Does anyone have experience or advice on cutting sugar consumption?
In the last year I've made significant progress in my relationship with food. A massive part of it was simply cutting down calories and a little more exercise. And so far it's been pretty good. I'm down around 13kg(30lb), I'm fitting in a lot of my older cloths and issues like back pain and sleep apnea are getting back in line.
But for a while I've hit a plateau and it's feeling like a bit of a regression. Looks like the big blocker is my sugar consumption. I can stave off the craving for most of the day, but at 2.30pm on the dot I can't help but reach for chocolate, soda or an ice cream. And then I keep reaching for them till the end of the day. It's been getting worse lately and that slipping feeling really sucks.
I've tried cold turkey, fruits, alternatives, gum and a few other strategies but they all never stick.
I'm curious if anyone else has managed to make the cut and if there's any tips and tricks that helped keep you consistent. It's one thing to clear out the house, but the stuff seems to be at arms reach at all times. And there's always the weird blackout time between "I should not eat that" and "why the hell did I eat that".
The biggest thing is to just not have it available. Stop buying soda, and make sure you don’t have any way to get it. If getting a soda at 2:00 requires taking a trip to the store, it will be much easier to resist. If you work at a place with vending machines, try not bringing any cash or credit cards to work. If you have delivery apps, delete your accounts and uninstall the apps.
The delivery apps are probably my biggest weakness, particularly on the weekend. There's 2 really good bakeries, 3 Boba places and a dozen really good local spots.
The fact that I had a mini crisis when deleting them now kind of says a lot but it's a temptation off the table.
If you don’t want to go all the way to deleting them, another option is to find someone you trust and have them set parental controls on your phone. Just having another person there to keep you accountable is huge. Even if they just give you permission every time, having to confide in someone else will lessen how often you go to those methods.
It’s all about putting barriers in your way. Right now you are mentally strong and ready to make a change. But at some point you won’t be mentally strong. Do what you can right now to make it harder for your future self to make bad decisions.
Most importantly, when you do the right thing, congratulate yourself! Negative self talk is a big part of mental health. There is already too much negativity in the world. Wanting to change is one of the most important (and often most difficult) parts of making changes to your life. You have already surpassed that hurdle. You are awesome, and you can do this!
Edit: I just had another thought. Make yourself drink water whenever you get hungry. It is very easy to mistake thirst for hunger. I feel like I have a better handle on my hydration than most people, but I consistently get it wrong. I will get hunger cravings and not feel thirsty at all. Then I’ll drink some water, and I won’t be hungry anymore. Try this: whenever you get hungry, have a glass of water first. Even if you still end up eating unhealthy foods after, you will be doing better. I think you will find your cravings significantly reduced just from drinking water.
Oh, that’s an idea! I’m not OP but I know I’ve definitely slightly broken my ability to recognise being thirsty/dehydrated, and I could do with less of the afternoon snacks that I currently grab, so I might give this a go!
Just in case you get the apps back you could try one of those apps that lock things for different periods of time so you can try and kill the weekend weakness.
Yes, you can put apps in jail. I only recently found out about this. It helps with my instagram problem.
Good to hear.
I don't use them myself but whatever someone finds useful to help them is always ok with me.
Good luck with instagram.
I like this strategy a lot. Changing a lifestyle is all about changing habits one day at a time.
The days you actually go to the store for that snack, you needed the snack so much that's fine too.
I'm not sure what I'd do if I ended up with that extra trip/snack/meal so often I couldn't lose weight I wanted to.
At some point, cutting portion size could maybe also be an alternative?
Every time I try this, I end up craving something sweet and when I do go to the store I go way overboard and get tons of stuff and eat an entire box of cookies in one sitting and then I'm right back to my normal habits again. I can't find a way to resolve this issue. Any advice on that?
So I used to binge a lot, I used to go through boxes of both Hostess cakes and cookies, and and eat entire pizzas and so on. It's not an easy thing to fix, and it's something that you will probably have to be fighting for the rest of your life especially if you wanna lose weight and then maintain that weight.
It's hard to give advice to that, because it's a psychological issue. When someone has a craving, they don't usually binge, so there's clearly something else happening. Every time this question comes up, both on forums and in real life. It's difficult for me to remember how I was able to overcome many of these issues. Especially because a lot of my psychological "fixes" involved self-hatred in order to self-improve which I think makes people uncomfortable and may or may not have been a mentally healthy way to cope. It was consistently making the decision between continuing to overeat and to binge or to stay on a track that would allow me to be happier with my body. To go from a life where eating is the highlight to being able to enjoy other things.
Someone suggested doing intuitive eating for a few weeks. I mean we all do intuitive eating when we're not trying to lose or gain weight on purpose. So I don't see the benefit in that, and I also don't agree with intuitive eating being this healthy thing, or that being conscious about what you're eating is this harmful thing.
But ultimately there is no simple fix to binge eating in that way, just telling you to replace it with diet cookies won't help you, or suggesting a diet will also not help you. Especially if you decide to go super hard on a diet and then binge even more after that.
I want to counter the point about intuitive eating here. We don't all "intuitively eat" when we're not trying to gain or lose weight. There is a level of mindfulness and self-awareness of our eating, hunger cues and body's needs that most of us do not do most of the time.
