Sugar Habit!

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Cathlete
Hello, I don't know if anyone else on this forum has this problem. But when the weekend comes along we usually like to have a treat. In our case (hubby and I) we eat ice cream with apple pie. The problem is that I just cannot stop eating the ice cream, it's like a drug. I can still eat it even when my tummy is saying "stop please". Is this an addiction or is there something emotional to this? I don't have that problem with anything else but I believe that ice cream is definitely a "trigger" food for me; once I start I cannot stop. Any suggestion to beat this thing? Is it better just to eliminate all types of sugars from my diet? Or just buy ice cream at the local ice cream parlor to control the servings? I know that if I say to myself "no more ice cream" that's what I am going to want to eat morning, noon and night. You know what they say, when you tell yourself that you can't have something - you want it even more.

Thanks.

Margarita
 
Hi Margarita,

I can relate to your dilemma. I realized as I started my weight loss journey that I had a food addiction. It wasn't just to sugar, it was to everything!!! I ate beyond being full. For some reason I felt I needed to eat everything in sight. I think it was the way I was raised. We were the "meat, potatoes, dessert after every meal" family. That was quite the habit to quit.

I had to literally get rid of all the junk in my home and keep it away from me. It was easier for me not to have it in the house. When it was at work or someone's house, I just refused it (so hard) but I knew if I ate one cookie it would end up being 20 cookies. I really worked on stopping and thinking before I ate something bad. I'd ask myself questions. Do you really want this? Are you hungry? How will you feel after you eat this? It was hard in the beginning but it really forced me to stop and realize why I wanted to eat something.

You have to do what you can handle. If it's too much of a temptation with it being in the house, don't bring it home. If you can handle it being in your freeze, ask your hubby to be the ice cream keeper and just give you a 1/2 cup. I allowed myself 1 cheat meal a week and I found lower fat versions of things I wanted to eat and allowed myself a small piece for dessert (so hard to break the sweet after meal thing).

You can do this but it takes some mental fortitude. I don't think you need to give it up completely. You just need to get some control over the ice cream.

Sorry so long winded. HTH!
 
Sugar Habit

Hi Jane,

Thank you so much for the information on your experience with food addiction. I know that I feel something "emotional" when I eat the ice cream so I'm sure there is an emotional factor to eating that much ice cream. I think the best thing right now is to just not buy it anymore - don't even have it in the house.

How do you handle a cheat meal without going overboard? During the week, Monday through Friday, it seems like I can control myself but when the weekend arrives it's like "I'm free". My diet during the week is not very strict at all. Breakfast is usually very healthy like oatmeal, toast with p-nut butter and OJ or I'll make a healthy egg white omelette, lunch is a Subway turkey sandwich (no oil, mayo) and Baked Lays and dinner is a salad with tuna or chicken or a healthy TV dinner, dessert is a Dannon yogurt with 1/2 cup of puffed Kashi rice cereal for crunch.

But wow, when the weekend arrives, it's very different because I pig out on the ice cream, not so much that I eat, "bad" food, just that darn icecream fix. I am going to try this weekend and just not have the icecream and see what happens and see what I start to feel and if the cravings are very strong, I'll drown them out with lots of water.

Oh, your message was not "long winded", it helped me because you were able to overcome your food addiction so that gives me hope for me. Thanks, I truly appreciate it.

How long have you been doing Cathe's exercise videos?

Margarita
 
I know I say it all the time

But Inside Out Weight Loss podcast is great for dealing with this problem and has helped me a lot. I highly recommend it and the cool part is it is free. You can download it off of iTunes. or google it.
 
I would swear that Ben and Jerry's ice cream is laced with cocaine! That is my Friday night treat and I swear I have the shakes if I do not have a pint in the freezer ready for me to eat. I usually get it by Wed or Thurs just so I can see that it's in there. If I dont' have one by Friday afternoon I really spaz and then when I am eating it, it is 30 minutes of pure bliss, then it's over til the next weekend (unless I get another on Saturday!)
 
Hi Margarita,

My cheat meal was cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning. I love the Pillsbury ones with all the icing!! That was easy to control for the most part as I would just buy 1 package. If I wanted more I had to go out for it and I was usually too lazy to do that. Then I switched to a raspberry coffee cake and then finally just stopped having a cheat meal.

