Quitting sugar --- healthy or too restrictive?

@hidden101 The truth is not everyone can handle moderation and limiting intake with sugar. And cutting it out completely is okay even if it is “restricting.” Restriction isn’t always bad, like some people can handle alcohol and others can’t, and that’s okay. Just know your limit.

OP, don’t feel like you should be able to moderate your added sugar intake, leading yourself on a slippery slope of short lived successes. If you have to completely cut sugar out because your binging and sugar addiction is too much to moderate, do it! It’s super hard at first but it gets better! Sugar free since the 1st! It’s crazy how much easier it’s gotten. (Btw, I’m not against a little artificial sugar and sugar alcohols.)
 
@hidden101 I haven't quit sugar, but to the extent I've had to cut things out of my diet/lifestyle, this approach is always vastly easier to me than rationing.
 
@jesse1354 I tried going cold turkey but i got too cranky after midday. For me it worked better not drinking anything sweet firts, then no candies, etc.

Im still not 0% sugar and once in a while i get dessert so its more about the journey, no the destination lol
 
@jesse1354 I don’t keep sweets/chocolate in my house. Can’t eat them if they’re not there.

I do a chocolate protein powder and mixed berries smoothie in the morning which gives me a bit of a sugar/chocolate fix and will have fruit as snacks during the day. I’ll occasionally have a small bowl of lemon sorbet as a dessert treat.

I would look at your diet/lifestyle and figure out what’s causing that 5pm wall and how to potentially prevent it. Can you have a later afternoon snack, do some exercise then, make a cup of tea instead of going for the sweets to fix the wall.
 
@dawn16 Same. I don't keep them in the house. I see a lot of people saying "well, knowing that I can have it if I want it makes me not want it." That does not apply to me. I always want it. Always.

So I just keep it healthy and/or reasonable - apples, berries, Light & Fit Greek Yogurt (strawberries dipped in the vanilla flavor is pretty satisfying, honestly). If I'm really feeling the call, some whole wheat toast with jam. That's my day to day. I apply the 80/20 rule (80% on plan, 20% off plan) to sweets. If it's something special - ice cream with the family or friends, dessert while out for a nice dinner, birthdays, etc. - I eat it. It's just not all the time, and certainly not every day.
 
@jesse1354 Depends what you mean by sugar. If you mean sweet treats that's one thing, if you mean anything with sugar in then that's different. I assume you mean the first one. For me, it's about finding sweet treats that aren't bad for me. Like an apple, or a low calorie ice lolly ("popsicle" for Americans) or something along those lines.

If even those would make you want to binge then I would recommend cutting it out completely. It won't hurt you. There is no down side to cutting out "sweet treats".

You managed 3 years so I think you've proven how sustainable it can be!
 
@jesse1354 I find if I'm "not allowed" to have something I get obsessed with it and want it really badly.

If I decide I can eat as many cookies/chocolate/whatever as I want, I don't seem to want them so badly. I will have one, and feel satisfied because I know I am "allowed" to have more later if I want. So I end up in a happier and healthier position.
 
@lfschenone Same. I have a rule that I have found to be helpful. If I want a cookie/cupcake/ etc I can eat as much as I want if I'm willing to cook it from scratch. And thats scratch scratch, no boxed stuff. If I am willing to bake it I can eat as much as I want. This helps me realize whats a real craving vs bored eating. TBH by the time I go to the store, buy the ingredients, and bake the damn things I don't eat a whole lot. The next day I'll bring the majority of whatever I baked to the office.
 
@lfschenone Me too. I'm terrible with restriction but I'm ok with guidelines for myself that focus on eating more of something else. A trick I used when I couldn't stop eating sweets from my boss's candy bowl is that I brought in a big bowl of fruit with lots of variety and reminded myself to eat that first whenever I wanted candy. It helped a lot because it helped me figure out what I was really craving (sometimes I was just hungry tbh, or often bored), satisfied my desire for sugar in the moment, and got me out of the candy bowl cycle for long enough that my cravings subsided to a manageable level. Honestly I suggest something like this for OP for a week or two to see what changes.

Another thing I tried since my problem was the opposite of OP's (endless access to dessert at work) was telling myself I could have as much dessert as I wanted, but no work desserts until after 5pm. So I could walk down the street to buy a pastry, but no office candy. Or if someone brought in cake and I really wanted it, I'd put a slice aside to have after 5 (which honestly kept me from having two slices plus random snacks). It was helpful for a while given the environment I was in and how bored I was. Boredom eating was my main issue at that point.

I find that complete restriction gives my brain an all or nothing mentality that leads to more emotional eating, so I look for ways to at least temporarily help me disrupt habits and figure out what's causing them so I can try more sustainable measures (ex, bringing more lunch so I'm not hungry with sweets as the only option, noticing that I'm bored and dealing with that).

PS, now I'm in a more interesting, more demanding job with a fully stocked kitchen and boredom eating is very rarely an issue anymore.
 
@lfschenone I keep a bar of very good, very dark chocolate in my desk at work. I'll have a couple squares after lunch and I find that massively decreases my desire to partake in other sweets that drift around. When I tried having no sweets, I'd end up with huge cravings and eat a ton of super sugary stuff at once.

I also agree with the commenter who mentioned not keeping many candies/cookies/etc at home. I find it easier to resist in the grocery store than to limit myself at home. If I go home without it, I'm usually unlikely to leave the house mid-craving to go fetch something.
 
@wif9afda I need to do this again! I had some dark chocolate and it really helped, but I ran out a while ago and found myself buying some cookies from the vending machine. The dark chocolate method really does work.
 
@wif9afda That’s interesting because I’m the exact opposite. I used to be bulimic though so have experienced true binges where I would leave the house to go buy binge food. Now I find if I have several kinds of cookies, chips, candy in the house, it doesn’t feel so special and off limits and I only eat it if I truly want some.
 
@rosewithnothorns I also used to struggle, and I do an intermediate step. I have the foods but I store them in the boot of my car. That means they are always available and if I truely want them I can have them. But it does mean that if I'm craving at 9:00pm at night I have to get dressed and go outside in the cold and the dark to get them.
 
@rosewithnothorns I think it's an inertia thing for me. If it's 9 pm, dark, and cold I'm pretty unlikely to go to the trouble of leaving the house to find the cookies I'm craving. I'll make due with something else or just ignore the cravings. I don't have too much trouble limiting myself when it comes to a bit of dessert after a meal, it's more the late night, I'm tired and don't feel great/had a bad day cravings.
 
@wif9afda It's absolutely inertia for me. I eat healthiest when I don't leave the house pretty much. The only thing that I do make sure I always have is a jar of unsweetened peanut butter and bananas, that's my designated "midnight snack" food.
 
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