After my diabetes dx I went to a dietician who had an intuitive eating training. We focused on adding things rather than restricting and being thoughtful about how many carbs were in my meal without being low-carb (generally bad for diabetics) or counting them (bad for me). Mixing carbs with protein and fat so they process better in my body. And being deliberate about moving daily in a way that made me happy and was thus sustainable. I'm not always successful, I do still eat emotionally at times or out of boredom, and I also sometimes miss meals due to my ADHD meds or not being hungry due to being dehydrated, both are not ideal, but I'm not perfect and that's ok.
The reason I'd recommend trying intuitive eating for folks in a situation of trying to avoid bingeing is because retraining your brain to know that there is ice cream in the freezer and there will be ice cream later, which means you can have a serving, so there's no "it's a treat/cheat" and no guilt or feelings of deprivation. I will go weeks without eating my ice cream because I just don't want it. But if I don't have a sweet around, when I get the craving I can't as effectively stop and say "I can have some, is that what I actually want?" with a neutral attitude towards either answer.
The point is to listen to your body when it wants to eat a carrot or a salad or some protein or a sweet. It's not just mindless "eat whatever whenever" Consciousness of your food is ok, labeling foods as bad or good vs what will make you feel better vs worse, it's about stopping the cycle of diet, "failure", spiral, give up that is so tied to our self esteem and happiness.
I recommend speaking with your doctor or looking for more resources on flexible dieting strategy, as opposed to a rigid strategy that defines strictly forbidden foods. While the latter works for some people, it can result in binge eating once the rule is broken. The problem with rules is that people still break them if they really want to. 😅
Have you tried to lessen the association of sweets as forbidden? Aka come up with ways to prove to yourself that you can exist in the same space as the sweets; you can choose when it's appropriate to have them.
For example, maybe you can buy 5 individual snack packs instead of a box of cookies. You won't have to deny yourself from eating one serving, but you will have to deny yourself from having all of them at once. If you want a cookie but not the whole pouch, wrap it back up and save the rest for later. Hopefully, you can work your way up to being comfortable with the box of cookies existing with you in the house.
An important note about serving size: I would be aware of it, but not focused on counting everything out. That can lead to the other extreme of disordered eating.
Once you consider the binges, how much sugar are you eating in an average week?
I wonder if you might benefit from a few weeks of intuitive eating to decompress, and then a grocery trip to see how much sugar you still want. Before the next trip, look at how much you consumed when you had all you wanted without guilt, how much you consumed when you tried to force yourself into compliance, and try to set yourself a reasonable sugar "budget" that doesn't lead to feeling deprived / binging and instead, spreads the sugar through the week in a way that you enjoy it.
If the budget that doesn't make you want to binge is too high to be feasible to your health, then I would probably look into some of the advice here around sugar alternatives and trying to adjust your palate... But unless your health is in a seriously bad place, getting out of a guilt cycle with binging and self hatred first is more important, imo.
The number I would personally track is grams of added sugar; I'm guessing fruit isn't your problem.
Honestly, I don’t know. I saw your comment when you posted it, and spent the better part of a day trying to come up with things. I mentioned in another comment to have a glass of water whenever you feel hungry. Most of the time if your body is thirsty, people will mistake it for hunger. I have spent the better part of a decade trying to train myself to understand what my body is telling me, and I still mistake thirst for hunger more often than not. But that’s really just general life advice that can help everyone.
The goal of my original advice is to place barriers in front of harmful activities. You can put the barriers into place when you are feeling mentally strong, then when you are mentally weak, those barriers steer you towards the behaviors you want to have.
This sort of advice is particularly effective with ADHD, although it is still effective with neurotypical people. If it isn’t working for you, my guess is the barriers aren’t high enough to dissuade you, or your cravings are much closer to an addiction than what I experience in my life. I personally have never had to deal with disordered eating or addiction.
I would seriously recommend seeking professional help. If you are in the US and have health insurance, find out if your insurance covers mental health, then find a therapist. It may seem daunting, but it will be incredibly valuable for you in the long run.
At the risk of not adding anything to the discussion, I (as a non-american) still have to express my surprise at the amount of "ifs" in this sentence:
If it helps, technically we passed a federal law in 2008 that mandated mental health parity so mental health isn't supposed to be able to be excluded from insurance coverage. Technically
I'm sure there are loopholes such as finding a therapist that takes that coverage. And several more "ifs" that are unspoken. So don't worry we're still quite fucked up.
I quit sugary soda about 7 years ago and honestly don’t miss it, sometimes I get a craving for one and even just a sip is too sweet! I think your taste buds can get desensitized in both directions if that makes sense.
Some alternatives:
It may also be worth looking into WHY you get a craving at 230 pm, did you have enough healthy food for breakfast / lunch? You could consider introducing healthy snacks like nuts to bridge you to dinner.
Things don’t stick because they are too far from your routine, try for smaller incremental changes, just change 1 small thing at a time. It kinda goes without saying, but the decision is usually made at the market, don’t buy it if you don’t want to eat it.
Been eyeing a soda maker for a while so I might get a cheap one to try. Might make a little game of trying and mixing flavors.
The trigger time is weird because that's just after lunch and it sneaks up on me in almost all situations. My wife and coworkers keep emergency skittles and because I can get a bit scattered when I get a craving.
You could also cut soda with plain carbonated water in increasing amounts. Basically watering it down without losing the carbonation. Or try something like Perrier with lime or La Croix.
Pro tip. You can trade in the empty soda stream gas canisters for new ones at the target guest services desk (pretty sure other stores offer it as well), it saves you a few bucks. Just make sure you get the right bottles, there’s 2 types and they aren’t interchangeable.