What really motivated me was my weight loss. When I started to see the pounds come off and people started complimenting me helped me to stay on track with my diet. I remember one day at work when someone brought in donuts! I LOVE donuts! I went into the break room and looked at them. I wanted one so bad. My friend came in and I asked if she was going to have one. She said yes, and I asked her if I could watch her eat it. So I did and when she was done, I asked her how was it. She said it was ok. I realized then that it wasn't worth it. I went back to my office and forgot about the donuts until about 4pm when I went back to the break room and noticed there were 2 chocolate donuts left (my favorite). I stood there for a long time. I rationalized that if I had a donut that I would probably work off it an hour when I did my workout but I knew if I ate the first donut, I was eat the second one too. I didn't want spend my time working out only to burn off the donuts and not the fat that had been around awhile. So I walked out and went back to my office without eating the donuts. That was a HUGE accomplishment for me and when I first realized that I could conquer this eating thing.

I lost 40 pounds 9 years ago and have kept it off. I have moments where I get out of control and but it's not really often. Now if I want a piece of cake, I'll have it because I know I can say no to the second piece. It's really a matter of being healthy and enjoying life. You need to find that balance.

You sound like you are eating well most of the time. You just need to work on the weekend eating. If cold turkey doesn't work try to wean yourself slowly off of it or plan an activity so when the craving hits you can get out of the house and away from temptation.

I have been working out to Cathe since 2004. I lost the weight doing Taebo and walking (I didn't know about Cathe then). Now I do lots of different things like running and kettlebells along with Cathe dvds.

Best of luck to you! I know you can conquer this!!!
 
Hi Margarita,

I was in the throes of a terrible sugar addiction and a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go on the 5-day cleanse from "The Natural Makeover Diet" by Dr. Joey Shulman. One of the things it does is get rid of sugar cravings. The rules for the 5 days are roughly as follow: no red meat, no dairy, no grain products of any kind, no alcohol, no white sugar, no white potatoes. Drink 8 glasses of water every day, take 3 probiotics capsules every day, drink up to one cup of green tea per day, have a greens supplement every day, have 2 servings of fruit (one of which should be berries), have lots of vegetables, 1 Tbsp of ground flax seed every day, up to one sweet potato every day, and for protein, eat egg whites, chicken, fish, tofu, hummus or veggie burgers.

Anyway, I did the cleanse from Oct. 23-27. At the end I had ZERO sugar cravings. I even got through Hallowe'en with minimal candy - just didn't feel like having much, although I did have a little bit (about 200 calories' worth, which is tiny for me). My weight is down 3 lbs from Oct. 23 and I still feel in control. Like you I am a major ice cream addict and I am not feeling a "need" for that either.

It is an easy cleanse, compared to some of the others out there. You don't need to starve yourself and there are lots of good things you can eat. I missed my oatmeal and other grains but I knew I could have them soon. The program seems to have worked for me so far, and if I fall off the wagon I will do another 5 days.

Stebby
 
i no longer crave sweets because i stopped eating them. at the grocery i only buy fruit,veg,grain,canned beans and tomatos,deli meat. everything is homemade. i have salmon twice a week,chicken twice a week,grains twice a week and vegetarian. eating like this has made me not want to eat sweets anymore.

laura
 
You've "trained" yourself well. I think your idea of only going to the ice cream parlor and ordering one scoop is a good one. You can get your fix, but you just can't buy it for your house. Much of what you are experiencing may not be totally food related, but habit related. You have ice cream on the weekend, so as the weekend approaches, you immediately think ice cream (think Pavlov's dogs and the bell). You have to train your mind to want something else or to associate the weekend with something else. I've done this myself - Saturday night I want my two cocktails. But if you just retrain yourself/your mind, the cravings will pass. It won't be easy, particularly if you're prone to overdoing it, but it can be done!! Maybe you could start by shifting to frozen sorbet or granita. At least you'll cut back on the fat, sugar and calories to start with. Then, wean yourself from that, as well. Eventually, you'll find you won't even miss it! Good luck!!
 
maybe it's the pie....

If the only problem in your diet is the weekly ice cream, I don’t think you should cut out all sweets.

Try buying a pint of ice cream at the store and then splitting it with your husband when you have your pie. Limiting the amount of ice cream available will limit the amount you can actually consume at one sitting.

There is nothing wrong with loving ice cream. You say you can eat it morning noon and night, but you don’t.

You can try skipping the ice cream one week and see how that makes you feel.

Also, one weekend try eating the ice cream with out the pie and see if you have the same cravings. You never know, it might be the pie that’s the trigger for the ice cream frenzy.

Also, the emotion you’re associating with eating ice cream might simply be pleasure. Even Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

If you want to avoid ice cream all together for a short period and see how you feel, great.

If you’re going to start buying ice cream again, only buy one pint at a time and make it a really good ice cream. Yes it costs more, but you’re forcing the smaller portions by buying a small amount and making the indulgence worth something by making sure it tastes good and has better ingredients.
 
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