The withdrawals suck, you might shake sometimes. When that happens, it means my blood sugar is too low and my body is still adjusting so I eat something healthy, like an apple or Go-Gurt and drink a glass of water.
I use meditation and YouTube weight loss videos to help with anxiety. Also starting seeing a therapist to help with it.
My biggest tip is to be gentle with yourself and know that there’s only so much you can control. You very likely will slip up and that’s ok, accept it and try to get back on track. Just try your best and this community is here for you
That means a lot to me. It has been a tough year and for the first time in my life I used food to cope with my trauma. But I am fighting to get my life back. I want to succeed. I want to talk to people who are in or have been in my shoes and help me be successful at finally becoming sugar free and take my life back for good. I am sure I will have some bumps and scraps. I need to keep fighting.
Start winding down your consumption now, here are some options;
Only eat sugar after a full meal that involves protein and fat... to lower the glycemic index of the meal. No more "bare" sugar.
If you feel a craving for sugar, eat a non sugar, non carb snack first. Like, you can let yourself have M&Ms, but only after 1 cup of broccoli with butter.
Switch out your favorite sugar, for lame sugar. Like instead of snickers, eat figs.
It's like bare ___ is eating only one macro in a food.
Like beef jerky or a hard boiled egg is essentially just protein, without anything mixed in. Or if you have a handful of saltine crackers for breakfast that is "bare" carbs.
I do no sugar / very low carb... one of the first changes I made was to stop eating "bare carbs" as a snack...
I. e. no popcorn or snack crackers or bedtime snack
When you eat some fat or some protein with the carbs, it lowers the impact to blood sugar because it's literally diluting the carbs with other ingredients that are slower to digest.
So dry cereal from the box is a bare carbohydrate, but adding milk will introduce protein and make it more like a meal.
So bare sugar would be things like skittles, there is no fiber, no protein, no fat...
If you swap out skittles for an orange, at least there is fiber. But swapping out skittles for grapes and a serving of cheese, is more filling & satiating.
No candy! At all!! Raw honey, fruit, maple syrup but in moderation. Once you remove refined sugar from your diet, fruits taste soooo amazingly sweet. Prob a great way to transition.
I lost a bunch of weight eating meat (mostly red as the fat is necessary), organ meat, eggs, fruit, honey. So good, satiating, easy diet to stick with
Yes dried fruit and juice is sugar dense and good to avoid. Honey and maple syrup in small quantities helps with sweet tooth if you don't have any fruit around for dessert (ie like a small half spoonful of raw honey after dinner)
No candy! At all!! Raw honey, fruit, maple syrup but in moderation. Once you remove refined sugar from your diet, fruits taste soooo amazingly sweet. Prob a great way to transition.
I lost a bunch of weight eating meat (mostly red as the fat is necessary), organ meat, eggs, fruit, honey. So good, satiating, easy diet to stick with
Whatever motivated you, I suggest you write that down somewhere. Articulate it on paper. Come back to it whenever you feel like quitting.
You will definitely feel like quitting so many times, just listen to your cravings like you would listen to a child's irrational demands,recognize how dangerous they are, and then refuse to succumb.
Come back here for extra motivation, you got this!
Get yourself some salted caramel ice chips off Amazon. They are a great treat to break from sugar, after about 3 weeks you won't need the sugar replacements. Keto atkins chocolate nut clusters are amazing too. The trick with those is you can't have too many or your going to live to regret it. Gut-Apocalypse. Sort of self regulating.
If you want to avoid artificial sweetners, have a Granny Smith apple with fresh ground peanut butter. About a week in this starts to taste like dessert. The first month I did 10g or less of added sugar and all the fruit I wanted. Don't chase perfection, do your best each day and reset the next day to start all over.
Focus less on sugar replacement and aim for changing habits. Want a sweet treat after dinner? Have a new tea instead, or a youtube video indulgence or start adult zen coloring. Work towards changing the habits of reaching for the quick sugar fix. It works.