I learned recently that SodaStream bottles have an expiration date!! I'm like "whyyyy?"
I get that plastic degrades, but honestly I think the biggest reason for the expiration date is simply to fool people into buying replacements.
I'd probably agree. They say "never use if damaged/deformed or after mm/yyyy".
Get a DrinkMate! The head is removable for cleaning, so you can carbonate literally anything and then send them your empty CO2 bottles and they'll send new ones. IIRC they also fit the soda stream ones, if you'd rather do the in person swap the other commenter mentioned. It's a bit pricier than SS, but I've owned both and much prefer the DM.
I would recommend more of a psychological approach - practice acceptance of pain. Your sugar cravings are a form of pain, desire, and if you can train yourself to think about it differently you can get a different result than you've been getting. I lost a lot of weight before through caloric restriction. Any time I was hungry I reminded myself that hunger was the sensation of weight loss and that without that sensation I wasn't going to lose weight nearly as quickly (or at all).
You need to have a good reason for quitting something. I'd recommend soda as it's the hardest to justify. Build a philosophy inside that you truly believe that makes soda something you no longer want to drink, perhaps something like:
(side note: some people have been trained by society to feel self-loathing at the word "fat". I'm sorry if you feel that way and there was no intention to do that. Whatever your rationale you repeat to yourself it shouldn't feel painful)
And then every time you crave soda remind yourself of why you're avoiding it. Acknowledge that the cravings are occurring in your brain but just observe them passively. Your brain in these moments is fighting itself. So you need to treat it like a child throwing a tantrum. Just put it in the corner and let it cry itself out. After a few weeks it'll learn its lesson.
This of course requires that you have a bit of "stress budget". As you learn how to train your brain to do what you want you'll be putting in more effort than normal and if you're already exhausted from life you might not be able to pull it off. The rationale you tell yourself for doing this is very important. Without it you'll find yourself wondering why you're putting in this effort - and it needs to be something you believe.
That's a very interesting perspective and I actually took the opposite path to cutting down intake.
Instead of attributing positive emotions with hunger, I began considering excess as bad. It started when we had a bit of a crunch period at work last June and my boss was happy to get whatever food we wanted. After a few weeks of going nuts, I started to see my new XL shirts were already small. That just made the idea of heavy foods sickening.
It worked with near everything but I couldn't get over the sugar block on my own.
Yeah, I also try to focus on the negatives of unhealthy food. But you want to put yourself into a mindset that’s enjoyable. So there should positive aspects.
You should quit liquid sugar before any other kind of sugar. Liquid sugar is particularly harmful because it spikes your insulin badly and can end up in your gut, both of which contribute to the sugar cravings. Ice cream is likely fine, particularly after a meal with fat and protein in it to slow down the insulin spike.
The short of it is that you should substitute soda for a beverage you can control the amount of sweetness in, and slowly reduce it over time. For example, I stopped drinking sodas and only drank “half-and-half” iced tea. I started putting less and less sweetener in my coffee. Eventually I found myself preferring unsweetened tea and coffee with only cream.
I wouldn’t recommend using artificially sweetened soda, or anything you can’t dilute down to a more reasonable level. The intense sweetness of diet soda will keep you hooked. However, putting Mio flavoring in your water (and using less of it over time) is a reasonable thing to do.
Nowadays I treat liquid sugar with the same respect I give alcohol. It’s an indulgence that should be carefully controlled, because overconsumption leads to addiction and metabolic disaster. I drink the occasional boba, around once a month or less.
For a more out-there suggestion, I started fermenting my own probiotic whole-milk kefir lately when I got some grains for free from a friend. I’ve noticed a surprising decrease in late-night carb cravings since drinking my homemade kefir regularly. There’s a learning curve, but it can be fun to grow it. If you’d like to know more about kefir, feel free to ask. I’m still pretty new to it, but have mostly gotten the hang of it by now.
Soda can also be watered down, if soda is your weakness. Just mix with seltzer so you can keep the carbonation. Full strength soda is sickeningly sweet to me these days, so on the rare times I drink them I get it watered down.
That's what I do too. I don't drink sodas very often, but when I do I mix them 50/50 with club soda and with loads of ice. I find them intolerably sweet otherwise, as well.
Great way to describe it, an indulgence like alcohol.
Thanks, never heard of Kefir! Looks awesome, you can use it as a bread starter, buttermilk, in place of milk and yogurt. Sounds like it has quite a few uses. I often cook with milk but the last bit often goes bad before I get to it, something like this would certainly use that up quicker and the bread start sounds like easy sour dough.
Thanks for the kefir suggestion. I wanted to try it out first and found a whole sugar-free beverage section at my local grocer. Grabbed a handful and been trying them with the guys at work.
There was a few types of kefir and the flavored options just didn't sit well with any of us. There are a some really good (and expensive) locally made ones and one brand even sold brewing kits so I might give it a try. But for now, there's a filling and cheap type called Ayran that I can buy by the pack.
Also had a bottle of kombucha last night and I'm very much a fan. It's a complex flavor and I was slowly sipping it over half an hour instead of downing the bottle in a few gulps. Also, my kid hates it so there's no risk of loosing half my drink.
Still need to try the coconut waters, berry/herb infusions, the maple water and a few cans of random Korean and Japanese drinks. It all feels a bit more adult than concentrated sugar water and there's plenty of options to play with.
