a reference point). You have to do the same thing you do when you're calorie-counting or anything else - before you eat something, look at the nutrition data on the package or look it up on the internet to make sure you're not eating too much.

You may need to consider giving up some natural foods that are high in sugar. I basically don't eat fruit any more except for avocados, tomatoes, and berries. I don't eat starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn or peas. I didn't want to give up yogurt because I thought of it as a health food but I did and I'm fine. Experiment with cutting out everything high-sugar and then add back in fruits with higher sugar content one at a time, for instance, and see how you react.

Regarding your oatmeal, the awesome thing about getting off sugar is that you can detect more subtle levels of sweetness. I used to add table sugar or honey or raisins to my oatmeal - all have LOTS of sugar no matter how you slice it - but after I went off sugar I found even totally plain oatmeal to be palatable. Now I sweeten my oatmeal with peanut butter, if you can believe it. I put 1 tbsp of peanut butter (1.5 g sugar) in half a serving of oatmeal and it tastes wonderful to me - plus I'm adding more fat and protein into a carb-heavy item.

Thank you!!!

When I tried to reduce my sugar intake, it just didn't work. If I ate something very sweet, I'd crave it again same time next day, and simply continued eating too much sugar every day. What worked for me was to quit anything with added sugar (I mean anything that is very sweet, honey is included of course, but there's sneaky ones like ketchup) completely for two weeks. Now I occasionally have a popsicle or 75% fruit jam on my toast. I put artificial sweetener in my coffee.

It's much easier to stay in control because although I still love sweets, my body's no longer used to, or asking for, big amounts of sugar.

Non-seasonal, always-available fruits such as apples and oranges are technically 'too high' in sugar, but I eat two small servings a day anyway.

I am going to be watching this thread! I think I am VERY addicted to quite a few sugary foods-once I start I can NOT stop! Moderation does NOT work for me =) I have found fruits dont do this to me (favs are oranges, blueberries in my kashi cereal, apples w/a little crunchy pb, strawberries in my plain yogurt) etc....and I have had raw honey in my oatmeal too with no 'crazy addiction' problems....Prayers for you to fight it!!!

I am doing the Dukan diet which is very strict about carbs. You eat meat and no fat dairy (which does have some natural sugars) and veggies, along with a small amount of oat bran (not oatmeal) every day.

And that's it - no grains, starches, sugars, even no fruit (at least for the phase I'm in). So I have not had any sugar for almost 6 weeks. I never thought of myself as a sugar/carb addict but I have to say that getting rid of them completely has been amazing. I am not having cravings, I feel fine and I'm losing weight at a rate that is much, much faster than I've ever lost before (I expect to break 20 lbs for my official 6 week WI in a couple of days).

So as hard as it is to imagine giving up sugar, I think you will find that it is actually much easier than you imagine, once you get through the first few days.