addicted to sugar

[Level1]

I'm addicted to sugar. It's my last vice.

I've smoked pot on a daily basis for over 15 years. Always in moderation, but atleast daily.

A year and a half ago I stopped buying pot as it seems the only way I can not smoke it daily. If I have it, I think about it all the time. Now I do it with friends if they have it, but I don't obsess about it. I do love it though and wish I could have it and not obsess about smoking it. The mental aspect of it seems to be what I can't get over b/c I know I don't need to or want it all the time. Same with sugar.

Sugar seems to be the last thing that I'm holding onto and I'm having such a hard time kicking the habit. I'm almost 40 and I feel like if I can't get a handle on it, my health is going to sink or swim. I have a solid 10 pounds that I know would come off pretty easily if I cut out the candy bars. I've done it before but always put it back on. The holidays or vacation or whatever excuse I use comes into play.

The times when I was able to quit, I won't crave it. Then some party will come along where there's a big delicious dessert and everyone is indulging in alcohol so I'll think, well if I have a bunch of sugar I'm not a total goodie goodie. Usually I'm the boring driver that likes to go home early. Or I'll have a bad day and think... "I deserve some ice cream". Or someone will say, just have one bite you're on vacation. Once I have it, the cravings start back and I have such a hard time kicking it again.

It's been this way for years. I always try to get my husband to "cleanse" which for me means, no sugar, and for him no chips or alchohol. If he does it with me I do so much better since we eat together. I also don't feel like I'm fighting him about being healthy b/c he does it with me. I never give up sugar completely, but will stick to fruit, and I feel so much better. He's kind of tired of us falling off the wagon so to speak and that's been his response as of late. We're looking for something that will finally work or it's not worth it AGAIN.

So recently, I've been trying to analyze the mental aspect b/c it seems it's so pervading and what I need to get a handle on for things to come together. It's like the pot. If I have it, I can't just let it sit there. I could never have a bag of Snickers in the fridge and not eat the entire thing. Not at one time mind you, but I'd have several after EVERY meal atleast until they were gone.

I've started to think that maybe I just can't make this final commitment to being healthy b/c I think I'll be a complete goodie goodie and whatever negative connotations I think come with that. I mean, most people you tell that sugar is your only vice would say, if that's it, then you're doing o.k. I believe I look at completely healthy people and think, they just don't allow themselves to have any fun (I'm just jealous of their discipline ultimately). The problem with me it seems is that I can't seem to live in moderation. It's all or none.

My problem is it takes over my mind and I feel like I have no control. The closest I've come lately is to say to myself when I'm feeling like going through the local Dairy Queen drive through is "I want to feel good" and I know eating crap won't make me feel good mentally or physically and can sometimes put it off. But then eventually I succumb.

It seems sort of silly but it's almost like I have the same mental attitude as an alcoholic or something. I wouldn't know for sure, but it seems like that's what someone might go through. I'd just like to get a handle on the mental so that I don't feel like something else is controlling me and maybe that's what is bothering me in the end.

Any suggestions?

[Addict]

Then some party will come along where there's a big delicious dessert and everyone is indulging in alcohol so I'll think, well if I have a bunch of sugar I'm not a total goodie goodie. Usually I'm the boring driver that likes to go home early. Or I'll have a bad day and think... "I deserve some ice cream". Or someone will say, just have one bite you're on vacation. Once I have it, the cravings start back and I have such a hard time kicking it again.

This is, and you probably realize it, a very unhealthy relationship with food. You should eat when you're hungry, not when you're craving something or you think you deserve it or you think it's going to affect how people see you. I've actually heard that you should satisfying your cravings occasionally or you will just end up binging. So perhaps the answer is to satisfy your sweet tooth on occasion.

My main advice is to totally ignore what other people think. You gain nothing by letting your actions be decided by other people. I doubt people are going to notice that you're not eating sugar in the first place, especially if they're drinking. This is mostly in your head. And if you do decide to satisfy a craving, don't look at it as the end of the world or "falling off the wagon." You can have a setback or even allow yourself a small amount occasionally and not view it as giving up. The giving up mentality, all or nothing, is especially dangerous.

