How To Stop Your Sugar Cravings

Find out how you can stop sugar cravings. Are there times when you find yourself violently craving sugar? When you start eating a jelly bean, you cannot stop until the whole packet is demolished? If that is you, you have a sugar addiction. This addiction is not unlike alcohol or drug addiction. A force much larger than you takes over and has a life of its own. Stop sugar cravings using the resources and strategies in this article!

How Do Sugar Cravings Develop?

As a dietitian, I have found from experience that individuals who eat haphazardly, eat very fast and eat a narrower range of uninteresting foods tend to develop food addictions. Sugar cravings are almost a form of compensation for an uninteresting palate.

Chronic dieters are particularly susceptible to erratic and uncontrollable sugar cravings. Do you put yourself on punishing diets and eat like a bird in the attempt to get to your goal weight by tomorrow? You may want to take a cold hard look at yourself to ascertain what it is that you are subjecting yourself to that is causing these addictions.

I postulate that it could be due to a lack of balance. Balance is key in the taste sensations we get from our foods. There should be a mix of sour, sweet, hot, cold, bitter, salty, spicy taste sensations in our palate. These myriad of tastes sensations, food textures and mouth feels contribute to the enjoyment of food. If we enjoy each meal slowly, feel fully satisfied and stop just before we are full, we are less likely to develop sugar addictions.

Why Do I Have Sugar Cravings?

Cravings can be linked to a drop in blood sugar levels. If your last meal was more than 6 hours ago, it is reasonable to expect hunger pangs to initial sugar cravings. After all, your body needs sugar to produce energy quickly. Particularly the brain – the only form of fuel the brain uses is sugar, not fat or protein. Consequently, it is natural for you to crave sugar when famished! To prevent these cravings, have a snack between your 3 main meals. Reach for some fruits, nuts or yoghurt.

Food cravings can also arise from hormonal changes. Many women report that they crave sugar when they are pre-menstrual. Our emotional state is also largely responsible for our sugar cravings. Some people, when angry or under stress, find themselves polishing off an entire block of chocolate, half a cake and a whole pack of sweet biscuits. If you are one of those people, try to keep those emotions in check by taking time out to calm down before reaching for the bag of jelly beans. Some breathing exercises to relax could be useful!

Ways to Stop Sugar Cravings

Are you in the habit of eating something sweet after dinner? Do you like a bowl of ice cream after dinner? If you break this habit, you are on the perfect path to stop your sugar cravings for good.

Brush Your Teeth

Brushing your teeth at the end of the meal can readily reduce your sugar cravings. The toothpaste leaves a fresh minty flavour in your mouth and this makes you less likely to reach for something sweet.

Have Some Water

Often thirst is mistaken for hunger. We confuse the body’s messages. Tune in to your body’s cues and get a big glass of water instead of starting on that bar of chocolate.

Do Something Different

Are you bored after spending hours at your desk? Get up and go for a walk instead of giving in to the urge to eat something sweet. Craving something sweet could just be a habit. The best way to stop the craving is to stop the habit altogether. Distract yourself another way, call a friend, go for a walk, take a long hot bath, listen to some music and start grooving or do some yoga.

If you can just delay satisfying your immediate food cravings, you can drastically reduce the amount of times you actually give in to them. They are called “moments” of weakness for that reason. If you can extend the “moment”, the weakness may well pass, too. This is a very powerful method to stop sugar cravings.

Do anything but eat something sweet and break the habit. You might actually like yourself more for being stronger than your cravings!

Clear Your Pantry

Another way to stop sugar cravings is to clear your pantry. Eliminate or store sweet foods in opaque jars so that they are “Out of sight and out of mind.”

Control the Quantities

If having coffee with friends or dining out, share the piece of cake or dessert. That way you cut down on half the sugar intake and get to enjoy exactly what you want. You are less likely to feel deprived and resentful of missing out on the sweet.

Stop sugar cravings at home by giving yourself a bit of chocolate and keep the rest of the bar in a hard to reach place, like the rear of the top kitchen shelf. Then walk out of the kitchen and settle down somewhere else before you start eating.

When Shopping

Never shop when you are dangerously hungry. You will reach for the sweet treats unconsciously when you blood sugar levels are low. Eat something like a piece of fruit and a yoghurt before you commence shopping. Take a list with you and buy only what is on the list, nothing more!

Hypnosis to Stop Sugar Cravings

You might also want to give hypnosis a go as another complementary tool in your quest to stop sugar cravings. I have purchased a number of hypnosis mp3 recordings from the following site myself, and found them to be surprisingly effective. They are very reasonably priced and come with a risk-free 90-day money back guarantee – more than enough time to see if this works for you:

• Stop Sugar Cravings Hypnosis

You might also like to try the more general Perfect Health hypnosis session:

• Perfect Health Hypnosis

Sugar addiction is like any other addiction, only it is socially acceptable and therefore harder to incriminate.

100 Days of Empowerment – Beyond Sugar Cravings

When you are completely stuck, it usually helps to attack a problem from a completely different angle. Have a look at the following video – it’s quite fun and so true!

A friend sent this to me, and I signed up for the program myself. Having been through the entire 100 days program now, I can whole-heartedly recommend it. Yeah sure, I do not need to stop sugar cravings in my life, but I am still human with plenty of other issues. And I can tell you, this program is full of positive, empowering messages that truly propel you each day to live a life you love! Create your own breakthroughs, go for your dreams – and walk down a different street!

UPDATE: The 100 Day Challenge is no longer available (closed since mid February). It will next be open in September, and you can sign up on the website to be alerted by email when it becomes available again.

Do you find this article useful? What are your breakdowns and breakthroughs in dealing with your sugar cravings? What’s your plan of attack? I’d love to hear from you how you will be or were able to stop your sugar cravings!

Tags: Blood Sugar Level, Fruit, Healthy Eating, Stop Cravings, weight loss, Weight Management