Good suggestions all around, and I'll chip in with replacing processed sugar with natural sugar. But you already tried fruit. Maybe easier fruit? For example if I have to work at it with a whole darn apple vs ice cream I'd pick ice cream 100% of the time. But an easy to eat fruit like a lychee where it's just instant sugar syrup rush, that's a much better contender. Maybe easy to pop in dried prunes or dried mango slices or canned/fresh peach?
Similarly, replace processed sugar with honey or pure 100% maple syrup as a topping/sauce/ingredient. Adding honey to sweeten lemon + soda water instead of pop, for example.
13kg is a huge accomplishment! And if there's some ups and downs, that's normal and overall your being more conscientious is a big win regardless of what the scale says each morning.
To add on to this, keeping those around that are easy to eat, but have the pre-packaged ones for smaller serving sizes - so you have the individually wrapped prunes or the little cartons of raisins or craisns that you'd pop in a kid's lunchbox. Not to mention, they're high in fiber, which is good for your gut and digestion!
Also, try grapes - freezing them makes a really nice snack that takes time to eat and is still sweet and delicious! I'm a fan of frozen green grapes in the summer, and if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is just around the corner. Just as easy to grab as ice cream with just a little prep ahead of time. (I also learned a fascinating hack where you take the entire vine of grapes in a plastic baggie, close it and shake to get all the grapes off the vine quickly).
Also jumping in with unsolicited fruit idea. When I buy strawberries I make it part of my morning ritual to take out a little container (8-10 strawberries) and prep them to eat. I wash them, cut off the tops, and usually slice the into quarters. Then I'll eat one or two and then walk away to work for a while or whatever else I'm going to do for the day. Then throughout the day I graze on them. They are already prepped and out, and stumbling upon them feels like such a luxury. You might not get the same kick from it that I do but it feels much nicer than having to fish around the fridge every time a ping of hunger hits me.
:D +1 delicious frozen grapes. I'm a very picky eater and I hate the texture of grape peel, so I go a step further to peel them with a potato peeler, or else quarter them then eat only the insides like a tiny slice of melon.
Natural juice sweetened fruit juice konnyaku jelly pouches are also great - konnyaku itself has no calories but it's filling and high in dietary fibers.
oohh I've had those jelly pouches before! I can concur that they're filling and fibrous!
I definitely understand texture issues with foods or other things, I'm glad you found something that works for you. I can't wait until next week to get some grapes to freeze!
It really is an addiction. I've struggled with it on and off. I stopped drinking soda a long time ago, so that isn't a factor anymore, but if I have some kind of dessert a couple days/nights in a row, I crave it the next day and it takes a good amount of willpower to get off of it. My wife struggles the same way.
Not keeping any of that stuff in the house really is the best way to go. It makes it so that you have to exercise that willpower at the grocery store, which at least for me, is easier than at 10pm at home when I'm craving something. In terms of getting over the initial cravings, there are a couple of methods that have worked. Usually, I end up being able to get back onto a reasonable diet (in terms of both food quality and quantity) when something traumatic happens in my life and I lose my appetite. As bad as that sounds, I don't want anything at that point, so it's easy for me to "reset" after something like that and get back on track. The second method which takes a little more discipline is to ween yourself off by drinking something that you can control the amount of sugar. For me, I ended up buying one of those soda water makers and syrups and just gradually reduced the sweetness. You could do the same with tea, or watering down a sports drink.
But yeah, this is a struggle that I can totally relate to. There is so much sugar in prepared foods in general, especially where they don't belong (I'm looking at you, jar of pasta sauce).
It took a while to consciously recognize how it had become an unhealthy dependency again. I did manage to cut it significantly over the holiday period when I knew it would be an issue. But I just needed half a glass of soda after a meal. Then it was a little treat before bed. And a little pick me up when work got stressful. And next thing I know, I've got three boxes of lemon cream cookies that will not last the week.
Have you tried sugar free sodas or just flavored (sugar free) water?
I'm nowhere near being sugar free myself, I'll destroy some kind of treat maybe once per week or maybe twice. But what I've found is that substituting a bag of candy for a fruit actually works to silence my craving. And it's cheaper pound per pound where I live. Obviously fruits are mostly water and candy is sugar so I get to eat as much as I can without feeling bad, even though fruit also has sugar.
This was my biggest thing too. A little thing of Mio or Coke Zero when I feel like I need something sweet is effective for me. I still get boba (as obligated from my Taiwanese heritage obviously) but it's always the lowest amount of sugar it goes and only once a week at most. (honestly boba shops put too much sugar in general, at least in America)
I'm sorry, but I don't agree with a lot of the comments in this thread. "Just restrict your access to sugar" isn't a solution for the OP in this case - they seem to already be imposing a restriction on themselves, and the problem seems to be that they can't abide by it because it is too harsh. When they break that restriction, they keep going for the sugar. This is the binge eating cycle.
I am also someone who's struggled with binge eating in the past, and I can tell you that not allowing yourself to be within a mile radius of a tub of ice cream works for like, 3 days. Do you know what I want even more after those 3 days? Fucking ice cream. And then the binge eating starts all over again.
Adding more restrictions isn't a solution, because it's the same thing as what the OP is already doing. All you're recommending them to do is to stigmatize sugary foods even more, which may likely make binge eating both more likely and more stressful. This advice is literally "just don't eat sugar 4Head". Are you stranded in the desert and dying of thirst? Just go find some water 🤡
At the same time, there is a lot of advice in this thread which recommends addressing behavior change and practicing mindful eating. I agree with most of this; it's most effective to get to the root of the problem. "Why do I want sugar at 2:30?" and "Am I actually hungry now?" are perfectly fine questions to be asking.
