How do you stop the cycle?
 

Beginning last Saturday, I have been on a real HUNT for sugar. We had my dd & SO's birthday party on Sat, grilled out, ate too many servings of meat of course, then cake and ice cream and chips and popsicles and soda. . .Sunday could NOT stop looking and looking and looking, ate leftover meat (again, too much) and cake and more popsicles. Monday at work should have been a good day, but the snack machine was calling my name and I did not even try to resist. Tuesday I brought yogurt and string cheese to work to stay OUT of the snack machine, but ate all 4 yogurts and all 4 string cheeses that day (it should have lasted the week!!) and yesterday was Admin Professionals day with a covered dish lunch provided, and far too many desserts.

I guess calorie counting and allowing myself to eat carbs and sugar has just led to my current state. I should know better and have experienced this in the past. The only way I can go without binging and looking looking looking is to detox myself from sugar and follow a low carb plan.

Now, to wrap my brain around this, HOW do you do it? How do you just stop cold turkey and hold out for 3 days until the desires and cravings go away? Thanks in advance. . .

Sugar (or sweet stuff because diet soda counts here too) is addictive. I gave up sweet stuff for Lent and after the first couple days it was clear sailing till Easter. Since then I've tried to pretty much stay away from sweet things. I had some cake at a wedding but I knew going in I was going to have a piece of cake so I was prepared - one piece of cake and that's it and nothing new and sweet tomorrow. However the other day I had a terrible headache so I bought a coke zero to have the caffeine along with the advil and since then I am absolutely CRAVING sweets and every time I drive past a corner store it's all I can do not to turn in to get another soda.

But that soda was Monday and each day it's getting a little better. Sugar (even fake sugar) effects the brain. Your body is using all it's power to out smart you and make you get more of that sweet sweet stuff.

For myself, and this is just me, I've found that fruit really helps satisfy my desire for sweets without increasing the cravings. An apple or a couple clementines leaves me feeling both satisfied sugarly and not hating myself dietwise. Yes they have calories but they also have fiber and nutrients.

Every day you fight off the cravings for sweet snacks makes it easier the next day. (how much HFCS is in your yogurt? That might be undermining your efforts as well..)

Good Luck!

First, great job on your weight loss so far!

Recently, my husband and I gave up a couple of vices in our efforts to get healthier. Here's what has helped us:

- Extra sleep. Going to bed earlier so we're not milling around the house at night fighting to not indulge.

- Benadryl. It generally makes people a little sleepy. Instead of taking 2, just take 1 to mellow out a bit. (I'm not a doctor, so check with yours in case you're already taking something that could interact with it.)

- Keep busy. Reading, listening to music, surfin' the Internet, knitting, karate, underwater basket-weaving.....whatever keeps your mind/hands occupied.

If I think of anything else, I'll post it. I hope this helps!

I'm not following a low-carb plan but I do try to cut the whites out and stick with whole grain pastas and breads and cereals... After being without the white bread for so long it actually tastes a bit funny to me when I do try it--- so much like eating flour. Yuck! So, I actually have trained myself to prefer the grain taste.

As far as the sugar, I still have a sugar battle. Detoxing myself has definately helped! It is so much easier to try to resist the junk food calling my name when my blood isn't drowning with sugar. NOW, of course, that means you have to get through the detox process. I find, for me, that means a good solid week of pure willpower... there's really no way around that. I just have to avoid junk food like the plague and get through each craving as it comes to me. To do this, I do a multitude of things... work on a hobby, take a walk, call a friend, check my email, take a bath, or even sometimes, make myself go to sleep early.

Good luck--- You know you can do this. It is just a matter of wanting it bad enough that you are willing to sacrifice a little.

My counselor talked about the addiction cycle:

Pre-Contemplation stage (you are fine) --> Contemplation (thinking and planning to do something addictive) ---> Binge ---> Remorse

He said everybody tries to quit in the remorse stage, but really we need to focus on the stage before we are thinking of a binge. You may need a plan before you start obsessing about sugar. Once you start obsessing it may be too late to resist.

For me, I had to do a million things to break the cycle. I can't even think about buying even one treat because it sends me into a spiral. Last night I wanted to binge but there was not a single processed food in my house. I suppose I could have gone to town on the milk and the bananas, but I wanted cookies and chips. :)

This is sooooo hard. I have had thousands of relapses. I'm an addictive person so I am used to quitting and relapsing. It may sound depressing, but learn from your set backs.

I am so strict now. I'm basically allowed to eat white foods, but only at meals and never, ever have a snack. That works for me. I don't know what will work for you.

Hang in there. :hug: You are doing GREAT! Really, you are. :)

Thanks everyone!

I have decided that I need to clean out my pantry and get the sweets out of my house. No exceptions. Nobody in my house needs to be eating this stuff, so out it goes.

Also, leaving my change at home and only bringing my debit card to work. No choice but to stay out of the vending machines.

And, bringing snacks AND lunch to work every day, so I only have one day's worth of food to binge on if I get the uncontrollable urge again.

Does anyone know of yogurt withOUT artificial sweetener in it? Apparently it leads me down the same path as real sugar. I hate the aftertaste, too, and would rather go with completely unsweetened.

Thanks for all the suggestions and keep them coming!

I didn't begin to break the unhealthy cycles of eating until I began to look at it as a spiritual battle as well as one in the body. This has helped me a lot, although I have a long way to go! I had tried every single thing else and this is the only thing that seems to be actually working to change my mindset and not just my eating (like a diet). Just thought I would throw that out there.

Congrats on your weight loss so far :)

I eat plain non-fat Greek yogurt. It is strained and has a very smooth and creamy texture that does not seem fat-free. I stir in fresh fruit such as strawberry slices and blueberries. It's really quite good. I cannot usually find this at regular grocery stores, however, and buy it at Trader Joe's or a health food market. Those stores have lots of options without artificial sweeteners.

Good luck!

I found the best way is to write down exactly how I felt when I hit the remorse phase. Once I began to identify my feelings, I started connecting it to my contemplative phase. So when I'm at the pre-contemplative phase and I feel some craving coming on, I now automatically jump to those awful feelings I have in the remorse phase, and that does the trick. Now I don't even get to the contemplative phase because I know how awful it makes me feel.

I realized that I feel SO MUCH BETTER in the long run when I don't go through the cycle, and the guilt and disgust is so great that I just don't want to feel that anymore. It's not worth it for the sheer minutes of instant gratification I get from eating crap.

I believe the biggest part is breaking your addiction to instant gratification, not the addiction itself. At least, for me.

~CGH~


Yup, exactly. It's a mindset - and it's the first time I've ever realized that in my life after ten years of being overweight.

~CGH~