"Addicted" to desserts

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zill
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Tue Jun 24, 2014 7:50 pm

I've decided to go for fruits instead of sweet desserts. The fruits I am going for are bananas, apples, peaches and blue berry.

So whenever I need something sweet, I will go for those fruits.

In fact, for snacks, I will go for those fruits as well.

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:07 pm

zill wrote:I've decided to go for fruits instead of sweet desserts. The fruits I am going for are bananas, apples, peaches and blue berry.

So whenever I need something sweet, I will go for those fruits.

In fact, for snacks, I will go for those fruits as well.
See how you go. I found that eating fruit helped a lot and I lost a lot of weight. I have heard others claim that eating fruit made them crave sugar and sweets. Your mileage may vary. Still, if you want vitamins, minerals and fibre then fruit is better than cakes, muffins or biscuits. :)
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby djw47 » Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:02 pm

Get yourself an app called myfitnesspal - you can set your calorific intake target for the day and then log everything you eat. If you save some calories for the evening or burn up a load of cals on a ride, you can see exactly how much you can shovel into your mouth in the form of cakes at the end of the day without exceeding your daily target. I find these sorts of things (also weightwatchers) are great as I'm focussed on targets whereas if I'm left alone with a cupboard full of biscuits and cakes, I will eat them all eventually. I actually found that some of the sweet things are actually not too bad in terms of their calorific content, it's often things you wouldn't expect and are often though of as staples like bread, pasta and rice which are the real culprits when it comes to weight gain.

Ultimately though, it does come down to willpower, you need to want to lose or maintain a weight in order to do it, and that does mean being disciplined in the cake shop.

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby Addictr3 » Fri Jun 27, 2014 12:09 pm

late to the party but I'd suggest you start supplementing some Chromium picolinate maybe around 500-600mcg per day, I find when using it for just over a week, it stops that sugar addiction after meals, or just ride up more hills.
If you can't explain it simply, then you don't understand it well enough.

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:55 am

Addictr3 wrote:late to the party but I'd suggest you start supplementing some Chromium picolinate maybe around 500-600mcg per day, I find when using it for just over a week, it stops that sugar addiction after meals, or just ride up more hills.
I'm biased against taking any unnatural products or drugs mainly due to side effects.

But are you claiming, you only need to take it for one week and that's it?

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:24 pm

zill wrote:
Addictr3 wrote:late to the party but I'd suggest you start supplementing some Chromium picolinate maybe around 500-600mcg per day, I find when using it for just over a week, it stops that sugar addiction after meals, or just ride up more hills.
I'm biased against taking any unnatural products or drugs mainly due to side effects.
But are you claiming, you only need to take it for one week and that's it?
If you were having problems with sugar cravings then it might help. The protocol would be to take it for a week max and no longer than that. There are reported severe side effects with long term use. Click on the side effects tab on this page.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplemen ... e=CHROMIUM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

... or you could just eat fruit! :mrgreen:
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby Parker » Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:07 pm

Hi

I'm addicted to chocolate. It's my first love. Seriously. I L O V E it.

I care about the bean and the process but when I didn't have the good stuff I'd eat the bad stuff without consequence, mostly cadburys and lindt but lets be honest, it isn't Koko Black and it isn't Gabriel Chocolate and it certainly isn't Anvers.

When I eat Cadburys or Lindt, it was like I am punishing myself mostly because I don't find flavour in any of those chocolates, its not natural or normal for a chocolate to taste the same day in and day out. The cocoa bean changes with the weather patterns that it experiences, which means when it's roasted the flavour will be different, if you go to Gabriel Chocolate in Maragret River it's likely that they'll tell you that no two batches will be the same.

Any chocolate that doesn't change is wrong.

The point however is, I've reduced my chocolate consumption and the amount that I've eaten for the past five years but I still didn't have control of it, no amount of will power would help me.

I'd go into a chocolate shop and feel anxious, I'd have a bad day at work and I'd go to chocolate. I'd quit chocolate once before with no luck, sure I lasted 35 days and then the consumption increased.

You'll hear people tell you a lot, "it's just will power." When I hear that I remember when people tried to get em to quit smoking, "It's just a ciggarette."

These things aren't JUST anything, for me they have a deeper emotional connection that I really didn't know how to deal with or conquer, I used hypnotherapy to give up smoking, I had about 6 sessions which is heaps more than usual, but it finally kicked.