In addition to the general advice of being mindful, this is what's worked for me: I'm a proponent of "add, don't restrict". Meaning, if you want sugar at 2:30, then eat sugar at 2:30. It isn't forbidden. You shouldn't be banned from eating sugar, or anything for that matter. But in the interest of aligning with your goal of eating and living healthier, you can:
The idea behind this is to stop treating certain foods as forbidden, therefore reducing the likelihood of binge eating. In the end, the goal is to create a healthy mindset and continue to cultivate your relationship with food, as you've been doing.
Quitting soda is by far the best way to cut down on sugar consumption, even if you just have a can or two a day its likely one of your biggest contributors to your daily intake. I used to be completely addicted to Dr. Pepper, drinking at minimum 2 cans a day and on a bad day sometimes 4-5. Quitting honestly wasn't even that hard, I just swapped to drinking coffee for my caffeine kick, and drinking black tea with lemon when I wanted something acidic. The first few weeks sucked a bit, but after that it's really not that bad. I still have a soda once a month or so, but I don't crave it anymore.
After you can cut soda out, you can focus on cutting down on other sugary foods.
Replace it with zero sugar options, that will at least control some of the calories.
I drink a lot of Coke Zero, and other Zero soda's. They've been pretty helpful in aiding weight loss since I would probably go crazy if all I could drink was water. Carbonated water like La Croix or Waterloo can also help here.
Ice cream get Halo Top, it's relatively low in calories and tastes fine for the most part.
Chocolate is something that's harder, a lot of zero sugar options for it don't taste good. And the ones that do end up having similar amounts of calories anyway. The only true solution there is to not have it, unfortunately.
Snacking has always been a big issue with me, but there's no way of getting around it. The self control has to be there regardless, even with the lower calories options. I also don't buy the idea that you shouldn't have that stuff in the house, because I have gone out to the store or have ordered delivery for these items depending on how bad I wanted it.
I thought I'd never like water too, but before I knew it I preferred water. All I did was keep water on me and drink it when I was thirsty.
Keep a water bottle on you at all times and drink that over soda, be sure to refill it too. If you prefer it cold, keep a second one in the fridge and swap them when you refill. Shouldn't take more than a week or two to prefer water.
It's sort of like stopping/lowering caffeine intake to lower your tolerance level. In this case you're giving your taste buds a break from sweet drinks. Too much sweet flavor desensitizes your tongue and that makes water bland. Tea too, I drink unsweetened tea now when it used to taste terrible to me. There's a wide world of teas and herbal teas that are not bad for you and taste good.
I drink about a gallon of water a day, not including carbonated water or diet soda. I’ve always liked water, diet soda is just nice to have.
I don't drink soda very often, but I someties will splurge on a Dr. Pepper (if I'm going out, usually), but always have water in the fridge, in an insulated water cup, and seltzers in stock at home.
I definitely agree it's nice to have something a little bit different, and for my needs it's usually some sort of electrolyte-filled drink. This week it's gatorade, but I only go through one bottle every 4-5 days, I just need enough to keep me going thanks to my hypermobility.
Oh yeah zero sugar Gatorade is great, I drink that after the gym. Very helpful. The increase in zero sugar products has definitely made being calorie conscious easier. I remember even when I did Keto in 2021 a lot of these products were not available.
Some of the sugar substitutes in ice creams like Halo Top can wreak havoc on some people's digestive systems. There's a specific sugar alcohol I've discovered will make my bathroom trips uncomfortable, to put it politely.
I'm not suggesting you shouldn't try them, but try them in moderation first! If you eat the entire pint of Halo Top because it's only X number of calories, and end up having this reaction, you'll regret it.
Look for what else can motivate you to cut down. For example, keep track of how much money you spend on snacks in a week, set a realistic target (say, 30% reduction), and work your way there pound-by-pound (or whatever your currency is).
You could substitute shop-bought snacks for homemade flapjacks or similar, adding your own spin like ginger, seeds, or chocolate drops. The oats and flour provide more complex carbs and protein so you'll stay satisfied longer. Also give you the insight of seeing the sugar directly as you measure it, so you can reduce that over time too.
Keeping a good mental head space is important too, you've said you've already made good progress, so let that fuel your motivation to try again when you slip up.
Best of luck!
Drink water, carry a water bottle and drink when you feel thirsty OR hungry (thirst can be mistaken for hunger). You might not like it right away, but you'll eventually crave water over soda/milk.
Get some sugar free energy drinks like 5 hour if you're unconsciously doing it to stay awake. I ate sweets like that for almost a year before realizing what I was doing. Be sure they're sugar free, sip them rather than down the whole thing at once, it should keep you awake and the sweetness can stave off hunger.
Don't buy snacks. If they aren't around, you can't eat them! If that can't be done, keep them in some container that requires higher brain power to open like a locked drawer.
I kicked the soda habit by purposely picturing it in my head what it really was every time I saw it in stores, eventually it became instinctual. Sugar Water is not appetizing and that's what I see when I look at a soda. I do the same for juice and sweet tea. It's all sugar water. I started doing this for cookies and snacks too and it greatly helps. The idea is to make it less appealing by picturing it as unappealing over and over, eventually your subconscious won't want it. I can still drink soda, they're still tasty, but just like how your subconscious may get you to buy soda because it sounds good, it now keeps me from buying it. If I pictured the drink itself as sugar water more, I'd not want to drink it either. It works enough for me to not buy it though.
