To ask for help ditching the sugar

[Saltdoughmuncher]

I am 33 and admit I am addicted to sugar. I eat chocolates and sweets pretty much every day and crave them all the time.

My teeth already have 4 fillings from being a teenager with a bad diet and I now need another one.

How am I going to ditch the sugar? I need some help as I can’t afford to damage any more of my teeth.

Watching with interest. It’s fizzy drinks for me.

I manage to give them up for Lent every year. Then fall straight back off the wagon as soon as it’s over.

I love a full fat can of coke, I have to not have it in the house or I would drink it every day. It’s my treat if we go to a cafe though as I don’t drink tea or coffee.

can You go cold turkey? After a wile you won’t like sweet things that much.
Or start by cutting down all the sugar elsewhere (tea, coffee, sweet drinks including sweet alcoholic drinks, biscuits, cakes)
Then Stop eating sweets
Then stop eating chocolates

Try to brush your teeth more often to make sure no sugar is left on them. There is also the question if you brush them correctly to start with (google this). Some back teeth have more indentations so are not as flat on the top as others so are more prone to trapping food etc and they need a more careful brushing.

Or just tell yourself that your teeth are worth more to you than eating sweets.
I’m not saying it would be easy but you can do it!

Chocolate for me, and if I give it up then it's something else sugary.

I am trying to eat a more plant based diet, for health reasons, only very gradually - and this has started to eliminate sugar because I can't have chocolate (I've not got rid of it yet but think I will do, once I've eaten all the stuff I have!).

What I need to do is find another snack/right sized thing for when I need a quick bite. Carrot sticks don't really work and I seem to be having quite a lot of carrots now, but olives are OK, nuts, those sesame snaps....

Ditch carbs generally. The problem with just ditching sugar is that when you eat other carbs (potatoes, bread, rice etc.) your body converts it to sugar and so you are still left craving more carbs and more sugar. Cut it all out for a few days and then you'll find you aren't craving it in the same way.

I don’t think I would manage to ditch the carbs too. I work and have a 3 year old and 8 month old, I need to be able to rely on a beige freezer meal more often than I would like to admit at the minute.

I don’t eat any vegetables which I know is a problem. My children both eat plenty of them, but I’ve never eaten them. I also don’t drink water.

Todays diet has been;

One gingerbread biscuit
A banana
A mini Milky Way
A bag of crisps
A microwave mac and cheese meal
Most of a share bag of chocolate buttons
A cookie
3 slices of pizza
A slice of toast

It usually isn’t quite so bad but I’ve been busy at work so haven’t had chance to cook anything properly.

Drinks wise I only ever drink dilute sugar free squash during the day, a glass of orange Juice with breakfast and then fizzy as a treat if I’m out somewhere.

I love a full fat can of coke

There is no fat in coke, you mean ‘full sugar’.

Sugar isn't great but I'd be just as worried about the lack of fibre in your diet. Can you gradually start adding veggies to your diet? If you can work on crowding out the treat foods with healthier ones it will be much more sustainable long term.

Could you try this?

www.allencarr.com/easyway-quit-sugar/

Allen Carr has a great reputation for getting people to stop smoking and drinking so might be worth a look.

Why don't you eat cereal or vegetables?

Go low carb, it removes your desire for anything sugary very quickly.

You still eat carbs, but in veg and salads etc.

Your diet is really unhealthy I'm sorry to say and you will get ill if you continuel

There is no fat in coke, you mean ‘full sugar’.

IT'S A JOKE.

I thought I’d struggle too, but then got gestational diabetes and had to go low carb and low sugar.
With not much time or energy for this cos of work/kids, I just tried swapping to low gi carbs (eg sweet potato chopped and boiled or microwaved, whole meal toast with peanut butter not jam)
And snacked on (quite a lot of) cheese, nuts, apples.
Had canned soup for lunch at work.
Still had beige food sometimes (eg breaded fish) but without potatoes, realised I actually quite liked veg.
If you really hate veg could you try something like mushy peas/cauliflower cheese where it tastes sort of carby but isn’t just plain carbs, like mash is?