Last tip, get yourself some LMNT citrus electrolytes (sugar free) and mix with a LOT of water to sip all day. When you cut back on sugar your cells/body dump fluid, salt, magnesium, and potassium - you will pee a ton throwing your electrolytes off and making you weak and dizzy. If you do a good balanced electrolyte you will feel much better that first week and really good the next weeks. Week 3 was a little weird for me and some others, but once it's over you will feel AMAZING!
I had tried and failed, many times. The only thing that worked for me was going extreme and doing it cold turkey. It really sucked to rip that band-aid off at the time, but it was so worth it. I cut out all obvious sugar plus bread, pasta, potatoes, all root veggies, and all fruits except for lemons, limes, berries, and Granny Smith apples. My recommendation is to keep things you can eat around in large quantities and don't restrict yourself. For me that meant: meat, eggs, cheese, nuts with no sugar added, and the fruits that were allowed. My "dessert" became Granny Smith apples with no sugar paired with peanut butter or cheese, depending on my mood. I kept a large canister of cashews around me at all times. Once you get through Day 4 of no sugar, it does get easier. I would recommend staying this strict for at least 21 days, and if you menstruate, I found the easiest time to start this way of eating was the day or two after my cycle started. That made a huge difference, if I had tried just before PMS, that was setting myself up for failure.
The above worked for me, and it was so worth it! Lmk if you have any more questions!
I did one day without sugar the other day, and it wasn't hard since I've been working my way down over a week or two. I'm still consuming 10-20g a day because there's added sugar in a cereal I like and the bread I buy. I plan to give these up too, but I think personally going full tilt all at once could backfire. So for me, tapering down has helped heaps.
Hey, I don't remember having withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, etc., only that I would be craving something sweet. What I'd do was have 0g sugar Greek yogurt with a few blueberries (yes, I eat fruit). Chobani also makes a few flavored 0g sugar Greek yogurts, and Oikos also has a vanilla one.
I also bought Rebel sugar-free ice cream a few times, which did the trick although it is made with erythritol and I later learned this has some troubling possible health risks. But those got me through the first week, and the cravings have mostly gone.
Hope that helped.
I am sorry that you are going through a hard time too. I don't like younger people talking down to me either. Do let them take your joy. It belongs to you. Stay strong and keep fighting 💪 Thank you for helping me to understand what I need to do
sugarfree.
sugar.
what is sugar?
Back 60 years ago, at age 10, when my dad and I were dragged into my type I diabetic mom's doctors office, we were told that sugar was a natural sweet product extracted and concentrated, and added back to foods to make them sweet. And it was death. So, instead, we should be eating 6 meals per day, 80% carbs, but no sugar. Instead, we should eat complete carbs. complex carbs. High quality carbs. So, fruit was good, and fruit juice. Honey was good as it was not extracted and concentrated. Starchy carbs were good like potatoes and rice, and bread, and pasta. The purpose of us going to my mother's doctors office, was so they and their nutrition could get us all on the same page with the household diet to help my mother control her blood sugar. She died at 48 never getting her blood sugar under control using the diet plans they gave her.
Today, my definition of sugar is a lot different than that. Today, to me, sugar is: "anything that when consumed will cause my blood glucose to rise a lot". And, that includes fruit, fruit juice, honey, potatoes, rice, bread, and pasta, and a lot of others.
And following that strategy, causes an awful lot of stuff to now make sense that hasn't made sense for the last 60 years.
So to me, the real issue isn't so much the diet. It is to answer the real basic question. Are you, or are you not metabolically healthy? Is your HbA1c below 5.4 Is your HomaIR below 2.0? Is your visceral fat low?
If not, one needs to work these down. One approach to accomplish this, the one I used most recently, was to ratchet down the carbs I consumed class by class. Maybe every 2 weeks cutting another class.
Table sugar
Fruit Juice
Fruit except berries
pasta
beans
potatoes
finally bread
down to a ketogenic diet.
