To have gone insane for sugar today...and ask for your help

[Jewels234]

Can I prelude this AIBU by telling you that at 5 ft 5 and 9.5 stone I am a healthy size 10. I am a vegetarian with a veg heavy diet, and work out around 5 times a week, a mixture of long distance running and HIIT. I did a half marathon at the weekend, and was in the gym still on Monday.

However. I am ridiculously addicted to sugar. Today alone I ate a Mars bar, a dairy milk, 3 bakery sized cookies, a mini bag of haribo, a waffle, and a bowl of ice cream with fudge sauce. This isn't a normal day, but it has made me realize how absolute bat shit crazy I go for sugar. Almost to the point that I don't care about other food...I just want sugar. I'm not hungry, but still can't stop.

This is totally U isn't it? I need to just get it all out of my diet and go cold turkey. Anyone else get like this?

I love sugary foods, but even I think that's excessive!!! Have you heard of I Quit Sugar? I keep thinking I'd like to do it, but really don't think I have the willpower. It's the only thing that will shift the lard I lovingly store around my middle, though.

Yep, I eat very little rice, pasta, potatoes etc so I can have more chocolate and cake . Apart from that my diet is really good, loads of veg, I walk a lot and do weights.

Often it's related to how tired I am- ds2 is a bad sleeper when he's ill.

No advice but I also love sugar. I'm slim, fit, eat very well except for the one or two high sugar (eg pack of skittles and a bag of popcorn) snacks a day.

Mmmmm sugar...

Such a shame it's bad for you!

Not heard of I quit sugar...will have a look now

I am the same height and slightly lighter than you, and an 8-10. I lost 2 stone last year and have kept it off too. I really don't want to put it back on again after all my hard work.

I think I need to get my posh chocolates back in again. If I have fancy dark chocolates I feel like I don't need to stuff my face with crap.

There are certainly days where I can sink that amount of sugar and more tbh, yes. They tend to be tied to my cycle, and usually occur in the two or three days before I am due on. I have made vast efforts to reduce refined starchy carbs and refined sugars in my general diet, and I find that for 90% of the time it's fine. But those couple of days are hideous - the cravings are physical and severe. I would recommend some kind of sugar detox for sure - you are killing your blood sugars and hormone feedback mechanisms eating like this, and whilst calorie & weight wise it sounds like your numbers can handle it, you are not helping yourself to optimum health.

But it is hard. So very hard. I sympathise massively.

Yes. Not quite to that extent, but yes. I have just started the low-carb bootcamp, for this exact reason.

Don't feel too bad I've eaten 8 toffee crisp bars this weekend and wouldn't share with dp

And I wouldn't consider myself overweight just greedy

I'm going to guess you're hungry after the enormous amount of exercise

Yes sugar is obviously evil but your body hunted it today because it knew it was the quickest way to replenish the energy

You're slim and fit - surely it's possible your body is hungrier than you want it to be?

I don't think it's that excessive OP

Ooh, hormones. I forget about those as I'm on the mirena but I definitely still have cycles. I'll eat my way through a whole cake then get the tiny bit of spotting that is my period these days a day later.

Is there a certain time of day or mood that makes you reach for sugary foods?

I can be like that - I find that it helps if I have a non-sugary start, so just porridge and fruit or homemade muesli. Also, recently, every time I have a bad couple of days and I've eaten a pack of biscuits I have broken out in spots, I didn't think that was a 'thing' but it seems my body is rejecting the sugar.
I find it very hard if I am tired, that is when I'm most likely to cave. I think I am doing well this week because my DD has been sleeping through and until 7am rather than 6. Makes a huge difference to my willpower.

This guy is interesting -

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/24/robert-lustig-sugar-poison

Find other stuff he's written - I read one of his articles that told blow by blow how the body reacts to the intake of sugar.

Love anyone that tells me my diet was reasonable today :)

I probably am hungry...but it's always 1 - 4pm, and if I'm bored that brings it on. Working from home today did not help.

And Life's - Toffee Crisps are my absolute favourite

I'm trying to do the same OP so far the only thing helping me is drinking much more water each day - I mean pints of it throughout the day

And a strong americano in the morning helps dont know how poss kickstarts metabolism

Then you need to eat more lunch if you're hungry

You've chosen to be deliciously slim and incredibly fit - the pay off is that your body wants to be slightly chubbier as you're beasting it with half marathons

It's like sperm hunting and why women end up with children who aren't the offspring of their partner - biologically programmed to hunt for the best sperm

Your body wants the sugar. The wee woman in your brain is whispering give it to me, Krispy Kreme

If you are eating haribo, you are not a vegetarian.

Seriously - your body does NOT want the sugar in the form of sweets, chocolate, biscuits etc. it just doesn't. But you know that, right? Read Robin Lustig - you'll change the way you think and your poor body will thank you.

I hear you. I read the IQS book but didn't sign up for the program. Also read Dr Hyman's sugar detox. To lose baby weight I reduced carbs, started eating more paleo and really did quit the sugar for a while and didn't miss it but got to pre baby weight and relaxed and I am back on it now. Big time. I blame breastfeeding

I used to smoke and the nagging in the brain for the fix is very similar! I really need to get off it as I have PCOS which apparently has implications for insulin resistance and my dad has type 2 diabetes which I do not want!

Unfortunately my DH very often comes home with chocolates and sweets and it's really hard to sit there while he munches away, I ask for a little bit but once I start I can't stop. Knowing this he then produces the bar of chocolate he bought for me so I don't eat all his. And the cycle continues....

A piece of toast is (almost) as quick as getting a mars bar from the cupboard and it'll satisfy the sugar craving.
Fruit is the best thing for satisfying a sugar craving though (apart from actual sugar that is!)

No, Ora the body does want the sugar - it knows the most efficient way to get it

It's our job to train our bodies to take different, slow releasing carbs and extra protein to con our bodies into being healthy

The reality is that our pupils widen, our heart rate speeds up and we have the willpower of a fly round shit when we see the crack cocaine that is sugar.

That doctor on the Moseley programme said it was a sodding miracle we didn't have much more obesity given the availability of the food our bodies crave

You have to literally train your mind & vision to keep away from the biscuit aisles etc maybe by seeing them as inferior products that will wreck your mood/figure/skin etc

Much like cigarettes seem to a non smoker?