Having a therapist has helped me with the part of addiction that is psychological. Obviously with sugar a lot of it is physiological, but there are psychological things at play. I needed some help recognizing which of my behaviors were patterns, and what part of myself was being comforted by that. Then I could find new ways to comfort that part that didn't involve cigarettes.
One thing I’m not seeing mentioned that may be helpful: cutting carbs all around really helps decrease cravings for sugar. French fries are basically a dessert item lol
Here is my secret weapon against sugar cravings: Trader Joes sells The Dark Chocolate Lovers Chocolate Bar for about $2 for a double pack. When you get that sugar craving, instead break off one or two rectangles of a bar. Its slightly bitter but has an excellent flavor and will give you a slight mood lift without needing much sugar. Make this your new habit to replace sugar and you are all set.
Dark chocolate is what I do, too. I buy the 85% dark chocolate they sell at Aldi; it's surprisingly good quality.
Cold turkey will not only help with cravings, it'll reset your palette. Once you've done it you may still crave a little, bit then when you have that sweet thing it will probably taste eat too sweet unless it's something like fruit.
I suggest that you didn't do cold turkey long enough to see the benefits. This story uses a month baseline. This one says two weeks. Both studies only had around 20 participants.
I tried to find studies on how non nutritive sweeteners might effect this, but the studies all served focused focused on things like weight gain/loss and cardiovascular health. I suggest not combining this with other strategies like eating fruit or diet/fake sugar foods since it seems pretty unclear how this will effect the outcome for taste. For this strategy to be successful, it will come with reading nutrition information. Ketchup, for example, is full of sugar.
I know this mindset doesn’t work for everyone, but I have grown completely sick of how sweet all our food and drinks are supposed to be. The taste of sugar… It’s always the same. Yes, it might be blended with chocolate or citrus or a few other things but the sugar always dominates and I just have no appetite for it anymore. I go into a weed dispensary and try to find edibles that have no sugar in them. A real challenge.
If you ever find yourself feeling that sweetness exhaustion, lean into it and use it to distance yourself from our broken food systems.
I find it really irritating how it's in places that have no reason to have it. Even plain corn flakes have sugar in them now.
Like others have said, get rid of liquid sugars; no juice, soda, milk, etc. You can replace it with water, unadulterated coffee, or unsweetened tea. These all have hardly any calories, and a bit of caffeine helps stave off hunger.
I've tapered off sugar 5 years ago and I can't stomach soda and most pastries now since they're so sweet. I'm at the point where I have to water down most store-bought juice to be able to drink it.
Funny enough it happened naturally because I was trying to maintain a high fiber diet and my original goal was not constantly feeling hungry. It stuck and cutting out snacks and drinking more water just kind of happened instead of having be consciously mindful of it which is nice. The lingering painful threat of constipation if you didn't drink enough water on a high fiber diet was enough motivation for me!
The other realization was learning to bake and I balked at how much sugar many cake and even bread recipes have. Having to bake multiple cakes and large batches of cookies for friends and family and I'm just utterly amazed and horrified at having to go through bags of sugar with my own eyes.
Congrats on the hard work that you’ve put into your health journey! Plateaus and regression are normal for most people. Your habits (and weight) fluctuate with stress, illness, grief, old age, etc. If you’ve caught yourself slipping, that's okay. Think about what you can do to get back on track towards health. What worked for you in the past, and can it apply to your lifestyle right now? If not, then what changes are you most likely to repeat? That is the key to sustainability.
For me, I LOVE sugar and sweets! But my doctor told me very sternly that I wasn’t 22 anymore. 💀 She gave me a target weight range and weekly move minutes quota several years back.
Deciding on moderation, I used an app to track my daily calorie intake. Restriction does not help everyone, but you mentioned your improved relationship with food. The app made me face the facts: Someone of my short stature and low physical activity can't have boba with lunch and brownie a la mode at dinner, in the same day, multiple times per week! I chose the least aggressive calorie deficit plan and loosely followed it. It took me 2 years to lose 18 lbs while trying to figure out what "sustainable" looks like for me.
I don't like the taste of sugar substitutes, so my other options were reasonable sugar reduction and portion control. For example, I trained my taste buds to enjoy black coffee because I would rather have sugar in the form of dessert instead of a latte. I can enjoy boba less sweet (~70-80% sugar) with regular ice, but I can't stand 50% sweet. If I get a slice of cheesecake, I'll save the other half for tomorrow.
Moderation also means that I don't wig out after indulging in brownies and boba with fried chicken on a Saturday. It's just one meal out of the week; I'll be fine as long as I return to eating healthy-ish and keep up with my move minutes. Since I don't like the gym, I run/walk in the neighborhood. But running is also kind of boring to me, so I make it more fun by listening to music or podcasts. If it's too cold outside, then I walk in place indoors while watching YouTube.
Someone else mentioned waiting out a craving; I also do that sometimes. Like if a craving for a specific dessert hits me at night after dinner, I'll wait until the next day. If the craving persists into the afternoon, then I'll go out and get it.
I don't have a lot of time to comment right now, but I was addicted to sugar for 40 years and I've been "clean" for 4 years now.
In my case, there were two components to the addiction: psychological (comfort eating) and physiological (I have ADHD which made this one even worse). I did a few years of psychotherapy - for other reasons entirely - but I'm sure it helped lessen the first component because I didn't need to comfort myself so much any more. However, the far bigger factor was going ketogenic.