Amazingly after trying this in order to get my sugars down it wasn’t that hard and I had more energy too.
Not sure how easy it will be to stay off the chocolate when I don’t have gd... but I’m going to try

The theory is if you try and snack on some protein it stops the carb/sugar craving cycle

This really helped me last year until it was Christmas and the MIL had home made mince pies on the go... I keep meaning to get back to it (but I'm preggars, so reckon anything goes right now). If you do it every few days I think it really helps! Good luck!

I read Sweet Nothing by Nicole Mowbray in July. It motivated me to quit sugar and reduce my carbs for 2 months during which time I lost a stone.
Unfortunately I fell of the wagon and now feel completely controlled by sugar again. I'm going to try again in January.
My food diary is probably not that different (though I only drink tea and water)

"I don’t eat any vegetables which I know is a problem"

Yep, I'd recommend 1st priority is building up to 5 different veg a day, including beans / peas / pentils as 1 of them, for fibre
and boosting protein, to help stay full

Drink more water, e.g. sparkling unflavoured water with ice and a slice

That day's menu you listed is mostly junk, with probably only the banana giving you some vitamins & minerals

beans / peas / lentils

Your diet of today would make me feel awful - lethargic and bloated. And probably hungry, all those carbs.

I'm no saint though - I have the same problem, sweet tooth!

You really need to start eating veges. Sorry to preach but you'll feel so much better. Lack of time is no excuse - no one has time, but you just have to manage. Batch cook at the weekends or look up some quick staples you can make during the week.

Yes you should try and adjust your diet, maybe prepare vegetable sticks every few days so you could snack on those instead of other unhealthy stuff. Precook chicken strips or boiled eggs and have those handy - you could easily eat them cold. Or some grains salad you could also eat cold with chopped parsley, lemon juice, pomegranate seeds, all that sort of stuff. Try and dilute the squash as much as you can until eventually you drink water. Or try warm water (seems easier to drink for some reason), or prepare a large glass of water with fruit in it (grapefruit, pomegranate seeds, mint leaves, apple slices etc) for a hint of flavour.
Or eat what the 3 year old eats.
For the scare factor, watch The Bitter Truth about Sugar on YouTube, take it with a pinch of salt because it reflects more of an American style diet, but still. Essentially, liver is what you should be worried about With a sweet diet. Apart from teeth, cellulite and later on wrinkles.
You are young, if you put the work in now, it will show later.
Try not to have those items of food in the house and if you really want something sweet, bake something yourself and this will reduce sugar consumption too.

Complex carbs are fine - brown rice/pasta/bread. It's white carbs that turn into sugar in a nanosecond.

Why don't you eat veg op?

You could try this.

This is good too - it explains the overeating sugar cycle.

Go cold turkey.

NO sugar at all (including carbs).

A weird thing happens. You actually get quite sensitive to sugar after you haven't had it for a while.

I could eat an entire Lindt 800g bar in a day , now I cannot stand ribs or sweet & sour or anything basted with BBQ sauce because it is too sweet.

When someone first told me that, I didn't believe them but it is true.

Other nice thing is you don't get fur on your teeth any more.

Portion control - that's another thing!

Meant to say: its an addiction (literally), so you have to treat it like an addiction.

Cold turkey or nothing! You do get withdrawal as well. By the third day, you want to hold up Greggs with an AK47!

"One gingerbread biscuit
A banana
A mini Milky Way
A bag of crisps
A microwave mac and cheese meal
Most of a share bag of chocolate buttons
A cookie
3 slices of pizza
A slice of toast "

OP you are well on your way to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Don't do this to yourself. It is MUCH better to have a full English breakfast (no baked beans) with lots of tomatoes plus avocado instead of toast.

That keeps you full until supper which is much better for you. Then home you go and a steak and salad. Some people only eat once a day in this lifestyle (it is not a diet).

The constant snacking you are doing is your insulin roaring into your blood stream, all that sugar converted into fat, then blood sugar dropping as the insulin mops it up - getting hungry and more sugar. That way lies diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

You have got to change your wicked ways!