i must be a sugaraholic.
i can't believe there isn't more research and publicity on this.

on the way home from work, i simply had to stop at the grocery and buy a whole tub of star chocolates. It had to be done. Something else took control of my brain. I can't figure out what it wants aside from sugar. I can't figure out why it is so worth 20minutes of tasting sugar. why is it such a demonic compulsion.

The more i have, the more i want.

I'm beginning to think that there is just no way i can have an occasional treat. I have to quit sugar cold turkey.
I don't know how, or by what diet, or if this is even a good place to post something like this.

but i simply have to take back my life now.

I feel like i'm the only one like this. I feel like i'm the only one that has it this BAD.

Is it possible to go sugar free?

Kathy, you're not alone in this.


Sugar/sweet is my downfall. I even prefer sweet main dishes over anything else (like bbq, etc).

For example, today, I had a chopped salad for lunch which would have been good for me (as I ordered it without the tubetti pasta and bacon) but immediately went for cookies right after the salad AND a diet pepsi (which states that it has no sugar but has that sweet taste that I love).

I have not been diagnosed with diabetes but I have thought about taking an eating plan for diabetics and working with it.

am

oooh, not alone at all!! Sugar/starchyness is what I crave. And YES the more you have, the more you want!! It's vicious. And for me to break it I also have to go cold turkey. For me, reading the first South Beach Diet book, and then following the plan, is what worked. It is very very very hard to accept but the less you have, the easier it is.

Hey, our height and starting stats and goals are just about the same

Yes, it is absolutely possible to get free of sugar, by giving it up completely. I'd encourage you to just commit to 30 days off sugar and see how it feels; you'll be amazed at the positive changes you experience. My husband and I have been off sugar for going on 8 months now, and I also quit it once for 6 months about 15 years ago.

Check out the South Beach Diet if you want...it's a no-sugar diet, with plenty of healthy carbs and fats and protein. It would really nourish your body.

Another one I like is the Insulin Resistance Diet...look for the book of the same name.

There's actually a book called "The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program". The author talks about how sugar is an addiction and the brain chemistry behind it. Interesting stuff. The only thing I don't like is how long it takes for you to get to the point where you are giving up sugar. (I could never get past journaling.)

Sugar has had it's thick grasp on my life as well, and I am currently in the oh-so-joyful process of releasing its grip. I've actually never posted here before but I resonated so strongly with what Kaebea wrote that I thought I'd share what has helped me so far. The most AMAZING book that I've found about giving up sugar is at a website called firstourselves, if you click to the link on the right called "giving up sugar" it will pull up the book which you can download for free! I don't know about you, but free things increase in value for me...for example, I love a starbucks latte...but a free latte? Now that's a party.

KNOW YOU ARE NOT ALONE

i have personally found sugarbusters to be the best LIFESTYLE .... lost 45 pounds and kept it off for years until a recent illness... doing better now... and back on SB ... this time with my MOM

i happen to TOTALLY with vermontmom (looking reallly good VM) about the more you have ... the more you want... yes, i have a headache the first day i give up white flour and white sugar... but the longer you are off them... the less you miss them.. ... keep us updated, k ?

There's a ton of good advice here. I just want to add that if you can't eliminate sugar right away, read whatever you can and start experimenting with what foods affect you and how.

I've been free of refined sugar for two months and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's the best thing I could have possibly done for myself. It took six months from the time I started trying to eliminate sugar until the time when I could kick it completely. I paid close attention to how my body responds (does Splenda affect me? Honey? How much and what kinds of carbs can I eat without triggering sugar cravings?) and fell off the wagon a good half-dozen times- but eventually I got it right.

I am absolutely convinced that this is the only way for some of us. I cannot remember ever eating like a normal person, and now I do. It's completely worth it. You can do this!

thanks for the support. i feel a bit better knowing i'm not the only one with this weekness.

I feel better when i follow a diet low in sugar(wheat, grains, processed foods,white sugar and refined flour) , but it's not even just that i feel better, i feel DIFFERENT as well....different in a good way that is.

thanks for all the book and reading suggestions:

firstourselves---i will check that site out in 2 minutes!!! (thanks Chelzed)
"The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program"(thanks fireballgirl)
south Beach Diet thanks (vermontmom and warmaiden)
Insulin Resistance Diet (thanks warmaiden)

i like reading and researching different diets and foods, but it gets mind boggling when one food is great on one diet and a badguy on another.
it always gets me wondering what are the consistencies in all theses different diets?


I'm doing ok. we had a christmas cookie exchange and a pot luck at work. i did have some cookies, but it didn't lead to an all-out binge.
and tonight i think i'll be able to reheat some salmon and cook some greenbeans or brussle sprouts to go with it. I know it's going to be tougher during the holidays.
what does everyone else do? do you make a few exceptions, or do you avoid the christmas cookies like the plague?

Personally, i wish i could avoid them like the plague, but that seems unlikely, especially as i'm usually one of the baker's in the family.

At home, I don't use sugar to bake. I make some mighty fine cookies with Splenda or other substitutes, instead. (Also muffins, cheesecake, etc.)

