How to cut down on carb addiction?

[Puzzledtenant]

I'm trying to start weight loss but my biggest problem is I think I'm genuinely addicted to carbs and find myself absolutely craving them. I've heard of being addicted to sugar but it's chocolate, sweets, crisps, nice bread, pasta any sort of heavy carbs. I can't stand nuts either so can't even wean myself onto nuts. If I eat something else, like fruit or veg sticks it's filling but I'm still craving carbs, will be salivating over a slice of fresh bread and butter. Any tips how to cut down on carby snacks?

I went cold turkey. Best thing I ever did. After a few days the cravings go away. The cupboards are full of biscuits, sweets and chocolate for the Dcs and I am not even tempted to touch them.

I stopped eating chocolate cakes biscuits and sweets. I eat bread if it is wholewheat and pref sourdough, brown pasta and brown rice and I find I do not have that "no off button" feeling with them.

Thanks for all the tips - can I ask did you find it hard making it through the first week going cold turkey? I sound ridiculous but I don't drink, I don't smoke, eating is my vice, I'm actually daunted by the thought of a week without cheesy rolls or cakes or crisps etc, silly as it is. Once you've stopped do you ever eat any of those things again, eg if it's someone's birthday and there's cake or you're eating out and options are limited? Do you find you don't like those things any more or get tempted to eat them again?

I felt like you op.

I loved carbs! It all came to a head when I gorged loads of sweet treats at work. I felt awful after both physically and mentally.

I literally decided enough was enough. Cut all carbs including fruit. To begin with it was hard. The first week I felt physically awful but once that passed I felt great.
I've been low carb now for about 3 years. To begin with I'd eat carbs once a month. It was the only way for me to stick with what I was doing. On those days I literally inhaled carbs but once the day was over I was straight back to low carb.
3 years on I rarely have carbs now. I genuinely don't really enjoy how they make me feel. I no longer crave them either. I do have them on days like birthdays, anniversaries etc mainly just to fit in with what family/friends want to do.
Key for me was the have lots of good fats. Fats mean I wasn't hungry which massively helped me sustain the low carb approach.

I'm eating low carb high fat at the moment. Eating anything off track writes the day off for me but I can go straight back to the plan the next day.

There are some amazing very low carb breads, wraps and crackers available to wean you off. They are so good you can't tell the difference between them and the carb heavy versions. I now have a cupboard/fridge/freezer full of them so if I want a sandwich or wrap or cheese and crackers I can have it. Managed to lost half a stone in the last three weeks doing this and still feeling full and satisfied.

I do not drink or smoke either. Food / carbs were my addiction. Honestly, the weaning phase was OK. I did not go low calorie at the same time, so I had lots of meat, cheese, eggs and low carb veg. When I felt my body was used to it I started counting calories too.
Make sure you drink enough and there is enough salt in your diet.

Giving up caffeine a few years ago was way more painful.

Sorry not to return to the thread until now, I gave up caffeine and 'junk' on the day I posted and have been feeling horrendous for the past week, had a massive headache, nausea and felt so sluggish for the whole week but feeling on the mend now - not sure if it was the change of diet or got a little bug at the same time but was determined to stick with it.

Apart from feeling so rough it hasn't been as hard as I thought - to be fair I kept it easy on myself, I haven't banned all sugar or gone really low carb, just stopped the OTT junk, so brown pasta/rice instead of white, seeded wholemeal bread instead of white, no Coke, crisps, ice cream or sweets, almost no chocolate (have had about 5 miniature chocolates over the whole week) etc but no ban on fruit or sugary squash for now. Sounds not particularly low carb but I'd say I'm genuinely having about 5% of the processed sugar I was having before. I haven't been craving those things as much as I thought, I keep thinking of chocolate, white bread rolls, piles of white pasta and ice cream and drooling but I haven't actually felt it's been too hard not to give in. I don't even crave Coke anymore already and I used to drink tonnes of the stuff just to keep me going in the day.

Thanks for all the tips and help, really glad I posted.

When I have avoided it, it works for a bit then I binge. Now I let myself have bread or carbs on Wednesday and 1 day at weekend. That way I dont say never and I can cope!

@FedNlanders

When I have avoided it, it works for a bit then I binge. Now I let myself have bread or carbs on Wednesday and 1 day at weekend. That way I dont say never and I can cope!

Sounds like a good idea, I'm hoping I don't go back to bingeing, it was mainly the real junk food i wanted to get rid of so hopefully by not being too strict with myself I can stick to it. So I'm still allowed sugar based squash but not Coke, I had cereal for breakfast but a lower sugar higher fibre one etc rather than white toast which would make me crave more bread etc.

Making good choices is never a bad thing :) I'm still learning!