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A Simple 4-Step Plan To Stop Sugar Cravings and Fight Sugar Cravings Without Using Willpower
Feb 20, 2023
I just wanted to share an old story about one of my previous client’s, Andrea.
I’m telling this story to share give a framework in how to deal with sugar cravings in a practical way. By practical I mean willpower free!
Don't use willpower to try to stop sugar cravings. Otherwise you'll just end up fighting yourself!!!
The framework is simple – understand the three causes of habits and eat plenty of nutrient-dense foods throughout the day. Here’s a quick glimpse of the strategy:
1 – Become Aware Of Your Routine: Take fearless, nonjudgmental inventory of what you eat and why.
2 - Switch The Routine: For most people, commit to eating more nutrient dense foods more regularly. Feel the difference!
3 – Isolate and Replace The Routine: Put the sugary foods away so you aren’t triggered but are not deprived either.
4 – Glue Together With Self-Care: You need to meet your emotional needs at the end of the day.
Book your free no-oligation 'eating enlightenment' strategy call at - https://eatingenlightenment.com/freestrategysession
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0:00
Hey, today we're talking about sugar addiction and we're going to be talking about how to stop it, how to form new habits
0:09
So you stop being a sugar fiend. Sugar can seem like cocaine. There's studies out there that basically show that sugar can be highly addicting
0:20
And so how do we make sense of a sugar addiction? We're going to be looking at one of the people I used to work with in the past, Andrea
0:29
There's a couple of concepts we're going to be talking about habits and eating enough food and self-care
0:36
So just to recap habits, and then we'll fit it into Andrea's story habits, a cute routine of reward
0:44
Okay. What we want to do is keep the cue and the reward, the same substitute the routine. Andrea
0:54
Her situation was like She didn't really have a problem I mean she did have a problem with sugar
1:01
But she wasn't She wasn't like a You know sometimes when we hear this word addict
1:05
You think it's like They're on the streets or something You know they can't hold a job
1:11
She's an addict No no no no In some ways she didn't have a problem
1:15
Loving family, two kids Good job friends, you know, you name it, pretty good life, but peel that back. And there's a
1:30
there's something really wrong. And she knows it on this empty feeling, this emptiness
1:38
and this compulsion and this frustration with sugar, this unstoppable, robotic, automatic habit for sugar
1:51
And I'm talking to sugar everywhere. Like it is this like she's injecting herself with sugar
1:58
not literally, but just like sugar in her car, sugar at her desk, sugar like by her bedside
2:04
sugar in her little coat pockets, sugar in her pockets, little candies, little sweeteners
2:09
gums, little Hershey's kisses, sugar everywhere it's like everywhere this is the frustrating part
2:16
every half hour every hour and she can't stop it every once in a while she just hates
2:25
herself so much so much and so that's the problem, it's not this
2:33
this addict like you're a weird person. It's not this addict like you're a
2:40
socially undesirable person, but there's this addict in the sense that something is deeply wrong
2:49
Something is fundamentally not human, really. Something's just not human
3:00
It's not human to do this with sugar. It's just, it's, it's, it's horrible. And so we first start to get clear on Andrea's habits. So we become aware of her routine. And in particular, we start right away with food
3:21
I see this so many times with binge eating, emotional eating, this sugar addiction stuff
3:30
It's, you're not eating enough. I cannot say this again and again and again. I cannot say this
3:36
enough times. You're not eating enough. Now this can bring up a lot of skepticism. When people first
3:42
hear about the amount of good fats and good proteins and unprocessed foods I want them to
3:47
eat They can be very skeptical Like I know Andrea she was like ah okay I try it but I not sure I not sure Because they telling me to eat like way more food than I used to Because what Andrea doing is when we took an inventory of what she was eating
4:07
it was like a bagel here and there, a bowl of cereal, a muffin, maybe like some juice packs
4:18
What was it? It's been a while ago since I worked with her
4:22
but it was simple carbohydrates. She sometimes skipped meals. She just didn't really, you know
4:31
didn't have time for food. Then comes, and she's snacking all day
4:37
She's not eating. She's eating crap. And then dinner comes around, and dinner was actually a pretty good meal
4:45
but she'd keep on eating after dinner. and so the baseline of this is getting getting aware of your routine understanding the reward
4:57
that sugar or emotional eating or binge eating is giving you and in Andrea's case it was very clear
5:03