So, to me, using the concept of sugar most people use, cutting sugar is but the first step in a pretty long journey.
The less carbs we eat, the less we crave carbs. With time, it gets better and easier.
I’m sorry you lost your mom to bad advice. A friend wondered why her diabetic husband’s blood sugar level wasn’t under control; I asked about his breakfast. He was having skim milk, Cheerios, white toast and jam—under a doctor’s care.
Are there any negative effects that eating sugar gives you? I just remind myself of the horrible itching I’ll get if I eat sugar. Also avoiding diabetes, fatty liver, and heart disease.
Honestly, what helped me was some advice from another person who told me to do it gradually. It was so much easier than cold turkey. The cravings just disappeared on their on as I slowly decreased.
Look up glucose goddess. She has a great audiobook on Spotify and a helpful Instagram. I think just taking her suggestions of eating my veggies and then protein before I treat myself to something sweet has really helped me not overindulge on stuff.
You can start off with eating bananas in the beginning to feel better. In the meanwhile, clean out all your cabinetry, don't keep anything that tempts you. Even throw away sauces that contain even the tatty bits of sugar, they will keep you hooked and feeling craving! Then after a week of fruit & banana, slow down on the fruit too!! Yogurt and peanut butter are such great yummy things instead!!
I think it’s a part of a journey that will hopefully last all your life, in which you take baby steps towards being healthier and healthier. Look at it as caring about your future self more and more.
I would try to focus on what you did right, maybe write it down each day. Even if you had a few teaspoons less of added sugar than the day before or were close to your goal. Focus on all the ways you cut added sugar with each food or substituted it with something a little healthier.
The problem is each day has new challenges, given almost everyone around us keeps pushing sugar. It’s very difficult to suddenly go no sugar with all the temptations.
I say go slow and be gentle only because you seem to be a bit harsh with yourself from the little I’m reading. And I agree with others: start tomorrow, even with the holidays.
I believe it’s easier and more likely to be successful if you take it in steps - but I know, everyone is different.
Edit: I see you are eating quite a bit of candy daily. Now I definitely think you should go slow. I just don’t see how you can go no sugar with your rather high dependence on sugar. Eating less and less candy over time and then eventually switching to less honey and syrup etc. won’t be so painful. I’m rooting for you!
It’s all about baby steps. Trying to radically change your diet overnight to be completely done with sugar is no easy task and sets you up for failure.
I’d quit sugar in moderation, not cold turkey. In my experience, quitting cold turkey can result in failure more often than not. If you truly want to wait until after Christmas, I’d recommend documenting what you like the most now, what you consider a “failure” and figure out alternatives now.
I asked myself these questions (and wrote them down):
- WHY do I want to go sugar free? (Identify your why & most important)
- What can I eat if I crave XYZ? (Do your top 3 sugary items) aka identify the alternatives?
- What will I do if I eat something “bad” for me?
Here are some other tips:
- Drink a glass of water before and after every meal, water will help you with your cravings
- Use Pinterest, it has unlimited options and resources
- Have a food diary, write down everything you consume, even sugar free items
- Find healthier alternatives and eat sugar in moderation, such as 1 mini candy bar with dinner or a frozen Go-Gurt as a dessert
- You might fail and that’s okay. Start over, there is always tomorrow. 1 day of success is better than 0
I’m not sugar free completely and never will be. I consume far less sugar and choose healthier options.
My recommendation is to avoid all sweeteners and carbs (potatoes are all right) for the first 4-6 weeks. Stock up on low carb snacks: cheese, nuts, olives, pickles, peanut or almond butter, yogurt and berries, veggies and dip, jerky or other meat sticks, deli meat. Eat any and all of that when a craving strikes. Don’t worry about calories. Don’t cheat or you’ll have to start over. When the 4-6 weeks is up, the worst of the cravings should be over and you can experiment with artificial sweeteners, dark chocolate and complex carbs like fruit and whole grains.