Last weekend I went back to hypnotherapy to deal with chocolate, I wanted to still be able to enjoy chocolate but when I chose to. The therapist says I won't need to see him again, he says I'm mentally strong and I have good energy.

In the last three days I've felt heaps better, I'm not anxious walking through the chocolate section at David Jones, my emotions aren't making me feel like chocolate and I feel a lot calmer about it.

Cost: $170.00

If you think it's more than just self-control and will power, don't feel embarrased to try alternative options either, do be careful with who you tell though because they will judge you for it.

Cheers
Rowena

Parker
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby Parker » Mon Jun 30, 2014 6:29 pm

Oh, but try the self control first and exhaust every avenue before taking this path

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:18 am

Parker wrote:Hi

I'm addicted to chocolate. It's my first love. Seriously. I L O V E it.

I care about the bean and the process but when I didn't have the good stuff I'd eat the bad stuff without consequence, mostly cadburys and lindt but lets be honest, it isn't Koko Black and it isn't Gabriel Chocolate and it certainly isn't Anvers.

When I eat Cadburys or Lindt, it was like I am punishing myself mostly because I don't find flavour in any of those chocolates, its not natural or normal for a chocolate to taste the same day in and day out. The cocoa bean changes with the weather patterns that it experiences, which means when it's roasted the flavour will be different, if you go to Gabriel Chocolate in Maragret River it's likely that they'll tell you that no two batches will be the same.

Any chocolate that doesn't change is wrong.

The point however is, I've reduced my chocolate consumption and the amount that I've eaten for the past five years but I still didn't have control of it, no amount of will power would help me.

I'd go into a chocolate shop and feel anxious, I'd have a bad day at work and I'd go to chocolate. I'd quit chocolate once before with no luck, sure I lasted 35 days and then the consumption increased.

You'll hear people tell you a lot, "it's just will power." When I hear that I remember when people tried to get em to quit smoking, "It's just a ciggarette."

These things aren't JUST anything, for me they have a deeper emotional connection that I really didn't know how to deal with or conquer, I used hypnotherapy to give up smoking, I had about 6 sessions which is heaps more than usual, but it finally kicked.

Last weekend I went back to hypnotherapy to deal with chocolate, I wanted to still be able to enjoy chocolate but when I chose to. The therapist says I won't need to see him again, he says I'm mentally strong and I have good energy.

In the last three days I've felt heaps better, I'm not anxious walking through the chocolate section at David Jones, my emotions aren't making me feel like chocolate and I feel a lot calmer about it.

Cost: $170.00

If you think it's more than just self-control and will power, don't feel embarrased to try alternative options either, do be careful with who you tell though because they will judge you for it.

Cheers
Rowena
That's interesting. I am not really addicted to just chocolate but rather chocolate desserts and biscuits including cream biscuits. They probably have more calories then just chocolate hence worse for you.

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Tue Jul 01, 2014 11:28 am

casual_cyclist wrote:
zill wrote:
Addictr3 wrote:
... or you could just eat fruit! :mrgreen:
Maybe the thing missing is not just sugar but also the buttery fat in the desserts. I just don't feel satisfied if skipping it for a day or two.

However, I don't crave salty junk food anymore which is good.

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 11:51 am

zill wrote:Maybe the thing missing is not just sugar but also the buttery fat in the desserts. I just don't feel satisfied if skipping it for a day or two.

However, I don't crave salty junk food anymore which is good.
I sometimes slice up apple and stir it into full fat greek yoghurt as a "dessert". It works with other fruit too: banana, mango, pear, berries. Then you are getting your sugar and fat. It would be interesting to see how that goes. If you are still desiring desserts after that, there could be some other underlying issue.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby Alien27 » Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:29 pm

I used to be a person who though 'its just willpower' and perhaps that is true for some things but if you are truly addicted to something then its got nothing to do with will power. I'm a chocolate addict as well, + any form of lollies biscuits cakes etc but mainly chocolate. I have realised i simply cannot have any chocolate in moderation. If it is easily accessed I have next to no control over the amount i consume. I eat very healthily in every other way and i cycle 150-200km a week.

