Please help me quit sugar!!

[DoNutSweatTheSmallStuff]

Yesterday I bought myself a bag of Haribo and ate the lot.
The day before I ate half a (large) bar of chocolate.
The day before that I ate a share bag of Skittles.
The day before that Iate 6 chocolate digestives.
I could go on...

Aside from this, I tend to eat quite well - fruit / yogurt for breakfast, salad for lunch, healthy dinners, get my 5 a day, only drink water etc.

BUT the amount of sugar I've had this last week is obscene and makes me feel a little disgusted with myself. Of course, I enjoyed it at the time, I actually felt I was craving it and needed a 'hit but I just feel rubbish afterwards.
So now I'm on a mission to quit - or at least drastically cut down.

Anyone else done this? Anyone sugar free? How did you do it? Any tips / book recommendations etc would be gratefully received, thank you!

I quit 5/3/21

I could have written your exact post, in fact I think I did but deleted it as honestly I did feel ashamed at how much I put away, and it made me feel so bad, headaches, dizzy, odd vision etc. I am convinced I was pre diabetic.

My rules have been you can have what you want as long as made from scratch with no sugar. I have not stopped wine. I have stopped orange juice for the reason mentioned above and obviously all fizzy drinks gone (except Prosecco and champagne) I only drink alcohol mostly at weekends and rarely more than 2 glasses but I have found myself sometimes wanting more since giving up sugar so had to work to curb that.

Books that helped:

why we eat too much, by dr Andrew Jenkinson and
Sweet Poison by David Gillespie.

The first two weeks were easier than I thought, largely because the withdrawal symptoms were not as bad as how bad eating the sugar was making me feel, I didn’t want to feel like that ever again. For me it has always been about health rather then weight loss so I was bizarrely surprised when I started to lose weight and am now 4.5 stone down and 1lb off being under 30bmi.

Easter was ok, Christmas was hard, but just remember the words ‘no thank you’ when offered stuff. It becomes an odd habit one which I never did. Let’s be honest would you like a slice of cake, when did you last say anything other than ‘yes please’

Little tips that helped:
oranges, I often have a big orange in the afternoon, it curbs the craving and saw me through until tea time.
eating main meal at lunch time, this was due to us wfh but it made a big difference.
finding something active to do during my trigger time, garden, vacuum etc
do a proper hobby, ie not tv and mn. I swim a lot more now and started ice skating again, anything that gets you out and away from the kitchen.
fruit is ok.
plain crisps don’t have sugar in.

good luck, how different I feel now is worlds away from a year ago.

I eat the Human Diet. It’s not temporary or hugely processed and doesn’t make huge profits for conglomerates who don’t give a toss about our health.

I changed my diet for health reasons. Gave up sugar and caffeine, increased my water, how much I moved and started noticing how certain foods make me feel. I eat less dairy because it makes me sneeze which means there’s obviously something my body doesn’t like about it. I eat more green stuff.

I’ve lost 3 stone without trying. I have more energy, sleep better, am pretty much never ill. I’ve started weight training and am already seeing changes in my body where I’m developing muscle. (I was almost bed-bound with chronic back pain 3 years ago so this is something I never expected to be able to do.)

It’s been over year since I started and I genuinely
no longer want bread or cakes or ice cream or sweets or chocolate. I could absolutely have them if I wanted to, but the point is I don’t want them. My Sugar Monster is now under control and I’m loving life.

Thanks for all the replies, definitely some food for thought (no pun intended!).

I think I could cut out sweets, chocolate, biscuits... but would still have fruit. I hear what people are saying about orange juice too but I do enjoy that at breakfast time!

I NEED to do this, my sugar consumption has gone crazy again lately. I’m going to start by increasing my protein and making an effort to make proper meals for myself. I’m hoping this will make it easier to resist sweet snacks (I eat A LOT of biscuits!). I’ve also noticed a bit of memory loss lately which I’m hoping will be improved with a healthier diet and much less sugar.

I have managed this sort of accidentally as a result of dental issues that made eating sugary food really painful. My teeth are now a bit better and I allow myself the occasional piece of dark chocolate but still have to be very careful. I've compensated by eating more fruit, including dried fruit and grapes, which clearly do have natural sugars in them but are much better than KitKats and Haribo!