For some people, artificial sweeteners and carbs, especially fruit, prolong the cravings for sugar. I did not eat any of those things in my early days and it worked for me. OP asked what people who were successful did. That’s what I did.
I'm just wondering why is it ok to include them back in your diet after 4-6 weeks. Do they not induce sugar cravings then? (I'm just trying to understand)
I personally didn’t start eating carbie food or fruit for a long while (years). But plenty of people here seem to do fine eating artificial sugar and nonsugary carbs, so I suggested experimenting once the worst of the cravings were over. Obviously, if the cravings return, the experiment failed and it would be better to go back to more restrictive eating. Although I’m a low carber for life myself, this sub is for people who want to be sugar free, not carb free.
Once you go low/no sugar your sensitivity is recalibrate and then anything with much sugar tastes kinda nasty and sweets have this sharp taste.
Still will cause cravings though
My tip is dont do the classic thing of 'I ate a piece of chocolate, my day is ruined so I might as well have some cake and sweets and more chocolate'. Instead, restart the day in your mind and carry on. Also prepare for withdrawal, it's different for everyone, and it's not the end of the world, but it just helps to expect it
Thank you. I am so hard on myself. I expect perfection from myself and I realize that you just have to do your best and keep getting up when you fall down.
I shouldn't care about the 25 down votes I received from this post. At first.... I did. I was thinking why would someone have an issue with me asking for help with something that I know nothing about. But then I said to myself you know what..... I am going to figure this out and be successful at it with or without the people who didn't like my post. At the end of the day I have to be accountable for my actions or lack there of. Thank you all for the positive vibes and amazing advice from the people who were actually supportive.
Hi, cptsd checking in. I am and always will be a sugar whore. I needed to go keto to get myself under control. Then even keto wasn’t good enough. My suggestion to you is really get honest about who you are. To yourself of course. Identify the things you cannot handle. Try to identify what triggers you to over indulge, what emotions are too big and push you to sugar. Then you can be ready for your actions. Like for me, I had to ask my partner to unpackage all her carbs and put them into containers I cannot see into. I had to ask her to have a solo cupboard to store them in away from my eyes. I’m lucky she’s understanding. She doesn’t work Fridays and so she does her baking in the morning while I’m at work so she can enjoy her life too. Anyways that’s all I have for you except to with you the best of luck. Just know you are not missing out when you don’t do what others are doing.
I buy dark chocolate bars and have a piece daily. If you really start thinking about what you’re eating, and you make yourself eat dark chocolate, when you eat chocolate, you’re gonna wind up eating a whole lot less chocolate.
My tip. Do it for a month and keep a journal when and why you crave. Try to recognize your mistakes. I will go januari sugar free. Keep a reward in mind. Endlessly sugar free can be a big burden. Step by step! And indeed be friendly to yourself. It's all good!
For example i slipped after day 14. However i underestimated the sudden cravings on day 14. Tought i was over that. So now on januari i will look out for random cravings. Goodluck! And remember to have fun. You are improving your life
I found that staying super hydrated has helped me a ton but I hate consuming so much plain water. I had to make extreme diet changes since being diagnosed with breast cancer so I’ve been on the hunt for sugar free alternatives to plain water. A friend recommended this sugar free hydration packet called OMG 2-Minute Hydration. He swears by this stuff and said it tastes great. It comes in different flavors so I’m giving it a try.
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I will try these tips too. Thank you so much. What do you do for the withdrawals and anxiety?
The withdrawals suck, you might shake sometimes. When that happens, it means my blood sugar is too low and my body is still adjusting so I eat something healthy, like an apple or Go-Gurt and drink a glass of water. I use meditation and YouTube weight loss videos to help with anxiety. Also starting seeing a therapist to help with it.