when I when we really started peeling back the layers she had this first of all she was stressed
5:11
to tell. But, uh, another thing she was always like in her belly, she was always not satisfied
5:20
You know, if we said, how happy is your belly? My bad, my belly's not happy. You know, is your
5:25
belly ever happy? No, it's never happy. What happens when you eat sugar? Is your belly happy
5:32
for five minutes? Yeah. I kind of forget about my belly. I'm like tasting my mouth for a little bit
5:37
that's a huge reward. Noticing that you have this discontent, this, uh
5:45
uh, the color gray comes to mind for me, this grayness in your belly. You're not starving
5:54
Maybe you are starving. I don't know. But for Andrea, she wasn't starving. It was kind of like
5:57
like unpleasant. And then when she eats sugar, the unpleasant feeling goes away temporarily
6:05
this is a huge reward do you see she's not eating enough she's what she eats she's not eating
6:15
nutrients she fills up on like a muffin and then like there's a difference between eating like
6:21
imagine like there's a big big big difference in the way your belly feels when you have a
6:27
nutrient-dense meal like a whole wheat bagel cream cheese smoked salmon a little bit of onions on
6:32
there, you know, like some water to dash it down. That feeling in your belly is way different than
6:38
like two bagels with cream cheese. Calorically, they might be the same. Nutritionally, they're a
6:44
world apart. And so we started getting Andrea to fill up on nutrients and she was skeptical at
6:51
first. Don't get me wrong. Don't be wrong. It was like, let's try this for a week. I mean
6:56
let's try it for a week. The diets you have tried, the willpower thing doesn't work. Let's try eating
7:01
healthy food, right? Let's start eating some food. Let's see how you feel. What about that
7:10
A week goes by, I think it was like pretty close to a week, 10 days or whatever. She feels
7:15
oh, oh, oh, like so good. That's what I see a lot. When you, when you're under eating and you
7:27
start to finally get the food that your body needs. It's like, it is like stepping, I'm imagining
7:34
like an astronaut suit. Imagine like you're living life in a clumsy, hot asteroid suit and you finally
7:41
get out and you standing in the wind and it like ah feels so good And so this really helped This really really helped
8:00
Really, really helped. The cravings for sugar went way down. But they didn't go away entirely
8:06
They didn't go away entirely. I'm going to be honest with you. They did not go away entirely
8:12
First, we became aware of her routine. The sugar, the lack of eating. This is huge, by the way
8:16
Like, this thing of taking inventory. Really being clear on the benefits that this binge eating, emotional eating sugar thing is giving you
8:24
That's really tough work. It's really tough. It takes a few sessions. And then the other thing is switching out and really committing to a week, 10 days, 6 weeks of I'm going to have 3 big meals
8:43
That's going to fill me up. I'm going to take the time to meal prep and get all these ingredients and find a way to make it happen
8:51
And it's got to make you feel good, by the way. You know, this is some willpower stuff
8:56
I mean, not willpower in the sense that you're going to be depleted. You're not going to be depleted because you're full
9:02
But it takes a little bit of stuff to get rid of it, to really commit to this rather
9:09
to get the ball rolling and to not skip meals and to recover when you do skip meals
9:15
It's not the end of the world when you do skip meals. But so then what we did was we finally said, okay, we're feeling better
9:26
The sugar cravings are decreasing, but they're not gone. We're going to do two things
9:33
one, we are going to come up with a list of ways you can decrease stress
9:41
And I want you to sleep more. She started sleeping more. That was, that was like huge
9:46
She didn't have enough alone time for herself, but she really started realizing like, holy shit
9:54
Well, there's something I'm forgetting. Uh, yes, this was it. One day she got super upset at a
10:01
at her boss or a situation at work. And she basically all of a sudden found herself eating
10:09
sugar. And then she was just so upset. And like the next day she was thinking about it and she's
10:15
like, why did I get so upset? And we started talking about sleep and she just wasn't sleeping
10:21
enough. And so she was getting like six hours a night or something. And her problem was she'd
10:27
stay up late or put the kids to bed, stay up late, watching Netflix and kind of just, you know
10:33
just wasn't taking care of herself in that way. She was watching too much shit at night
10:38
not getting enough sleep. And so what, you know, she finally committed to going to bed earlier and
10:43
getting some more sleep and then noticing, Oh, that, that really helps with the sugar cravings
10:48
as well. And, and then just talking about the relationship of stress and sugar cravings
