The most common culprits for being overweight are the sweets and the pastries. Lately, my mail has been flooded with letters from people who want to get in perfect shape, and there are certainly more sugar addicts than drug addicts. 90% of the people who write to me have a sugar craving – this is the new addiction!
I was also a sugar addict and I want to help you to overcome it. More than 20 years ago, I ate 1 chocolate every day, sometimes 2. Sometimes my addiction was so strong that when I’ve bought chocolate, I ate it on the way back, before I reached the room.
For me, cutting the sugar and the sweets took years and was in stages. I reduced the sugar first, then I stopped all the pastries you can buy in the supermarkets. After that I was buying a chocolate from the supermarket from time to time. And now I have nothing sweet, unless it’s homemade. I also eat as much fruit as I want.
You may not realize it, but you have to fight a serious and difficult battle. Sugar is addictive and if you are already addicted, you have a long struggle. Abstinence is as much mental as it is physical. If you are used to getting fast energy from sweets – your body wants fast energy again. You may have a headache about 3-4 days up to 7 days after you stop the sweet. Usually after the 7th day you will start to control the desire for sweets, but if you try even a little you will sharpen your appetite again. Although there are people who eat just 2 pieces of chocolate and their hunger for sweets passes.
Giving up sweets
First stage. Eat sweets on certain days. For example, every Saturday when the family gathers together. Or every Friday you do a super, longer workout and the sweet is your reward. At this stage, apart from eating sweets only on certain occasions, they are not forbidden. Usually the thought that you have nothing forbidden gives you strength. This stage can take up to 6 months.
Second stage . It’s like the first stage, but the sweets must be home-made. Here you have to find time to prepare it, which is a sort of limitation. This stage can take up to 6 months again.
Third stage . It’s like the second, but you start to reduce the sugar and flour in the cakes. You replace them with fruits. Up to 6 months again.
Fourth stage. Here the sugar craving is already under control and you should not experience it at all. You are happy that you’ve prepared yourself “healthier” versions of sweets and eat them consciously and planned. Can take up to 6 months. (I don’t like the word “healthy” because it doesn’t mean anything. It usually shows that someone is starting to think about their health. People who have been choosing their food for years don’t use “healthy” because all their food choices are just “healthy” now and there is no need to specify).
Fifth stage . You can watch someone eating sweets and it doesn’t cause you craving. You are proud that you can resist. You only eat sweet if someone treats you or you are at a restaurant. Up to 6 months.
Sixth stage. You forgot about the sweets, and if you think of it at all, you imagine that it will contaminate you. It’s like drinking water from a puddle. You eat clean, you choose your food consciously and you do not want to get dirty. This is my stage now. For example, I was in my home town for about 3 days and my mother had prepared a gluten-free cake (with rice, almond and sesame flour), with apples, cinnamon, butter mmmm – it was super tasty. I ate 2/3 of the tray in 3 days. But I know that my mother was familiar with what I eat and do not eat and she did her best with this cake. I wanted to make her happy, and the cake was great !!!! But I know that it’s just this cake and it’s over!
Sweet control
One day a week / month you eat as much and whatever sweet you want . If possible on that day, before the big overeating, do a longer than usual strength workout. And on the next morning do a low-intensity cardio on an empty stomach, over 20 minutes. Low-intensity cardio means jumping rope or running at a steady pace. My personal experience with the cheating day is not good. I have a very strong drop in my energy level, I don’t feel well and on the next day I had a very strong hunger for sugar. But it’s a working strategy for some people.
If you are one of those people who can be satisfied with just a little, eat a few biscuits or few bars of chocolate every day. This does not mean that I approve it and give you a permission to do it, but I accept the fact that we are different and need a different approach. Besides, we are at different stages in our personal development, which does not mean that someone is ahead or backward.
If you are under a lot of stress, giving up sweets / cigarettes will increase the stress. Maybe now is not the time for you, just read this informatively and one day, when you are not under stress, try to reduce / stop the sugar.
In case you once tried and failed in the fight against the sweets, must not discourage you. Keep trying. You will be surprised how it gets easier every time.
If you’re on meal plan or a diet and it happens to overeat with sweets – it’s ok. Just come back on track and don’t blame yourself. You are a human after all, not a robot.
You should realize that cutting sweets is a lifestyle change, not something temporary from today until tomorrow. You will take small steps, and even if you will take steps back – the important thing is that you move forward to that direction. It’s a process and it’s different for everybody.
What seems impossible to you now, in a certain time will make you wonder how was that an issue 😊 or at least I wonder to myself.
If your children are small (under 2 years old), think about whether you want them to become sugar addicts. For children over 2 years old, I think it is already difficult to make a change because they have tried chocolate and candies and it is difficult to explain why something so tasty is bad. I imagine how difficult this is with all the TV commercials and people who always offer sweets to the kids on the playgrounds. My personal advice is: don’t eat anything you’ve seen in commercials 😊 I don’t remember that I’ve seen fruits and vegetables commercials 😀
I think the food quality will get worse and worse in the future. The world is going that way. I can’t grow all my food, although I remember how much I loved helping my grandmother in the garden and with the animals. But it means that I have to work to feed myself, which we all do, but in front of the computers, production…. Maybe that’s why people return to the countryside after a certain age 😊 But my point is that thinking what we eat not just to survive, but to be healthy and in shape is a mile stone in our life, and quitting sweet is not just a whim, but a lifechanging decision.
Ex Sugar Addict,
Rumi
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