[Level1]

Believe me, I've tried the once in awhile thing. Doesn't work for me yet.

Also, I know it's in my head and not what others are truly thinking of me. Thus the attempt currently to tackle the mental aspect of my addiction before I begin to eat right yet again. I do believe though that if I can tackle the mental then I could do the once in awhile. Another reason I'm trying to figure out the reasons behind my sabotage.

Appreciate your suggestions:-).

[Angela]

Hey, Level1, I'm with ya. I quit drinking a few weeks ago and my sugar cravings went through the roof and have been showing up as a real lack of power in my life! I keep thinking I need the comfort that only a sugary treat can give me, especially at my push-button moments: lonely, angry, tired, or sad. But then I have a little sugar and it only makes me feel worse. So I have a little more, and so on and so on. It has become my new alcohol -- the pitcher plant to which my little fly legs are stuck so it can eat me.

So today, November 1st, I am beginning a 30-day trial -- No Sugary Treats!

I am preplanning one wagon day: Thanksgiving, but other than that, I hereby declare:

No Sugary Treats in November!!!

I have a pretty strong feeling one month of abstention will do a pretty good job of loosening sugar's insidious hold on my soul. Wish me luck.

[Stephen]

I really wouldnt worry too much about what other people think. In fact I think it's a tell tale sign of character maturity, when suddenly you understand you dont give a fiddler's fart what anyone else thinks anymore.

Over the past 4 years I have freed myself of the evils of eating animals. I have just almost achieved my first anniversary of living without the nonsense of alcohol and have recently kicked caffeine out of my life as well.

Contrary to what the hoi polloi think about 'abstention', 'withdrawal', 'limiting'. 'spartan' or such like: it is on the other hand enlightening, empowering, clarifying and deeply illuminating of how the vast majority of people in western society are contaminated and unknowingly addicted to socially acceptable narcotics and processed spew that will kill yourself and your children whilst making a few; and I mean a very few, rich at your expense.


The other lesson I have learned over these past few years is that you will never change a bad habit until you can convince yourself that the reasons why you are doing them are ethically suspect. Furthermore, will power IS required. But it is so much easier to change for the better when you have unloaded all the programs from your brain which were disenfranchising and install your new outlook on life as a replacement.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I forget where I read that white sugar was more addictive than crack. And no, I'm not kidding. I got off sugar for a few months for awhile, but I always go back to my white devil master. Whenever I go back to sugar, it causes me to want more, I salivate uncontrollably, and since everyone around me is eating it anyway, I usually give in. I even got to a point where I hated the taste of it, but knew I had to have it. I don't drink soda and haven't for over three years now. But I still get suckered into eating sweets on a regular basis. My favorite is dark chocolate. But I do want out. I eat mostly nuts and fruits and some vegetables, stir fries, etc. I eat some fish now and then. I try to stay away from anything that will bring me back to that addiction. Get it out of the house. Don't ever buy it again. If you have it one more time, you could become addicted again. I'm not sure how addictive alcohol is, but I think sugar is the same deal. Even when I eat excessive fruits, I tend to keep eating them. It's impossible to cut out all sugar, but if you can, stick to fruit sugar, from whole natural fruits and limit it substantially. Throw your bag of white sugar in the garbage. Triage your home. Drink water instead of soda. It is the only way. At least for me. Try it out.

[Pegasus]

There's a book called Potatoes Not Prozac that deals with sugar addiction.

[Rose of Cairo]

I'm a sugar addict too I take no other drugs, but sugar is the hell. I tried so many times to stop it, but failed every time. I stopped smoking three years ago and I must say, it was difficult, but not nearly as difficult as leaving sugar behind.

I really don't know what would help you, level1, except for not eating sugar at all anymore. I also found Deepak Chopra's books about addiction to be a great help.

Good luck to you!

[Rose of Cairo]

Holy sh!t my bf just brought me a chocolate bar

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

My bf is the sabotage in my healthy eating plan too...

[Rose of Cairo]

They're such a huge pain in the ass! but it's our decision in the end, Aspiring...