Elsewhere, I just don't eat sweet stuff. It's poison to my body and makes me feel horrendous, and it's just not worth it. Today I'm paying (with a headache and yucky feeling) for a small quantity of liquor I had in a homemade no-sugar eggnog, and on Saturday I paid (with a lot of yucky feeling) for a small quantity of pizza I ate. Honestly, Christmas cookies or other sweets are just NOT worth feeling like this.

gosh i feel just awful.
here it is 3am and i can't sleep.
i'd set aside some buckeyes for my family , about 12 or so of them, and ended up eating them all.

i hadn't realized how much i've cut back on sugar. All my old symptoms are coming back. the aches, the head fog. this is the way i used to feel all the time I think. But now, after having not eaten like this in so long, I can feel it much, much worse.
the worst part is that i feel off balance, like i can't even stand up straight.
ick.
i think i'll be giving away all those cookies from the cookie exchange.

I had not realized how many positive changes i've made to my diet until now.

sigh.

well, nothing left to do but get back on the wagon tomorrow...

and that "firstourselves" web site was really good.

I suppose i've got to stop thinking of sugar as harmless and start seeing it more like crack, or poison, or some kind of drug.
I think in our society it's seen as something you give kids, as a sign of love, or pampering or something fun. And you wouldn't give kids drugs or alcohol or poison, so it's easy to see sugar as something nurturing.
I don't drink much.
and i don't do drugs or smoke cigarettes because i have it ingrained in me that only people who don't care for their bodies and minds do things like that. But sugar is just as much of a toxin for me yet i can 't stay away from it.
It strikes me as ironic that i feel like i'm too disiplined and too well raised to do drugs or smoke or drink to excess, yet i can't control my intake of sweets and junk food when it's really so similar and just as detrimental as all of those things.
why don't we raise kids to 'say no to candy'? Then i might be sitting here believing that only "bad" kids eat candy....and i'd be super thin and well balanced and happy...
hmmmm....

I believe it was Jane Goodall who said, if you really want to see what addiction is like--try giving up sugar.

What boggles my ming the most is how we can know what sugar does to us, as Kathy said: "All my old symptoms are coming back. the aches, the head fog." We can feel what it does inside our bodies and see what it does to the outsides of our bodies and still eat it. Again and again and again. And then not stop. I have been in your place thousands of times, Kathy. Just asking myself why did I have to eat all 12 cookies? Why didn't I stop at 1? or 4, for godsake!?

How is it possible to know that something is ruining my life...and do it again and again and again? I wouldn't stab myself repeatedly...so why are food and sugar different?

The many hundreds of moments when I couldn't go without a cookie...the icecream...the pie I'd baked for someone else...just the fact that I ate them makes me realize what a horrifying drug sugar is.

I think you are right Kathy, we should see sugar as toxic to our lives. We wouldn't go around eating rat poison just cause it tasted good, right? Right? Dear god, I hope not!

"why did I have to eat all 12 cookies? Why didn't I stop at 1? or 4, for godsake!?"

yes! this is exactly the same thing i'm talking about!
i downed about 6 cookies at work today, but if i hadn't thought closely about how many i had indeed eaten, i only would have counted 3.
I don't know if i subconsciously block it out or if i just temporarily loose my mind when i'm eating.
well anyway, after i verified it was 6 cookies, i took the rest of them and gave them away.
but it's good to know someone that understands

I want to eat well. I know that if I was fanatically committed, my family wouldn't force junk food on me and would be supportive, and my mom tends to buy foods that i get on a kick about. I know from diets in the past, like the lowfat craze of the 90's for instance, if i live and breathe it and get all into it, i can do it and it becomes very ingrained.

I'm not sure anyone else's age, but i just find it harder now at 33 to get away from the sugar cravings.

I'm getting so frustrated and i'm finding it hard to believe in myself.

If i could just believe i could be sugar free and really be excited about it...


P.S. jane goodall is an idol of mine

The first time I quit sugar I was about 25, and I did it for 6 months, and it was great. But then I started eating sugar again because I thought I had fixed my problem. I was wrong, and over a few years I gained over 100 pounds from my addiction.

Now I'm 40...39 when I quit this last time. It doesn't feel physically harder to quit sugar, it feels about the same. But I've been off sugar for going on 8 months this time, and my mental resolve to stay off of it is much stronger, because I know how horrible it is for me. I can SEE what it has done to me, and I know that I'm not able to have it in my life at all, ever, if I want to get and remain healthy.

I have a question for you, WarMaiden-- as someone who has successfully given up sugar for so long is there anything in particular that helped you abstain? Did you white knuckle it, or was there a supplement you took that helped? Did you have to give up caffeine (I've read it spikes sugar cravings)
Do you restrict all forms of sugar (agave, honey, fructose)? Okay, so that was quite a few questions, oops. I'd appreciate any knowledge you could offer though :-)

As Kathy said, "if I could just believe I could be sugar free and be really excited about it..." I also hope for the same. Having failed diets in the past, gone off on binges and regained weight I'd lost, I have to step back and accept that I failed. Not permanantely failed, but at particular quests...yes, I didn't succeed. It's hard to believe and be excited when I can't even trust myself to not fail again.

HOWEVER, even though feeling like a failure is a big boo-hoo, I am definitely on the lookout for what I can do this time that will add the missing piece I need to reach a big, huge VICTORY. woohoooo