I spent 10-15 years slowly putting on weight then after making a decision to loose weight spent 2-3years trying every trick in the book to restrict calories and loose weight, i told myself o would be a social desert/lollie eater. I wouldn't eat any goodies unless i was out at a party or dinner with friends etc, when everyone else was having desert. But petrol stations were a nightmare i would walk in resolving to just pay for petrol then walk out with a 2 twirls for $4 deal, one of them eaten before i was out the driveway. There's a chocolate and sweet factory next to my work in St Peters and they have a factory direct section. It was just imposable! you can be strong willed for 7hours and feeling confident then in a moment of weakness be next door excuses running at 10 a minute in your head as you walk into the sales room and then hating yourself with a passion half an hour later after inhaling a big bag of chocolate bullets. The rational bit of your brain just seems to shut down. that seems like a cop-out but its not, it really happens. The next day you think 'you idiot, how hard can it be?' you confidently predict that you will not buy any chocolate again. But of coarse I did and fought myself that way for 2-3 years not gaining but not loosing either. I did come to the realization though that the longer i made it between binges the less cravings i had. I decided to go completely cold turkey and after 4 or 5 false starts made it stick. I stuck to it for 9 months and dropped 14kg's, felt fantastic and after the first week the cravings go away and it gets a lot easier. I still had probably 3-4kg's to loose by this time and started having the odd nibble, then made the decision to try and loose the last kg's by just managing the quantity and giving up on the cold turkey.

That was a year or so ago now and i have lost all control again and put back on 4kg and I am back binging without control. Basically i stop when i sugar overload and go a bit giddy. I'm normal in other ways, good job, very happy and content life but just hate my lack of control over this tiny aspect of me. How hard should it be?!

I have recently come to the conclusion that i am an addict. 100% addicted to sugar and chocolate and I'm sure now i will never be able to control it. Like alcoholics and smokers, if your an addict your kidding yourself if you think through willpower you are going to be able to just have a few and control your habit restricting intake. Its all or nothing, for me anyway, i should have stuck to my cold turkey approach.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Tue Jul 01, 2014 2:10 pm

Alien27 wrote:I used to be a person who though 'its just willpower' and perhaps that is true for some things but if you are truly addicted to something then its got nothing to do with will power. I'm a chocolate addict as well, + any form of lollies biscuits cakes etc but mainly chocolate. I have realised i simply cannot have any chocolate in moderation. If it is easily accessed I have next to no control over the amount i consume. I eat very healthily in every other way and i cycle 150-200km a week.

I spent 10-15 years slowly putting on weight then after making a decision to loose weight spent 2-3years trying every trick in the book to restrict calories and loose weight, i told myself o would be a social desert/lollie eater. I wouldn't eat any goodies unless i was out at a party or dinner with friends etc, when everyone else was having desert. But petrol stations were a nightmare i would walk in resolving to just pay for petrol then walk out with a 2 twirls for $4 deal, one of them eaten before i was out the driveway. There's a chocolate and sweet factory next to my work in St Peters and they have a factory direct section. It was just imposable! you can be strong willed for 7hours and feeling confident then in a moment of weakness be next door excuses running at 10 a minute in your head as you walk into the sales room and then hating yourself with a passion half an hour later after inhaling a big bag of chocolate bullets. The rational bit of your brain just seems to shut down. that seems like a cop-out but its not, it really happens. The next day you think 'you idiot, how hard can it be?' you confidently predict that you will not buy any chocolate again. But of coarse I did and fought myself that way for 2-3 years not gaining but not loosing either. I did come to the realization though that the longer i made it between binges the less cravings i had. I decided to go completely cold turkey and after 4 or 5 false starts made it stick. I stuck to it for 9 months and dropped 14kg's, felt fantastic and after the first week the cravings go away and it gets a lot easier. I still had probably 3-4kg's to loose by this time and started having the odd nibble, then made the decision to try and loose the last kg's by just managing the quantity and giving up on the cold turkey.

That was a year or so ago now and i have lost all control again and put back on 4kg and I am back binging without control. Basically i stop when i sugar overload and go a bit giddy. I'm normal in other ways, good job, very happy and content life but just hate my lack of control over this tiny aspect of me. How hard should it be?!

I have recently come to the conclusion that i am an addict. 100% addicted to sugar and chocolate and I'm sure now i will never be able to control it. Like alcoholics and smokers, if your an addict your kidding yourself if you think through willpower you are going to be able to just have a few and control your habit restricting intake. Its all or nothing, for me anyway, i should have stuck to my cold turkey approach.
Thanks for sharing but what do you mean by going cold turkey?

I find that I am not that interested in chocolates that much because they are too sweet and after a few, lose the desire to have more and more. However, I can have a lot of chocolate cakes, brownies, tim tams etc. It's those that I am addicted to. I know one person who thinks even the chocolate cakes and brownies are too sweet. Lucky him!