10:53
Like once we identify clearly in our bodies, not in our head, but in our heart, oh my God, I crave sugar when I'm stressed
11:00
When you make that link in your heart, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to take care of yourself, to reduce stress, to get sleep so that you avoid the sugar
11:11
So that was like on one side. That was one of the two things. The other thing was not getting rid of, but being fully honest, taking another inventory
11:23
where's, where's all the sugar? Where are you, where are you hiding it? Let's be honest. Let's
11:26
you're eating it in secret. You're eating it in your car. You have some in your purse, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. Get all of it, get all of it. Because if it's there
11:36
and you can see it, we're going to be cued. Remember those cues, the habits, we're going to be
11:41
cued to automatically eat it And so now she takes all the sugar and she has it at home We asked her to put it in the drawer Like a there a little I think there was a she had like a compartment in her pantry or something I don I don quite remember There
11:59
some, some things she could like put it in. And so what we want to do is avoid the deprivation
12:04
We don't want, this is not a diet. I'm not telling you to not eat sugar. Remember that. I'm not
12:08
telling you to not eat sugar. I'm telling you to eat some good stuff first. If you want some sugar
12:12
after you fill up. Great. Have some. So we have her take all the candy and stuff and put it away
12:20
And that way she's not being triggered all the time by it. She's not reminded of it
12:26
And so, so that's huge. She can still have it if she wants it. Don't get me wrong, right
12:33
It's there. It's at home. She can go into the pantry and get it if she wants it
12:37
but by the time she's filled up on food, she's better slept. She's, uh, taking a little bit of
12:45
breaks at work, you know, like just clearing her mind, checking in with her body, uh, why she goes
12:52
to the bathroom, a little bit embarrassing. Um, you know, it's like, and then she asked, and then
12:58
she kept, she's able to catch this urge for sugar at home. It's like, Oh, I really want sugar now
13:03
but it's in the pantry. Do I really need to go get it? Like, do I really need sugar right now
13:07
what do I need instead? Am I going to be okay without sugar? If I do want sugar, I can have it
13:13
but I don't even want sugar. And what we said was, hey, have like a Clif Bar
13:19
Clif Bar. Have you seen those Clif Bars? They got a lot of sugar in them, but they also got some
13:23
protein. They also got some nutrients in there. Have a Clif Bar, two Clif Bars, or three Clif
13:29
Bars even. Have a Clif Bar. You'll still get that chocolatey, sugary craving, but it's actually
13:35
going to sit in your stomach. It's actually going to fill you up. So we gave her a little
13:39
replacement, a little substitute. And then that was like the missing link. It was like
13:45
oh, I can have a cliff bar. And it all fell into place. So the hardest part was getting
13:58
honest about the, this is always the hardest part. Usually it's the hardest part. Hardest
14:02
far as getting honest about the benefits of sugar, your current eating habits, how you feel
14:08
and admitting to yourself, you need to take better care of yourself and that it's okay
14:13
to take better care of yourself. It's okay to get more sleep. Um, and, and so Andrea
14:20
a few weeks go by, I think sometime goes by, but just the sugar cravings weren't there
14:26
And when she did – it's not like she was perfect, but when she did have the sugar, she was able to clearly see
14:35
And this is what most people miss. It's the frustration. They can't stop, but they don't know why they can't stop
14:39
They feel pushed to do it, but they don't understand why. They're out of control. And now she's realizing she has control
14:45
If she skips a meal, if she lets her stress build up to such a degree, if she's not well slept, these things are like warning signs
14:54
sugar, sugar, sugar, you're going to, you're about to go on a sugar craving spree. And so she's able
15:01
to pinpoint after she eats sugar, like, Oh, duh. I just didn't sleep enough. Duh. It's okay. I don't
15:08
need to beat myself up. I don't need to feel like I'm an addict. And so this feeling of addiction
15:13
this feeling of not being a human that went away and that's, that's what we want. And, um, she did
15:20
lose some weight, but that's not the whole point. I'm not even, you know, the whole point is to
15:24
to feel like a human again, to eat normal food, to feel good, have your belly feel good and have a
15:30
just be in, be, uh, be normal with your body instead of your arm automatically reaching out
15:36
for candies and putting them in your mouth. You know that. So that is my little post on sugar
15:43
Let me know your thoughts and, uh, namaste. Have a good day. Peace
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