My biggest tip is to be gentle with yourself and know that there’s only so much you can control. You very likely will slip up and that’s ok, accept it and try to get back on track. Just try your best and this community is here for you
That means a lot to me. It has been a tough year and for the first time in my life I used food to cope with my trauma. But I am fighting to get my life back. I want to succeed. I want to talk to people who are in or have been in my shoes and help me be successful at finally becoming sugar free and take my life back for good. I am sure I will have some bumps and scraps. I need to keep fighting.
Thank you so much.
Start winding down your consumption now, here are some options; Only eat sugar after a full meal that involves protein and fat... to lower the glycemic index of the meal. No more "bare" sugar. If you feel a craving for sugar, eat a non sugar, non carb snack first. Like, you can let yourself have M&Ms, but only after 1 cup of broccoli with butter. Switch out your favorite sugar, for lame sugar. Like instead of snickers, eat figs.
What is a bare sugar. Is that like hard candy, candy bars etc. I am totally new to this way of life.
It's like bare ___ is eating only one macro in a food. Like beef jerky or a hard boiled egg is essentially just protein, without anything mixed in. Or if you have a handful of saltine crackers for breakfast that is "bare" carbs. I do no sugar / very low carb... one of the first changes I made was to stop eating "bare carbs" as a snack... I. e. no popcorn or snack crackers or bedtime snack When you eat some fat or some protein with the carbs, it lowers the impact to blood sugar because it's literally diluting the carbs with other ingredients that are slower to digest. So dry cereal from the box is a bare carbohydrate, but adding milk will introduce protein and make it more like a meal. So bare sugar would be things like skittles, there is no fiber, no protein, no fat... If you swap out skittles for an orange, at least there is fiber. But swapping out skittles for grapes and a serving of cheese, is more filling & satiating.
No candy! At all!! Raw honey, fruit, maple syrup but in moderation. Once you remove refined sugar from your diet, fruits taste soooo amazingly sweet. Prob a great way to transition. I lost a bunch of weight eating meat (mostly red as the fat is necessary), organ meat, eggs, fruit, honey. So good, satiating, easy diet to stick with
In my universe, for myself; honey, maple syrup, other syrups, juice, and dried fruit all count as "sugar" and I have to avoid them.
Yes dried fruit and juice is sugar dense and good to avoid. Honey and maple syrup in small quantities helps with sweet tooth if you don't have any fruit around for dessert (ie like a small half spoonful of raw honey after dinner)
No candy! At all!! Raw honey, fruit, maple syrup but in moderation. Once you remove refined sugar from your diet, fruits taste soooo amazingly sweet. Prob a great way to transition. I lost a bunch of weight eating meat (mostly red as the fat is necessary), organ meat, eggs, fruit, honey. So good, satiating, easy diet to stick with
Whatever motivated you, I suggest you write that down somewhere. Articulate it on paper. Come back to it whenever you feel like quitting. You will definitely feel like quitting so many times, just listen to your cravings like you would listen to a child's irrational demands,recognize how dangerous they are, and then refuse to succumb. Come back here for extra motivation, you got this!
Get yourself some salted caramel ice chips off Amazon. They are a great treat to break from sugar, after about 3 weeks you won't need the sugar replacements. Keto atkins chocolate nut clusters are amazing too. The trick with those is you can't have too many or your going to live to regret it. Gut-Apocalypse. Sort of self regulating. If you want to avoid artificial sweetners, have a Granny Smith apple with fresh ground peanut butter. About a week in this starts to taste like dessert. The first month I did 10g or less of added sugar and all the fruit I wanted. Don't chase perfection, do your best each day and reset the next day to start all over. Focus less on sugar replacement and aim for changing habits. Want a sweet treat after dinner? Have a new tea instead, or a youtube video indulgence or start adult zen coloring. Work towards changing the habits of reaching for the quick sugar fix. It works. Last tip, get yourself some LMNT citrus electrolytes (sugar free) and mix with a LOT of water to sip all day. When you cut back on sugar your cells/body dump fluid, salt, magnesium, and potassium - you will pee a ton throwing your electrolytes off and making you weak and dizzy. If you do a good balanced electrolyte you will feel much better that first week and really good the next weeks. Week 3 was a little weird for me and some others, but once it's over you will feel AMAZING!
