Sassy1 wrote: Hi @Tracieknits
Good to see you back - I had been wondering when you would return from Paris.
Best wishes for sticking with your plan and for curbing the sugar addiction! It really is a hard one to beat, isn't it? It seems to me that the only people who are successful with this longer term are those who weren't great fans of sweet things to start with. We don't often hear of people who love all things sweet being able to cut these right back permanently - though of course there would be some.
Any new insights or thoughts you have on how to curb the sugar monster will be appreciated! (My solstice plans in this regard worked for a few days and then I just fell back into the usual bad habits.)
Good luck!
PROTEIN AND FAT!! That's what battles a sugar craving. I find that I can significantly curb a sugar addiction in about two weeks of diligent work.
Step one: when I'm craving something sweet, I eat protein and fat - a piece of cheese, a handful of nuts or perhaps a hard boiled egg with a bit of mayonnaise (or even properly deviled, if I have the inclination).
step 2: Limit *all* carbs Not more than one serving per meal, not more than two servings per day. Today, for example, I had sushi for lunch at a place that uses the bare minimum of rice in their sushi rolls. Tonight, I will have a salad with a lot of veggies, chicken and feta, and a handful of croutons. I may have a square of dark chocolate with a decaf espresso for dessert if I've behaved.
Step 3: carbs must be consumed with significant amounts of protein and fat. I can put croutons on a salad. I can have a piece of bread if it's covered in butter, cheese, peanut butter or avocado. I can have a bit of rice or potatoes if I'm (1) having ONE portion and (2) eating at least as much protein and/or fat with it. Eating carbs on their own really seems to make the carb and sugar cravings worse, at least for me.
So the bad habits will come back. For me, this is where daily weighing comes in to play. If I weigh daily, I behave far better than if I don't weigh daily. I find daily weighing to be crucial to both weight loss and weight maintenance. You can't let yourself get crazy about the scale - weird fluctuations happen due to hormones, salt and other things. But you need to persevere.
I have found that I"m really losing my taste for sweet. It's slow, and it's gradual, but I'm slowing finding more and more things to be far too sweet, and I'm really appreciating more things that are less sweet. I definitely found that in Paris, when I threw out a perfectly good Paris Brest because it was just too sweet for me. (I did manage to eat two others that weren't deemed overly sugary! LOL - I ate dessert most days I was there, I think I only skipped it one day).
A long time ago, I was a huge sugar addict. Nothing was ever too sweet for me, too much was never enough. Over the past five years, that has changed. I'm no longer a complete addict. I have much more control, and at times don't even feel all that interested (when I'm controlling my carbs, the sugar monster has no hold on me). After the initial 40 pounds came off, I never went back to absolutely mad for sugar. I suspect that something in my biochemistry changed. Perhaps I started becoming less insulin resistant.
I suspect that given a few more years time, I may come to the point where it's nowhere near the struggle it is now. With work and practice, my body chemistry may change to the point where desserts just aren't that big of a deal. It's already so much easier than it used to be. If you had told me five years ago that I could go a few days without any chocolate at all and not actually realize I was avoiding it, I'd have said you were nuts. But last summer, I did that several times -- suddenly realizing it had been 3 or 4 days without any chocolate at all.
I think it's possible to change. Not easy, and not fast, but possible.
2018 Goals 