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Tue Jul 01, 2014 2:14 pm

Also I wonder if cutting out normal carbs in your diet would encourage or tempt the body more into eating the sweet stuff?

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby toolonglegs » Tue Jul 01, 2014 2:53 pm

Alien27... I hear you bro!. I can't have anything in the house sweets wise, although having gone vegan has helped resist cakes and biscuits etc otherwise the rest of the family would go without!... If it's in the house it gets demolished. Once it's brought resistance is futile.
Added sugar for me is certainly addictive, most of my diet is carbs but it is the artificial stuff I crave, breakfast cereals are the worst!. But yes once you break the habit for a week of so it suddenly becomes much easier... You have only put on 4kgs of the 14... Get back on the program now before you reverse all the good work!.
I am trying to get back on track as well... Not so easy!.

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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:20 pm

zill wrote:Also I wonder if cutting out normal carbs in your diet would encourage or tempt the body more into eating the sweet stuff?
Not in my experience. I quit sugary snacks and foods cold turkey overnight. I was on 7 to 10 serves a day of muffins, cakes, slices, biscuits, chocolate, lollies etc. Out of pure coincidence and not by any design, I ended up eating refined carbs only at night. Cutting back carbs that much did not make me crave sugar more. My tricks when feeling hungry included fruit, fruit in plain greek yoghurt (full fat) or a couple of spoons of greek yoghurt in a small glass of milk.

My big thing is party mix. My local fruit and veg sells it in bulk and it is nice and soft and fresh. If I bought a bag I would eat it until I felt sick. Every time. Now I don't buy it. The choice not to eat a food starts in the supermarket, so don't go shopping hungry. If I go shopping hungry I still buy more junk than I would otherwise do.

Another trick is to pre-plan your food. If I have fruit on my desk in the afternoon I will eat it. I won't go hunting for something else. If I have no fruit and go hunting, I will come back with cake, slice or chocolate. My weak time is afternoons, so if I go to my supermarket to buy fruit, I will come back with chocolate or cake. So I buy my fruit in the mornings when I don't feel like buying junk.

Coming from someone who has done, it can be done... but it is not easy, takes time and preparation and is a lot of work. It's a process. I will write a longer post when I get a chance.

Cold turkey is when you decide a date to quit sugar and on that day you stop eating any refined sugar added to food completely. There is no transition or cutting back or compromises. It is no added sugar ever. Everyone has their own rules about it but for me fruit was ok and naturally occuring sugars in foods like milk and unsweetened yoghurt were ok. But I specifically quit any food that listed "sugar" or it's hundreds of variants on the label.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:24 pm

The bad news is that it is not just sugar. Salty, fatty junk foods can be just as bad. For example, if I buy smiths potato and onion chips (crisps) I would eat the whole packet if I didn't stop myself. I can easily eat half a pack without noticing. My strategy for this is to serve out a small bowl and that's it. But most of the time I just have another one and then a few more from the packet. Half the pack can be gone before I realise it. Consequently, I rarely buy them because I know if I do I will eat more than I want to.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby Alien27 » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:41 pm

zill by cold turkey i mean don't try to have just a little, have none at all. absolutely zero sugary processed carbs. the cravings and even the taste for it fades and then it gets easier. I found if i had just a little the cravings would come back and then its just a matter of time before you binge.

Tll, same here, nothing lasts in the house. When i quit entirely the wife would hide her stash of goodies but i was really good then and didn't even try to find them. Now however i search the house and demolish what i find. I'm thinking of getting her a good strong lockable box for the pantry. But really what i need is to get back on the cold turkey diet.

I found when i had a bit more meat and less carbs i felt more satisfied, i also went really big on fruit and veggies. I and still do that, it just feels healthy and less heavy.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby Alien27 » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:56 pm

casual_cyclist wrote:Cold turkey is when you decide a date to quit sugar and on that day you stop eating any refined sugar added to food completely. There is no transition or cutting back or compromises. It is no added sugar ever. Everyone has their own rules about it but for me fruit was ok and naturally occurring sugars in foods like milk and unsweetened yoghurt were ok. But I specifically quit any food that listed "sugar" or it's hundreds of variants on the label.
Yes that's pretty much what i did. And it is hard, bloody hard to start with but every day it gets easier. I didn't check labels for sugar but i was honest with myself, if you kid yourself and grab something sweet from the "health food" isle and kid yourself that its all natural, organic, no artificial flavors or sweeteners, 99% fat free and all the other garbage but in fact its still just a nut bar stuck together with lots of honey, then bang the cravings are back. that's pretty much how i got off the wagon last time i sort of kidded myself towards the end that a little is ok and its healthy anyway but then the cravings come back and you loose control.