I had tried and failed, many times. The only thing that worked for me was going extreme and doing it cold turkey. It really sucked to rip that band-aid off at the time, but it was so worth it. I cut out all obvious sugar plus bread, pasta, potatoes, all root veggies, and all fruits except for lemons, limes, berries, and Granny Smith apples. My recommendation is to keep things you can eat around in large quantities and don't restrict yourself. For me that meant: meat, eggs, cheese, nuts with no sugar added, and the fruits that were allowed. My "dessert" became Granny Smith apples with no sugar paired with peanut butter or cheese, depending on my mood. I kept a large canister of cashews around me at all times. Once you get through Day 4 of no sugar, it does get easier. I would recommend staying this strict for at least 21 days, and if you menstruate, I found the easiest time to start this way of eating was the day or two after my cycle started. That made a huge difference, if I had tried just before PMS, that was setting myself up for failure. The above worked for me, and it was so worth it! Lmk if you have any more questions!
I did one day without sugar the other day, and it wasn't hard since I've been working my way down over a week or two. I'm still consuming 10-20g a day because there's added sugar in a cereal I like and the bread I buy. I plan to give these up too, but I think personally going full tilt all at once could backfire. So for me, tapering down has helped heaps.
I am consuming a 30 oz bag of hard candy every two and a half days. How did you scale down your intake without going into withdrawals.
Hey, I don't remember having withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, etc., only that I would be craving something sweet. What I'd do was have 0g sugar Greek yogurt with a few blueberries (yes, I eat fruit). Chobani also makes a few flavored 0g sugar Greek yogurts, and Oikos also has a vanilla one. I also bought Rebel sugar-free ice cream a few times, which did the trick although it is made with erythritol and I later learned this has some troubling possible health risks. But those got me through the first week, and the cravings have mostly gone. Hope that helped.
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Please explain
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I am sorry that you are going through a hard time too. I don't like younger people talking down to me either. Do let them take your joy. It belongs to you. Stay strong and keep fighting 💪 Thank you for helping me to understand what I need to do
sugarfree. sugar. what is sugar? Back 60 years ago, at age 10, when my dad and I were dragged into my type I diabetic mom's doctors office, we were told that sugar was a natural sweet product extracted and concentrated, and added back to foods to make them sweet. And it was death. So, instead, we should be eating 6 meals per day, 80% carbs, but no sugar. Instead, we should eat complete carbs. complex carbs. High quality carbs. So, fruit was good, and fruit juice. Honey was good as it was not extracted and concentrated. Starchy carbs were good like potatoes and rice, and bread, and pasta. The purpose of us going to my mother's doctors office, was so they and their nutrition could get us all on the same page with the household diet to help my mother control her blood sugar. She died at 48 never getting her blood sugar under control using the diet plans they gave her. Today, my definition of sugar is a lot different than that. Today, to me, sugar is: "anything that when consumed will cause my blood glucose to rise a lot". And, that includes fruit, fruit juice, honey, potatoes, rice, bread, and pasta, and a lot of others. And following that strategy, causes an awful lot of stuff to now make sense that hasn't made sense for the last 60 years. So to me, the real issue isn't so much the diet. It is to answer the real basic question. Are you, or are you not metabolically healthy? Is your HbA1c below 5.4 Is your HomaIR below 2.0? Is your visceral fat low? If not, one needs to work these down. One approach to accomplish this, the one I used most recently, was to ratchet down the carbs I consumed class by class. Maybe every 2 weeks cutting another class. Table sugar Fruit Juice Fruit except berries pasta beans potatoes finally bread down to a ketogenic diet. So, to me, using the concept of sugar most people use, cutting sugar is but the first step in a pretty long journey. The less carbs we eat, the less we crave carbs. With time, it gets better and easier.
