Giving up sugar and alcohol

[JasmineAriel22]

Does anyone have any tips to cut down or give up sugar? I'm stuck in a sugar spiral at the moment where every day I say I'm not going to have any then I give up in the evening and have too much. It's making me feel ill.

Also, I don't drink a lot, just a couple of drinks on a Friday and Saturday night, but I'm finding it really doesn't agree with me anymore. Again, I keep telling myself I'm going to give it up and then end up caving after a busy week.

Currently feeling sick after half a bottle of prosecco and a box of chocolates.

Is the best way cold turkey and ride it out? It's so hard! Help!

I’m a lot like you. Eat way too much refined sugar and drink too much wine.

Some people may be able to make cold turkey work but I find cutting down or substituting easier. If you follow a low calorie diet, there is still space for sweet snacks (chocolate muffins are my downfall!) but you realise they take up a lot of your allowance so mentally you don’t crave them as much.

I’m not good at quitting booze completely but when I’m ‘being good’ I’ll drink gin and slimline tonic. As I don’t like it as much as the wine, I naturally stop at 2 or 3, and always have plenty of ice so the drink lasts ages

With alcohol I did dry January (only to help my husband who was on doctor's orders) and discovered that I can actually take or leave alcohol. My sleep quality improved massively and I have drastically cut down my consumption as a result.

With sugar I had to go cold turkey for a good couple of months. It may have been longer - was a long while ago. The good result of that was that a lot of the crap I would previously have shovelled down my throat has ended up tasting too sweet for me and I don't like it. I think I do have some sort of sugar addiction, though. I can have the occasional sweet treat without a problem (and without needing to eat the entire box of chocs in one sitting) BUT I cannot do this with any regularity. Going on holiday for a week and having some pudding every day wakes up the sugar monster and I find it really hard to resist. I have to go cold turkey again for a while.

When I went on a low carb diet I found it much easier to cut out sugar, than just by attempting to give up sugar alone. I think that by only giving up sugar I was still eating high carb foods (even more because I had the excuse that I wasn't eating sugar) and that just maintained my sugar craving whereas I lost that craving when I was low carb.

I quit sugar 11 weeks ago, after a binge that made me feel exactly like you described. Sugar is definitely addictive and I know if I break it it’s a spiral until I’m back to where I was. I have stopped all sugar and ready meals and takeaways.

There is a thread on her based on a book www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/4245218-Why-We-Eat-Too-Much-Thread-2?msgid=107489515#107489515 that’s also worth a read.

I made the decision to stop based on health reasons as many of the issues I was feeling pretty much daily after a sugar binge tick off the pre diabetic symptoms. The weight loss , so far 1.5 stone is a happy side effect.

I have tried before but I do think you need to be in the right frame of mind, I’ve tried doing what @Youngatheart00 suggested but it will never work for me.

Thank you so much for your replies! It's reassuring to know I'm not alone in fighting the sugar monster!

It's definitely refined sugar and carbs. I think it's best to cut it all out and try to fill up on unprocessed foods.

My Dad is diabetic so I do worry what I'm doing to myself and what might happen to my health in the future.

The two seem to go hand in hand, if I have some alcohol I'm more inclined to eat lots of junk.

I'm going to cut it all out for a bit and hopefully my tastebuds will change.

Wish me luck!!