Sorry to interrupt you, ladies, but I have this question that might bring this thread back on track
Level1 (and Angela, since you are going to quit sugar), are you making it easy for yourself to quit? You know, sugar is a great energy source. It is bad from the overall nutrition point of view, but still. And since you think you have
only 10 pounds that are caused by sweets, it means that your body have found a point of balance. So, if you drop the sugar, and do not add anything in return, your body is bound to go into "sudden starvation" mode. By the way, it explains sugar cravings after quitting drinking - alcohol is also a great source of energy. If you usually can eat several snickers bars, we are talking hundreds of calories. So to make it up for sugar, you'd have to eat loads more healthy food. It can be so much, you might have difficulty eating it. You need to teach your body that it can have the same amount of energy from the sources other then sugar. It should help.
It seems that you are gluing two problems together - excessive weight and sugar consumption. Try solving them one by one. First substitute sugar with adequate amount of healthy food and then reduce the amount to change the weight. Otherwise you are turning a complex problem into a difficult one.