This time i think ill check the ingredients for sugar and ill make it a life long diet change in my mind, not just a temporary loose weight plan.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 4:07 pm

Alien27 wrote:This time i think ill check the ingredients for sugar and ill make it a life long diet change in my mind, not just a temporary loose weight plan.
If you do that, there is something you need to know:
50 Names for Sugar You May Not Know
http://www.dietriffic.com/2009/03/26/names-for-sugar/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But really, if you are checking the label for sugar, you probably shouldn't be eating it. That said, I was suprised to find sugar in satay sauce and doritos. I don't worry about those micro amounts anymore but I am strong advocate for people knowing what they are eating.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:52 pm

A bit more detail. It's long, so split over three parts.

Quitting sugar is a process. In my case, I had to get my nutrition under control. I was eating 7 - 10 serves of sugary food a day, zero to one serve of vegetables, zero serves of fruit and zero to one serve of whole grain. The rest of what I ate was processed food with added sugar. This make me feel very, very hungry many times a day. When I felt hungry, I ate sugar. But the sugar made me hungry. So the more I ate the hungrier I felt. I was not in control of what I was eating and the lack of micro-nutrients in my food made me very sick. My worst time was after work when I felt weak, shaky, starving and couldn’t do a thing until I had a sugar hit. At that time I also had a very short temper and any little thing could set me off. If it did I would fly into an uncontrollable rage of yelling. I must have been a nightmare to live with. The other time was after dinner. I felt like I ‘had’ to eat something sweet and if I didn’t then I did not feel satisfied. If I didn’t have anything, I made icing and ate it out of a tea cup.

You might think a muffin is just a muffin. It isn’t. There are many mental and behavioural aspects to why we eat and why we choose the foods we do. A lot of why we eat what we do is habit. I was just having coffee for my morning tea but then I found out my local muffin shop had a morning special on coffee and freshly baked muffins. I had that for two days in the row and by the third day I felt like I ‘needed’ it. I can make a habit that fast.

I also tend to eat a lot worse when I am tired. I used to snack on a can of v and a chocolate bar in the afternoons when I felt tired “to keep awake”. I used feeling tired a lot as an excuse for eating sweet food I didn’t need. I used feeling stressed as an excuse too. When I felt stressed I would justify eating cake during the day because I ‘needed’ it.

I also justified eating cake if I was going on a training ride. Or chocolate. Or lollies. I lied to myself that I needed to eat sugar for the energy for the ride. I lied to myself a lot.

I have a lot of weakness foods. If I buy party mix in bulk then I will eat it until it is gone or eat it until I feel sick. I can’t just have some then stop. I no longer buy foods where I can’t control how much I eat.

I got to the point where I had to change what I was doing because I was painfully hungry most of the day even though I was eating up to 10 times a day. I realised it had to stop and I decided to do something about it.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:53 pm

For me, quitting sugar was a process. The biggest change for me was mental. I decided to look at food as nutrition, not something to make me feel better if I felt tired, stressed or bored or any of the other million excuses I had for eating junk. I set a date and decided on that day I would quit sugar. No excuses, no compromises, no artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes. It was no sugar for me.

Next I prepared. I prepared food for the week, bought fruit, bought snacks and surrounded myself with the food I would eat for the week. I had every meal and snack planned out for a whole week. I expected it would be really hard. It wasn’t. I had three main meals and three snack meals. I found that by constantly eating, I never got hungry enough to crave sugar. Over time as I lost weight an my calorie needs dropped, I dropped out a number of snacks, so now I really just eat three times a day and one evening snack. I found surrounding myself with the food I wanted to eat was very effective. In the afternoons, if I wanted a snack and there was fruit on my desk, I found myself reaching for that. If there was no fruit and I went to my supermarket for a snack, I would come back with cake, slice or chocolate.

I stopped buying the food I didn’t want to eat at the supermarket. This means I don’t go shopping when hungry or I buy foods I don’t want to.

At work, people actually walk around with bags of chocolate or packets of biscuits giving them away. I told everyone I was doing a no chocolate challenge to help my friend who is trying to lose weight. I did find it very hard to say no because I didn’t want to offend people but they were pretty happy with my no chocolate challenge, so that got me out of it.