I'll not eat it

Good luck with your healthy eating plan

[Angela]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

My bf is the sabotage in my healthy eating plan too...

Really? Your bf is the sabotage, not your thoughts about your boyfriend?

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

You two just won't let me have any slice of irresponsibility for my own actions, will you?

[Angela]

I know. Maybe we should start a thread just for complaining, whining, blaming, shaming, grousing, and generally taking zero responsibility.

Just a total dumping ground for stuff we don't need anymore.

[Ilya]

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.

[Tayrak]

this worked for me, you can give it a shot. First tell yourself you're allowed to have sugar. If you want a chocolate bar it's ok. Don't obsess about it. Cut down gradually. I used to put 3 heaping teaspoons of sugar in my tea. I cut back to 2, then switched to brown sugar and cut back to 1, then to a level one and said that's good enough. I still ate pie, or cake but I took a smaller piece and ate it slow. The thing is if I wanted a chocolate bar I said go ahead call a cheat day and I did. After awhile I told myself well, I can have it but I don't want it that bad. If I did I had one, no guilt. Then after awhile everything started to taste too sweet and I didn't enjoy it as much. If you don't like it you're not going to have it. I also worked out with weights, and liked my results so that might have helped. I also ate a lot of good stuff 'cause I would get real hungry, again if I got hungry I ate. I can't tolerate that starving mentality.

[Angela]

Good thinking, Ilya, and thanks for getting us back on track!

I think I have been eating fewer "good" carbs, like quinoa and couscous, since I quit drinking, and more sugary treats. I think a determination to get those healthy carbs back in as I eliminate the treats will do the trick for me.

Tayrak, thanks, but for me giving myself permission to have a small amount doesn't work -- I'll just scarf out, and then get into the cycle of telling myself, well, I'm recovering from a sugar binge, so I might as well have a little more to get myself through it, and call the whole day shot. My weight-training does help me crave healthy food, but it hasn't helped eliminate the sugar jones.

For me, it's time to throw down the sugar gauntlet.

[Rose of Cairo]

Tayrak, allowing myself to have sugar and cut down gradually doesn't work at all. Eating a little bit of sugar for me is like smoking one cigarette. There's just no way I can stop When I eat sugar I have to eat more and more of it or I will have serious headache, sweating and cravings. Of course I can choose not to eat some, but I'll crave it so much that I'm not able to function normally.

I guess that's something with the brain chemistry, and also with blood glucose. When you eat sugar, your blood glucose raises a lot if you're sensitive to it, and then it falls very quickly, and you feel awful till you eat sugar again.

That's why I have doubts about your theory too, Ilya. I don't think it's about calories. The sugar craving is because of this quickly falling of blood glucose plus brain chemistry plus psychological dependency, not to get some calories.

At least that's what my experience says. When I don't eat sugar for a few days (and no white flour either, nothing with high GI), I don't need to eat so much at all. (I don't need to eat so much food generally, not only sugar) My body is not in starvation mode then, and I'm not hungry, it's just not craving too much food any more, as there is no sugar to mess with my blood glucose.

That's me, dunno...

edit: my point was: you assume that we will need as many calories after having dropped sugar as we need now. And I think after having dropped sugar we will need far less calories!

sorry, foggy mind, as I'm sweating, having a headache and craving sugar right now

[Angela]

Right! It's like sex -- the more you get, the more you want.

[Uplift]

Originally Posted by Rose of Cairo

Tayrak, allowing myself to have sugar and cut down gradually doesn't work at all. Eating a little bit of sugar for me is like smoking one cigarette. There's just no way I can stop When I eat sugar I have to eat more and more of it or I will have serious headache, sweating and cravings. Of course I can choose not to eat some, but I'll crave it so much that I'm not able to function normally.

I guess that's something with the brain chemistry, and also with blood glucose. When you eat sugar, your blood glucose raises a lot if you're sensitive to it, and then it falls very quickly, and you feel awful till you eat sugar again.

That's why I have doubts about your theory too, Ilya. I don't think it's about calories. The sugar craving is because of this quickly falling of blood glucose plus brain chemistry plus psychological dependency, not to get some calories.