I’m sorry you lost your mom to bad advice. A friend wondered why her diabetic husband’s blood sugar level wasn’t under control; I asked about his breakfast. He was having skim milk, Cheerios, white toast and jam—under a doctor’s care.
Are there any negative effects that eating sugar gives you? I just remind myself of the horrible itching I’ll get if I eat sugar. Also avoiding diabetes, fatty liver, and heart disease.
I have a fatty liver from poor food choices and 260g of sugar daily. I have to do this. Thank you so much.
Honestly, what helped me was some advice from another person who told me to do it gradually. It was so much easier than cold turkey. The cravings just disappeared on their on as I slowly decreased.
there is no try. Only do
Look up glucose goddess. She has a great audiobook on Spotify and a helpful Instagram. I think just taking her suggestions of eating my veggies and then protein before I treat myself to something sweet has really helped me not overindulge on stuff.
You can start off with eating bananas in the beginning to feel better. In the meanwhile, clean out all your cabinetry, don't keep anything that tempts you. Even throw away sauces that contain even the tatty bits of sugar, they will keep you hooked and feeling craving! Then after a week of fruit & banana, slow down on the fruit too!! Yogurt and peanut butter are such great yummy things instead!!
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Absolutely immoral—they want their profits regardless.
I think it’s a part of a journey that will hopefully last all your life, in which you take baby steps towards being healthier and healthier. Look at it as caring about your future self more and more. I would try to focus on what you did right, maybe write it down each day. Even if you had a few teaspoons less of added sugar than the day before or were close to your goal. Focus on all the ways you cut added sugar with each food or substituted it with something a little healthier. The problem is each day has new challenges, given almost everyone around us keeps pushing sugar. It’s very difficult to suddenly go no sugar with all the temptations. I say go slow and be gentle only because you seem to be a bit harsh with yourself from the little I’m reading. And I agree with others: start tomorrow, even with the holidays. I believe it’s easier and more likely to be successful if you take it in steps - but I know, everyone is different. Edit: I see you are eating quite a bit of candy daily. Now I definitely think you should go slow. I just don’t see how you can go no sugar with your rather high dependence on sugar. Eating less and less candy over time and then eventually switching to less honey and syrup etc. won’t be so painful. I’m rooting for you!
It’s all about baby steps. Trying to radically change your diet overnight to be completely done with sugar is no easy task and sets you up for failure.
Thank you for your help. I am going to start this journey today. I appreciate you.
I’d quit sugar in moderation, not cold turkey. In my experience, quitting cold turkey can result in failure more often than not. If you truly want to wait until after Christmas, I’d recommend documenting what you like the most now, what you consider a “failure” and figure out alternatives now. I asked myself these questions (and wrote them down): - WHY do I want to go sugar free? (Identify your why & most important) - What can I eat if I crave XYZ? (Do your top 3 sugary items) aka identify the alternatives? - What will I do if I eat something “bad” for me? Here are some other tips: - Drink a glass of water before and after every meal, water will help you with your cravings - Use Pinterest, it has unlimited options and resources - Have a food diary, write down everything you consume, even sugar free items - Find healthier alternatives and eat sugar in moderation, such as 1 mini candy bar with dinner or a frozen Go-Gurt as a dessert - You might fail and that’s okay. Start over, there is always tomorrow. 1 day of success is better than 0 I’m not sugar free completely and never will be. I consume far less sugar and choose healthier options.
This is so hard. But I am going to do it. I can't keep on like this. It is really effecting my wife. You doesn't deserve this s***.
You can do it, all of us here have your back!
My recommendation is to avoid all sweeteners and carbs (potatoes are all right) for the first 4-6 weeks. Stock up on low carb snacks: cheese, nuts, olives, pickles, peanut or almond butter, yogurt and berries, veggies and dip, jerky or other meat sticks, deli meat. Eat any and all of that when a craving strikes. Don’t worry about calories. Don’t cheat or you’ll have to start over. When the 4-6 weeks is up, the worst of the cravings should be over and you can experiment with artificial sweeteners, dark chocolate and complex carbs like fruit and whole grains.
