Sugar cravings make every day feel like I’ve failed

[louchelashes]

I’ve got about 20kg to lose post baby, I’m type 1 diabetic but I LOVE sugar and treats. As long as I do the insulin to cover the food I’m eating my diabetes is fine, but my weight has crept up hugely in the last few months. I will treat myself to crisps or chocolate or sweets every day, but I then get in the mindset of “oh well today is a write off now” and I carry on eating badly.
I have bought a huge water bottle, vitamins and all the healthy things to start eating better, but I find myself scraping the cupboards to find something to eat.
I have no willpower and I can’t carry on like this. Any tips from anyone in a similar position who can’t stop the sugar cravings and constant need to treat themselves?!

Allow yourself the treats but just two per day. I love the slimfast snack chocolate bars because they are filling, tasty and only around 95 calories. They are chewy aswell so take longer to eat then a biscuit.

I also like chocolate covered rice cakes from Tesco which are only 60 calories!!

Allowing myself them means I don't feel like the day is a right off. Even if I was to have 4 of the rice cakes in a row which would feel a bit like a binge, calories wise is that bad....if you compared it to binging on chocolate bars.

Allocate yourself some chocolate/crisps every day
Count it in to your daily totals.
Make a box and that box is your treats for the day. If you run out it means you get less tomorrow if you have some left you can add them to tomorrow's box (encouraging you to leave some rather than I must eat these)

Some days you just need a bit more. That is not failing. That is normal.

Could you swap carrots for the sweets?

I'm exactly the same and trying to find healthier alternatives satisfy my sweet cravings, grapes, gala apples and oranges and more recently Cadbury trail mix. Its amazing, does the job. Its 178 cal per small bag but it's got all the good nuts in which have healthy fats and a bit of protein too. I allow myself a small pack every couple of days (mostly as an evening treat)

I really struggle with this too! One thing I find which helps is having a big pudding in the evening. But it's actually a banana, fat free Yog, caramel drizzle and a broken up rich tea finger. Feels naughty but is filling and not a multipack of chocolate which is my usual go to...

Oh that sounds good @Tatianacatiana
I'm gonna try that

Come on!

Have you heard of the glucose goddess?

If you broke your arm you wouldn't think fuck it I might as well break the other one now.

If you cock up and eat something you didn't intend too just write it off and go again tomorrow! But this is why exclusion diets don't work for the vast amount of people as you're restricting food you want to eat and punishing yourself when you inevitably do.

Get some lower calorie bars/crisps that hit the spot when you feel in need of them...

I think as others have said, build it in. DH is T1 and after being very thin for years has gained weight and has been been since November. He’s found he needs to keep a proportion of his calories aside in case of hypos as would have a decent day then go low and need the extra food which would add up and take him over his daily limit.

The good news is it is working and he is losing weight.

Take a look at the keto diet> https://www.diabetes.co.uk/keto/

Also, to understand your sugar craving watch on YouTube/ read a book by/ find a podcast by Gary Taubes, or Robert Lustig or Jason Fung. All explain how sugar and carbs function in the body very clearly.

Unfortunately, eating carbs and sugar causes you to crave carbs and sugar. Eating heatlthy meals with fat and protein don't. It takes some time to kill the cravings but it is worth it.

Sugar addiction is very similar to alcohol addiction and activates the same reward centres in the brain the same way as it also releases opoids and dopamine. I found that cutting it out entirely was the only way to stop cravings. It took a withdrawal of around 2 weeks to start feeling better.

OP I’ve had terrible sugar cravings for 10 years now. It’s horrible and has made me so miserable as I’ve piled weight on. I've just started the very fast 800 12 week online programme. This means going fairly cold turkey on sugar. There’s been a withdrawal period but I’m not craving the sugar right now and feel a sense of brain clarity.

I'd vehemently disagree with the "advice" that the answer is to snack every day (unless, that is, for reasons related to regulating type 1 diabetes).

There's a set of posters who pop up on every thread advising people to just go ahead, just snack, just indulge yourself every day. It sounds exactly like the thoughts we all have when we're trying to justify eating rubbish to ourselves.

"Go on, just have a Freddo", " it's only a treat", "it's just one chocolate, go ahead, why not indulge yourself?". Why am I seeing this on every thread? It's the opposite of what we should be saying! 😕

I think this is bad advice and in that in fact the opposite is true, that sugar craving begets sugar craving which begets sugar craving... it's madness to advise people who already have difficulty controlling themselves to eat snacks, junk food and chocolate.

The best way is to cut it out all together (unless there is a medical reason related to type 1 diabetes as in your case).

Allocate yourself some chocolate/crisps every day

No, don't.👎

@kitz90 would you be able to post a link to the 12 week programme please?

@waistchallenge The reason that building treats (whatever that might be) works for some people is because restriction - whether that's overall or specific food types - often leads to binging. Is it better to have a small treat when you want or is it better to spend all of your time obsessively thinking about what you "can't" eat and then ending up falling completely off the wagon and eating your body weight in sugar one day? For most people, a sustainable diet is one that they will stick to and be consistent with, not one that encourages a cycle of restriction and binge.

Not every day, though. That is ridiculous. If I were to advise a slim person how to become obese, I'd tell them to eat chocolate and sweets every day! That's how good that advice is, that's what it's worth. It's not helping the OP, it's actually harmful.

I've lost 4 stone in the last 8 months eating a bit of chocolate every day because I really like it.

https://killavanilla.com/

Oh yes, silly me, the best way to lose weight is to eat chocolate 🤦‍♀️

If it's included within your calorie count for the day and means you stick to a diet for more than a week or two, sure, why not? Everyone is different and for some people, like me, having a treat most (well, every) day works. It's not bad advice per se, it's what some people find very helpful.

I'm not obese or fat and eat chocolate everyday, Sometimes twice a day.... I also have lots of the dreaded UPF in my diet.

Plus dark chocolate isn't bad for you at all: zoe.com/learn/dark-chocolate-health-benefits.amp

I know it is, I have 90% cocoa myself. But very dark chocolate should be specified if that's what's meant because it's certainly not the default meaning.