There are still a lot of challenges though. There are a lot of morning teas at my work. Lucky for me my workmates like savouries so I can have hot savouries , chips or savoury biscuits and dip.

For lunch, I upped the amount of protein and fat that I ate. This might mean a sweet potato and chick pea curry made with coconut milk. Or in summer, a salad with chick peas, fetta and boiled egg added. I find I get hungry early if I only eat carbs but I don’t need to eat until dinner if I eat enough fat and protein with lunch.

In summer, I replaced my even dessert with a big bowl of watermelon, a mango or some banana sliced into yoghurt. If I ever really craved something sweet I found full fat greek yoghurt in a small glass of milk made the cravings go away. I actually thought it would taste disgusting but I found it quite sweet after eating no sugar for a while.

I find that I get hunger and thirst confused. So if I feel hungry, before I eat I drink a glass of water and wait 15 minutes. If I am still hungry, I eat. Otherwise, I was just thirsty.

I also have to avoid certain situations. For example, if I go to my local supermarket in the afternoon, I will buy junk. So I go in the morning. If I go to my local muffin shop when they muffins are half price, I know I will buy one. So I don’t go. There are ways to help yourself.

A real revelation for me was doing a 24 hour fast, which was way easier than I thought. I learned that hunger doesn’t control me. I did that at a time when I skipped breakfast anyway, so I ate my last meal by 7, skipped lunch and ate again at 7 the next day. So I really only skipped one meal. Easy.

I found there are also things to do besides eat. Now if I feel tired I go for walk outside instead of buying a chocolate bar. I have felt the need to respond to everything by eating has diminished over time.

I will finish off with the most important reason why I believe I succeeded… I focused on what I COULD eat, not on what I COULD NOT eat. I ate a mountain of delicious food every day and that is what I thought about. I didn’t focus on what I couldn’t eat. For this reason I felt I was living a life of abundance, not deprivation. At no point did I feel deprived.

After work, I could ride home, feel kind of hungry and then without eating, go for a run, walk to the shops, buy ingredients, come home and cook dinner from scratch… and still feel less hungry than I did before. That would have been impossible when I was eating mainly sugar. I would not have had the energy to do that.
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casual_cyclist
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:53 pm

Where I went wrong was trying to work full time and renovate a house. Up until then I was doing really well, lasting over a year and even surviving a christmas and then an easter with no easter eggs! It actually takes a little time and effort to organise and prepare healthy food and my capacity to do this evaporated when I worked all day and then renovated late into the evening every day. I let my food slip and slipped back into bad habits. I have had a slack 6 months eating more junk food than I should. Although I must say that I am nowhere near as bad as before I quit the first time. I never craved sweets like I used to. I really just ate like I used to out of habit but without the same driving force as I used to experience. I also never got hungry like I used to. I hate that weak and shaky feeling of ravenous, out of control hunger.

I am back on track now and found it very easy to transition back to healthy eating. Now I am back in a position where I can choose what I eat and when to eat it. It’s such a nice contrast to feeling driven to eat like I used to feel.

So, I think it can be done. But it is a complex process involving many aspect of your life:
- adopting a new mental attitude and new attitudes towards food
- being prepared and surrounding yourself with the foods you want to eat
- making decisions about what to eat when you are at the supermarket
- avoiding situations where you know you will be tempted to buy food you don’t want
- getting enough sleep and reducing stress so that tiredness and stress don’t become excuses for bad eating
- breaking bad eating habits by doing something else like going for a walk or reading a book
- learning to say “no”… to other people and to yourself.
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby mikesbytes » Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:30 pm

Most the time I either eat a fruit platter with a little yoghurt or nothing. Only occasionally do I eat some sugary rubbish

If your eating stuff like icecream look at the protein content, there's a huge difference in the range of quality
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Re: "Addicted" to desserts

Postby zill » Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:52 pm

casual_cyclist wrote:
zill wrote:Maybe the thing missing is not just sugar but also the buttery fat in the desserts. I just don't feel satisfied if skipping it for a day or two.

However, I don't crave salty junk food anymore which is good.
I sometimes slice up apple and stir it into full fat greek yoghurt as a "dessert". It works with other fruit too: banana, mango, pear, berries. Then you are getting your sugar and fat. It would be interesting to see how that goes. If you are still desiring desserts after that, there could be some other underlying issue.
Just tried your suggestion. Beautiful!!!

But there seems to be some sugar in greek yoghurt. One can easily overeat on greek yoghurt? I know fruit is always good for you but what about full fat greek yoghurt?

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