In my case, it really worked exactly like they said it would: my body got used to making its own glucose in about one month's time. That time was emotionally taxing and I felt tired and depressed. The first week was really bad, after that it was tolerable but still not great. And after 4 weeks my life changed. I would write a novel on all the benefits if I had the time, but the bottom line wrt sugar addiction: it's gone. It was completely and utterly gone for 3,5 years. The last 6 months I've had several very stressful life things happen and I've eaten some sugary things occasionally, for comfort. But the physiological addiction is still gone! I haven't gone back to needing sugar every day and it isn't very hard to not eat it. It takes a normal amount of willpower, whereas before it took everything I had in me and I could still only resist for about one full day, if that.
One thing that a low carb diet helps with is keeping blood glucose levels steady (once you're fat adapted). When your blood glucose plummets fast, which happens after eating high carbs, you'll get hungry and that hunger is a particular kind that makes you crave sugar. I never feel that type of hunger anymore. I do get a little hungry if I've had too little to eat the day before, but it's manageable and it doesn't make me crave sugar. Just normal, healthy food.
I do the version of keto where you eat lots of leafy greens (those don't count as carbs), moderate protein (about 120 g / kg of bodyweight) and a lot of healthy, unsaturated fat (some saturated too). Some fresh fruit or berries every day. Lots of nuts and seeds. So closer to mediterranean than carnivore and mostly plant based sources. I was so intensely sugar addicted that I thought I would never be able to wean myself off, but after the diet change I just.. stopped craving. It wasn't hard to drop the sugar; I didn't even have to try. I have a small piece of dark chocolate (86%) daily and it tastes sweet in my mouth. Before the change I thought those chocolates tasted like cardboard.
The hardest part was getting over the first few weeks. If you want to go for it, research it well before starting and make a proper plan. And do it when you're on a break from work because your brain will be slightly dysfunctional in the beginning and your feelings can be all over the place. Just like with any other withdrawal symptoms!
Learn to cook.
Roasting chicken or tri-tip is really easy, as long as you have an oven and a roasting pan. Plus you have left overs for the next day.
Making pasta and garlic bread is really easy as long as you have access to an oven. Plus you have left overs for the next day.
Grilling steaks or fish is really easy, as long as you have access to a gas grill.
Or just buy the fancy overpriced ready meals from Trader Joes or other gormet grocery stores.
I'm going to suggest a somewhat different strategy, it worked for me. When it's diet time, it really boils down to three things - either eliminate fat, or eliminate carbs, then reduce calories, and get some early morning exercise in (a half hour is enough). The point isn't to burn calories with the exercise, it's to get your blood up for the entire day, so you'll burn more just sitting at your desk. All that takes is sweat in the morning, then a shower, then off to work. This does not work as well unless it's morning exercise. Just a ten minute walk in the mornings can do wonders. You do not need a gym membership, ever, period. You do not need to work out until you are sore.
It's when you eat both fat and carbs and are sedentary that you really get into trouble, like me - hypertension, onset of type two diabetes, apnea, muscle aches, back pain, peripheral neuropathy, the whole smash. I have fallen asleep standing up in a cold shower before, after a ten hour sleep. My phone (on the sink, which I was now sleeping under after shattering both cupboard doors with my forehead) woke me up afterwards. That is when you know you've got problems. All long gone now, after I went from 365lbs to 220lbs.
The best way that worked for me is to go straight cold turkey for a solid month. You do that and cravings will not bother you any more, plus you reset your taste sensitivity which is critical. To hell with all of the stupid strategies out there that are essentially just a way for you to avoid developing and training your will. Stop allowing your impulses and cravings to take over, because they only last a few minutes and are stupid easy to beat if you remember that. Go for a walk, and they'll be gone by the time you get back. You have to 'reset' the sugar cravings that have been hammered into you by society. You also have to reset the part of you that takes any cravings seriously.
It's hard to do, but it's a lot easier to do if you sub other things in for the sugar hit. Paleo or Mediterranean diets are quite healthy and offer a lot of variety. Their food lists (and cookbooks) are lit, and you should try anything on them once, you never know what you'll love. It's very simple - imagine a buff caveman with a bow and arrow, spear, and loincloth, with thirty of his friends. If they can't get it on their own, you don't eat it. That's paleo in a nutshell - eating what you've evolved to eat. If you're able to handle lactose, that puts cheese and milk on the menu as well.
Restock your pantry without the sugars. Ditch pasta or get green pasta that is made from plant matter (it's all the sauce anyway). Swap red for Alfredo. Learn to love salads - there are an awful lot of delicious zero sugar dressings out there including ranch and bleu cheese - remember that the fat is not your enemy at all if you are not eating carbs. No sodas - switch to tea, and try a lot of different varieties of fresh tea from a tea shop. If the smell of the leaves is leaving the container, cupboard, and permeating your house after you stock it, that's the good stuff and everything else is second class by comparison. Some Arizona Iced Teas have no carbs/sugar and taste pretty good, it can quell the soda itch. Switch to sweet potatoes instead of regular, or make your mashed potatoes out of mashed cauliflower. Get some peanuts, and just nosh on a handful of them once in a while if you're hungry and craving chips. I prefer lightly roasted/salted cashews.
When you hit the 30 day mark, eat fruit. Maybe bananas or strawberries. They will taste sweeter than any soda you ever had at that point, and you can effectively transform your sugar craving into a fruit obsession, which is vastly healthier. After you go on with that for a week or two, then have one single soda, whatever your favorite was. I can promise that it will make you want to throw up after two sips. You'll be able to taste it for what it is, and your brain won't want any. Then you can have proper cane sugar sodas once in a while as a treat or dessert.