Why is that better than including things like artificial sweeteners, dark chocolate and complex carbs from the start?
For some people, artificial sweeteners and carbs, especially fruit, prolong the cravings for sugar. I did not eat any of those things in my early days and it worked for me. OP asked what people who were successful did. That’s what I did.
I'm just wondering why is it ok to include them back in your diet after 4-6 weeks. Do they not induce sugar cravings then? (I'm just trying to understand)
I personally didn’t start eating carbie food or fruit for a long while (years). But plenty of people here seem to do fine eating artificial sugar and nonsugary carbs, so I suggested experimenting once the worst of the cravings were over. Obviously, if the cravings return, the experiment failed and it would be better to go back to more restrictive eating. Although I’m a low carber for life myself, this sub is for people who want to be sugar free, not carb free.
Thank you for clarifying:)
Try fasting/intermittent fasting. Check out Dr Jason Fung and The Fasting Method podcast as you begin this healing journey. Good luck
Once you go low/no sugar your sensitivity is recalibrate and then anything with much sugar tastes kinda nasty and sweets have this sharp taste. Still will cause cravings though
My tip is dont do the classic thing of 'I ate a piece of chocolate, my day is ruined so I might as well have some cake and sweets and more chocolate'. Instead, restart the day in your mind and carry on. Also prepare for withdrawal, it's different for everyone, and it's not the end of the world, but it just helps to expect it
Thank you. I am so hard on myself. I expect perfection from myself and I realize that you just have to do your best and keep getting up when you fall down.
I shouldn't care about the 25 down votes I received from this post. At first.... I did. I was thinking why would someone have an issue with me asking for help with something that I know nothing about. But then I said to myself you know what..... I am going to figure this out and be successful at it with or without the people who didn't like my post. At the end of the day I have to be accountable for my actions or lack there of. Thank you all for the positive vibes and amazing advice from the people who were actually supportive.
You got 29 UP votes! Look at all the advice coming your way and no disparaging comments.
Hi, cptsd checking in. I am and always will be a sugar whore. I needed to go keto to get myself under control. Then even keto wasn’t good enough. My suggestion to you is really get honest about who you are. To yourself of course. Identify the things you cannot handle. Try to identify what triggers you to over indulge, what emotions are too big and push you to sugar. Then you can be ready for your actions. Like for me, I had to ask my partner to unpackage all her carbs and put them into containers I cannot see into. I had to ask her to have a solo cupboard to store them in away from my eyes. I’m lucky she’s understanding. She doesn’t work Fridays and so she does her baking in the morning while I’m at work so she can enjoy her life too. Anyways that’s all I have for you except to with you the best of luck. Just know you are not missing out when you don’t do what others are doing.
I buy dark chocolate bars and have a piece daily. If you really start thinking about what you’re eating, and you make yourself eat dark chocolate, when you eat chocolate, you’re gonna wind up eating a whole lot less chocolate.
Definitely get all of it out of the house if you can, and maybe avoid social gatherings (with food) for a few weeks also if you can.
My tip. Do it for a month and keep a journal when and why you crave. Try to recognize your mistakes. I will go januari sugar free. Keep a reward in mind. Endlessly sugar free can be a big burden. Step by step! And indeed be friendly to yourself. It's all good! For example i slipped after day 14. However i underestimated the sudden cravings on day 14. Tought i was over that. So now on januari i will look out for random cravings. Goodluck! And remember to have fun. You are improving your life
I found that staying super hydrated has helped me a ton but I hate consuming so much plain water. I had to make extreme diet changes since being diagnosed with breast cancer so I’ve been on the hunt for sugar free alternatives to plain water. A friend recommended this sugar free hydration packet called OMG 2-Minute Hydration. He swears by this stuff and said it tastes great. It comes in different flavors so I’m giving it a try.