I’ve been meaning to write this post about how I beat my sugar addiction for awhile now. I finally feel in control of my sugar addiction and crazy cravings. I guess you could say it’s been a long journey to breaking my sugar addiction once and for all. It definitely didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took me a solid year and a half to truly overcome it.
How I beat my sugar addiction
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So I had a rough few days of bingeing on desserts around the holidays, so I vowed right then and there to get it together. As I said in that post, if you don’t like something about yourself, change it, and that’s exactly what I did. I was sick of being controlled by sugar, so I set out to kick my habit for good.
Breaking Sugar Addiction: How I Did It
Since then, I’ve slowly made changes to my diet – ones that I knew I could sustain for the long-term. Just like losing weight, conquering my sugar cravings was something I saw as a permanent lifestyle change. I needed to figure out how to incorporate sweets into my life without overdoing it every time I ate them. Going cold turkey would never work because I love dessert so much and wouldn’t want to live without it. (Dessert brings me great joy!) Plus, I knew if I tried giving up sugar all together, I’d only crave it more and go nuts the next time I was faced with a plate of cookies.
I started my journey to conquer my sugar cravings by trying all of the tips you’ve probably heard before.
All the tips you’ve heard before
- Drink water.
- Get more sleep.
- Exercise.
- Brush your teeth.
- Reduce caffeine.
- Eliminate artificial sweeteners.
- Slow down and find “sweetness” in non-food ways.
All of these are great tips and many of them work well for others, but even after I tried most of these things, I still had a killer sweet tooth. I love to eat, and I love eating sweets even more, so my goal was to figure out what worked best for me. Over the past 18 months, I had many ups and downs, but, ultimately, here’s what worked for me.
How to beat sugar cravings
Eating more “real” food.
I can’t stress this one enough. It was so important in helping me overcome my sugar addiction. It also encouraged me take a good, hard, honest look at the way I was eating and, ultimately, it helped me clean up my diet.Of course, I realized that when I overdid it on sweets, I hadn’t eaten much “real” food. For me, this means something with substance, like meat, fish, eggs, beans, Greek yogurt, avocado, cheese, nut butter, etc.
More protein, fat, and fiber
I also realized I was eating a ton of carbs and not enough protein and healthy fats. Sure, I was eating plenty of whole grains, fruits, veggies, and other nutritious foods, but I always wanted something more to eat. This meant I wasn’t fully satisfied, and I’d go straight for the sweet stuff. When I started to increase the amount of “real” food in my diet, it was much easier to control my cravings. A little tip: Aim to eat at least two different servings of veggies with every meal. It really helps with satiety!
How I beat my sugar addiction
If I craved something sweet after I finished eating a meal, I’d go back for a second (or even third) serving. Usually, it was just a small portion, but I figured if I was craving something more to eat, it should be something nutritious and not sugar. Once I felt full from the second serving, I rarely wanted dessert. And if I did, a bite or two (a piece of chocolate or a small handful of butterscotch chips) usually did the trick. I felt satisfied and in control of my cravings, so it wasn’t difficult to stop eating sweets once I started.
Overcoming sugar addiction
Instead of paying attention to calories, track macros.
I didn’t realize just how many sugary calories I was consuming until I started tracking them in MyFitnessPal, a free nutrition app. Tracking and having a visual record of what I ate helped make me so much more aware of what I was putting in my mouth.
Instead of simply focusing on calories, I paid attention to macronutrients aka “macros” (protein, carb, and fat grams). Macros really keep my diet balanced and in check. When I ate well-rounded meals, I was less likely to reach for the sweet stuff. Tracking macros truly allows me to have my carrots and cake, too! If you’re interested in learning more or want to work together, CLICK HERE to learn more about our nutrition programs!
Getting the sweet stuff out of the house.
Surprisingly, getting the sweet stuff out of the house was kind of difficult for me. I love dessert. You’d think, it would be as simple as just don’t buy it, but I found myself buying bags of butterscotch chips and baking cookies randomly whenever the craving struck. Then, during a grocery shopping trip one week, I forgot to buy butterscotch chips.
Stop buying sugar.
Initially, I was bummed that I forgot to buy butterscotch chips. I actually worried I wouldn’t able to make it through the week without something sweet in the house. I considered going back to the grocery store to buy some, but then it didn’t seem worth it to me. I was trying to kick my sugar habit, so why the heck would I make an effort to go buy sugar? It finally clicked, so I stopped buying sweet treats for the house.
Not having this type of food in the house makes it so much easier to fill my diet with more nutritious foods. This brings me to what really helped me kick my sugar habit once and for all.
Foods that curb sugar cravings
Filling my kitchen with my favorite healthy-sweet foods.
And I’m not just talking about bananas! I fill my kitchen with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mangos. You know, all of the “expensive” fruit that I love so much. I figure if I’m spending the money on these pricey fruits, I won’t let them go to waste . They’ll be the first thing I go for when a craving for something sweet strikes. (Sweet potatoes also fall into this same healthy-sweet category for me.) One of my favorite snacks is microwaving fresh (or frozen) berries with a scoop of nut butter and then mixing it all up into a messy delicious mess! 🙂
Ok, you’re probably thinking: Fruit is not dessert. I totally agree, and I won’t tell you eating a bunch of strawberries is better than eating a Funfetti cake pop. Clearly, you can’t compare these two things within the same dessert category.
But, I discovered if I paired fruit (or sweet potatoes) with a more “substantial” food, it often satisfied my sweet craving. My favorite combos: sliced banana with almond butter, fresh berries with Greek yogurt, or fruit smoothies with protein powder mixed it. Additionally, sweet potato wedges + peanut butter is an amazingly satisfying sweet snack. For added sweetness, I’ll sometimes add cinnamon, shredded coconut, and/or raisins.
How to stop sugar cravings for good
I still enjoy sweets. In fact, I eat them almost everyday, but the difference is I don’t need to have them. I can consciously make a decision whether I want to eat a sweet treat or not. Back in the day, I had zero control of my cravings. I felt totally helpless around desserts, and there was more than one occasion when I ate too many desserts and physically felt ill afterward.
How I beat my sugar addiction
Once I started eating something sweet, I wanted more and more of it. Nowadays, I can enjoy one or two cookies and not eat the whole batch. There’s even been times that I’ve forgotten about baked goods or other delicious things in the house. This would have never happened in the past. Let’s just say I’ve made great strides!
If you’re trying to kick a sugar addiction, I hope you found this post helpful. I hope they work for you, too!
Still looking for some tips and motivation? Here’s another blog post that might interest you: Revisiting My Sugar Addiction.
Do you struggle with sugar cravings? What makes you crave sugar? What are your tips for controlling your sugar cravings?