At least that's what my experience says. When I don't eat sugar for a few days (and no white flour either, nothing with high GI), I don't need to eat so much at all. My body is not in starvation mode then, and I'm not hungry, it's just not craving too much food any more, as there is no sugar to mess with my blood glucose.

That's me, dunno...

You are right, its a combo of massive calorie intake with no nutrition, combined with massive insulin surge, leaving you energy depleted. Insulin is really usefull, necessary, anabolic, but can also cause a lot of problems if mismanaged, hence the present diabetes epidemic. Fat storage becomes an issue as well.

If rapid energy replacement is an issue, along with maximum muscle size, the insulin surge can be manipulated after workouts, to shunt more nutrients (protein, creatine, etc) into muscle cells. However it is then advisable to eat a slow digesting protein, fat and carb meal shortly after, to stabilise blood sugar.

Thats why things like porridge, with flax, maybe with protein if you like, are so good early in the day, they stabilise blood sugar for hours, helping stave off cravings. Meat and eggs is deluxe for the same reason, but I don't eat them for moral reasons. It should be remembered that whey protein creates an insulin response, but it can be slowed down by adding oils, omega 3 is ideal... hemp seed or flax... fish. Otherwise, casein protein creates stable blood sugar.

You are also in a state in the mornings when the tendency is to push food into cells, not store it as fat, so you can eat a big, filling breakfast of the right type, which should help you to not feel like binging on sugar for quite a while. Or little snacks of nuts are filling, and stabilise blood sugar. Fruit juice is a hoax, a massive, disguised sugar bomb. Green drinks are better, especially if you chuck some amino acids in.

The mental conditioning thing is a whole subject on its own though.

[jnichols]

I completely understand the sugar issue. My body does not do well with sugar. I have found that if I have an excess of sugar in a short period of time that I am almost guaranteed to have a migraine headache. For me it is far easier to go completly " cold turkey" as a little bit of sugar leads to more and more. I have found if I eat enough protien and lower my carb consumption then avoiding the sugar is not too big of an issue.

My issue with sugar comes from my friends and family. I have a difficult time convincing them that I am fine with not having dessert. I am not depriving myself, I would rather not have a headache or crave more sugar. I have even had friends lie and tell me that something was made without sugar. I have given in to stop the arguments at times. This of course is not a good strategy because I feel awful afterwards but it sometimes keeps the peace at a family gathering. It is sad though that family and friends cant understand that it is okay to be different, and be more supportive.

[Rose of Cairo]

oh, that's sad for you indeed... Have you explained them that it harms you to eat sugar?

Some people just don't get it that sugar can be very harmful. They refuse to believe you when you say your body cannot deal with it, just because they have no problem with it. Or they don't know that the problems they have are because of sugar. Or they don't know that they would feel better without sugar, because they never tried to cut it off. There are studies now about how harmful sugar is, but it looks like it's not that well-known yet.

Some people also don't understand that for others sugar is highly addictive, as it's not an official drug like nicotine or alcohol. But yeah, some people smoke a cigarette from time to time and have no problem with it, others get addicted. Some people are able to drink a glass of alcohol from time to time without being dependent, others not. Same for sugar. Some eat sugar from time to time and that's it, others crave for more and more. I guess someone who doesn't have this problem has a hard time understanding it.

I know what you mean, they'll say "come on, don't be such a boring fanatic, this little bit of sugar won't harm you...!" You have to explain why it's important. If they ignore it, well, ask yourself what's more important: peace at family gatherings, or your health?

Btw, I know a lot of people who are addicted to sugar without knowing it. They don't eat chocolate or sweets.. but they regularly eat a lot of pasta, white bread, pizza, potatoe chips, or drink beer...

[munish]

Eating refined sugar exhausts the Endocrine glands,which produces insluin.This results in diabities level2.

If you get sugar cravings ,only way out is stevia.(but the problem is it is banned in many western countries.)

Other Alternate is plam jaggery or sugar cane jaggery.

The politics of sugar: why your government lies to you about this disease-promoting ingredient