I'm also a big big fan of fasting. It gets so easy you can literally forget to eat for two days and have no cravings. The 'gnaw on the table' feeling of hunger will pass in fifteen minutes - distract yourself with a game or something when cravings hit. Resist it a few times and it'll go away permanently. Fasting is the ultimate cheat recovery - if you want that 80,000 calorie garbage plate, go for it, and don't eat for two days afterwards. All the way back on the diet just like that.
I like doing it that way so I don't have to count calories, or carbs, or fat. Just eat less, and better, and keep it balanced from day to day. Don't bother with point-based bullshit like weight watchers that just tempts you to save up and cheat on the diet. Just keep an eye on the labels of products, and buy only low-sugar alternatives, like jasmine rice or multi-grain bread.
The biggest pain in the ass here is that they put unneeded sugar into 99% of the things in the grocery store. You may need to switch to a better grocer. Whole Foods, Wegmans, Sams Club - all three carry a variety of lower-carb options, and Sams' has the largest selection by far. They got into the atkins thing on day one, and it's just become part of their product selection this late in the game. They have low carb breads by the dozen.
Learn to skip meals, and ignore any dieticians that tell you that you're going to drop dead if you don't eat three meals or six small meals a day, or that you will gain weight if you eat before bed. All of that is diet industry propaganda and none of it is scientific. Calories in, energy out, that's it, nothing more to be said unless you've got some odd medical conditions. I've been averaging less than one meal a day for a year and I'm never going back. It's so easy now. Which meal depends on the circumstances, but I usually go for a protein shake in the morning, perhaps a small salad or wrap for lunch, and a reasonable dinner. I might eat 1-3 handfuls of nuts in between. Then fast for a day just because eating has now become a chore I'd rather not be bothered with.
When ten friends come over, head for the steakhouse or get those three sheet pizzas. Just remember you are going to fast afterwards. It's not a problem to eat an overly indulgent meal once a week, just don't do it every day.
What has helped me was changing my lunch. A smaller lunch with less carbs causes a smaller increase in blood sugar and thus reduces your insulin response. Less insulin means your blood sugar won't fall as severely when the meal is processed. The end result is a more steady blood sugar and less cravings.
2:30 is a great time for an afternoon siesta!
A starting point would be switching to sugar-free soda variants. It's certainly easier than stopping soda entirely. I started only stocking "diet" sodas in my fridge years ago, and now I'm to a point where actual sugary sodas often taste too sweet to me. I do still occasionally treat myself to seasonal Mountain Dew flavors, but I treat it like I would a doughnut or ice cream.
The next step would be to get in more of a habit of keeping a full water bottle around. I have a vacuum sealed stainless steel bottle that I keep full of ice water. This cut down on how frequently I reach for a soda when I'm just feeling thirsty.
There is a chapter in the book Zoobiquity by Bowers and Natterson Horowitz that you might find useful along with some articles that they referenced.
I have been having trouble with reaching for sugary snacks as well. I found that fruit makes the cravings go away. If I want a cookie, eating an apple satisfies my sweet tooth, gives the sugar my body craves, and is only about 100 calories. I find it’s worth paying for the premium bagged apples because I don’t have to sort through an apple pile to find the “good” ones at the grocery store.
Apples are the bomb, and there are so many varieties out there. I'm genuinely not that fond of reds, I love the tart greens, but if I let myself go I can eat an entire bushel of Yellow Delicious (not Golden) in a day. I've been throwing the cores everywhere in my hedges and there are a few starting to sprout, maybe I'll stop after there's a hundred or so of them around. :)
I can only find them at farmer's markets - the Amish one near me always has them, plus an entire mall's worth of other foods that are made without modern 'processed' methods. It's expensive, but I eat less than I used to, so that all balances out just fine.
Oh I’m jealous. Having a productive apple tree is a goal of mine for when I get a house someday.
The best thing about it for me is that I am right next door to a wildlife preserve. Planting fruit bearing trees is better than the pines that are hanging around. At least the fruit trees can feed the wildlife, as well as me. It draws in all kinds of creatures. I need to get some pears, cherries, plums, and berry bushes in the mix.
Do note that apples that come from these seeds will not be the same as the ones they ate. The apples from stores are produced from cloned trees.
Hey I think that a whole 30 is a great way to do this. It’s a commitment to only eats fresh fruit veggies and meat for 30 days. So no added sugar anywhere. I think anyone can do almost anything for 30 days. Feel free to splurge on candy or whatever when done, but I doubt you’ll want to. It’s just long enough to make you rethink your relationship with food and you’ve demonstrated the will power to know you could do without it, if you wanted.
I cut down 40 lbs by eliminating sugar and refined carbs. What worked for me:
Keep at it! The more you avoid sugar the less you will crave it!
treat sugar like an addiction - if you're hungry, angry, lonely or tired you're at much higher risk of relapsing.
Also (someone can either back me up or shoot me down with sources) but I'm pretty sure I read awhile back that your gut biome changes with regular exposure to refined sugar. Feed the bacteria that prefers complex carbs and starve the ones that prefer refined sugars and after a few weeks you should see a significant drop in sugar cravings.
In the mean time, manage hunger, anger, loneliness and exhaustion. Just to underscore - trying to break the sugar habit while also trying to lose weight is hard mode. Give yourself a month to break the sugar habit before refocusing on weight loss.