How do I begin giving up sugar?

Cut out all drinks with “High Fructose Corn Syrup”

Introduce eating about 2 fruits through out the day, mainly after a meal, so it can feel like, “dessert”

You don’t want to cut out all sugars and crash. But yes HFC’s suck.

@_Whitetigress I gave up soda years ago and can’t remember the last time I had it. Also, besides what I drink on some nights when I get home from work, I don’t consume a whole lot of juice (I always have water with my meals). I do need to get back on track with eating more fruits, though…

You have to go cold turkey on the sugar. If you are craving them you probably have candidiasis. It will take a week for the yeast to die.

You need to change your whole way of eating. For breakfast, have protein in the form of a scrambled egg (add cheese if desired).

You need to prepare for the week ahead on weekends. Cook a chicken . The you can make chicken salad for lunch. Or prepare tuna salad. Eat the salad on a bed of lettuce leaves.

As a snack in the mid-afternoon have a handful of nuts. Or some greek yogurt with berries and artificial sweetener and vanilla.

When you come home, you can take the cooked chicken and make a pasta dish with cooked chicken like chicken tettrazini or chicken prima vera (some vegetables would be good).

You can change, but you have to invest some weekend time and planning for eating during the week. Stay away from the sugar. Good luck.

Buy fruits and vegies that are a little unripe or in varying stages.

I still do a ton of frozen vegetables. I also grow a bit of herbs and putting them in water to flavor it is yummy as opposed to juice.

If I know I have a big week I will cook ahead freezing individual meals. I also do this with green or fruit smoothies.. one way to make sure the fruits and vegies don’t go bad at least for the first week.

Another is to make sure you have good sleep hygiene start working out on the weekends and bring plenty of snacks for work so you don’t break down and binge.

At the end of day it is willpower. Focus on all the reasons you don’t want to eat refined sugar. How bad it makes you feel poor health etc. Then just challenge yourself a day at a time. Or at first hourly.. Just wait 15 or 30 minutes before stopping by the secretaries desk then go ahead grab one. But don’t unwrap and it right away. Make yourself complete a task first, then drink some water. Etc by the time you eat it do you really want it? How does it make you feel?

@marinelife and @Unbroken The problem lies in changing my mindset and being proactive about making these changes. I suppose step one will have to be stop making excuses for myself. I will certainly give your suggestions a try. I already have good sleep hygiene as I make sure I get my full 8 hours every night, even if it means sacrificing “cooking time.”

In terms of making healthier substitutions for, say, bread, is the whole grain kind normally lower in sugar? Or will I have to give up bread completely? What other healthier substitutions can I make for what I currently eat?

Whole or enriched bread is not very healthy. Their are healthy breads out there still. Try types likes ezekial bread or seeded bread.

Another way to prevent highs and crashes is the way you combine foods. Simple sugars or carbs should be combined with a protein or something complex and dense like a fiber.

Instead of just bread add some peanut butter on top or if you eat yogurt which has a shit ton of sugar for most brands add some nuts seeds or granola.

I sometimes cheat and buy precut carrot and celery sticks.

Hummus and those pita chips you like are a good choice.

Another quick option is quesadillas or burritos you can doctor them up with salsa mushrooms mole sauce pico de gallo cheese sour cream jalopenos olives etc.

There are tuna salads that take 10 to 15 minuts of prep time so many ingredients or tastes to be achieved as well.

You said you do pasta a lot. Try different types of noodles like quinoa noodles. You can throw in soup bases like imagine or pacific broths and add meat or vegies they have frozen cut peppers and onions canned mushrooms and dehydrated mushrooms now.

potatoes sweet yams or otherwise last a long time contain starch and carbs but also nutrients. The baked potato approx 6 minutes then you can add canned beans or some precooked meat olive oil cheese whatever the fixings.

Rice is so easy…. brown rice says you have to cook it for an hour not so start your water boiling add in rice turn to simmer for 20 min with lid on, tiny bit of air flow so lid won’t seal and turn off burner let it set for 10 min with lid on. Fluff. The add anything to it. Edit: make extra rice freeze it into protion size.

I’ll tell you what I used to do, and what I do now:

I used to skip breakfast entirely, then drink Coke (leaded, not “unleaded” – no “Diet” drinks for me, thanks) by the case, and during the day my biggest bugaboo was the cheap bags of potato chips (crisps, if you’re in the UK) that I’d buy from vending machines in the building. Lunch was a ton of whatever leftover we had eaten for dinner the previous evening, and dinner was pretty big, too. After dinner I’d always do a huge bowl of ice cream (usually with a very generous topping of chocolate syrup) while watching television.
——
Now… I start every work day with an apple, just an apple. (I still generally skip breakfast on the weekends.) During the morning and sometimes after lunch I snack on an assortment of unsalted dried nuts (walnuts, pecans and almonds) mixed with wasabi peas.

Lunch is more often than not either hummus with whole wheat pita bread or a prepared curry lunch-in-a-pouch that’s pretty darn healthy: either lentil-based or beans-and-tomatoes (or a little bit of what I had the night before).

And dinner is a smaller portion of whatever I like, except salads. I’ll really go to town on a salad sometimes.

To drink, it’s exclusively unsweetened iced tea with lemon, or (at home) an iced tea and cranberry juice cocktail mix. (That’s where I get most of my sugar, these days.)

You just have to start doing it. If you start eating the non-sugared and unsalted foods that you like (and fortunately for me I like a lot of vegetables and fruits, and I’ve always liked iced tea), then you can start to cut down the sugar and salt and really not miss them very much.

Well if you can make it through one solid week of healthy eating, and drinking plenty of water, you will find that your sugar craving will lessen. When you try something sweet again you will find that it is too sweet.
Lemon flavored water with fresh lemon squeezed into it is quite good after a while and a healthy replacement for soft drinks. At first it may seem acidic but after a while your body’s acid level will drop and it won’t taste acidic any more. (Your body converts acid foods to alkaline and vice versa).

I’ll agree with what others have said above – start by eliminating the processed corn sugars. Try to be mindful of whether you’re eating real food or not. Stop eating cereals from the big, sugary cereal companies, and switch to something that is all food, like these which you can usually find in health stores. Pick a type with lots of fruit and nuts, and you won’t miss the sugar at all. Look at the ingredients – if you don’t recognize everything as food, put it down and choose something else.

Make a ritual of preparing lunch the night before, and bring it with you – sandwiches with real ingredients, and fruit. It doesn’t take long, and you feel kind of stupid if you don’t eat it the next day, if you put effort and money into preparing it.

Drink lots of water, mainly because it’s something to consume instead of a snack. Get yourself excited about it. When you see the secretary’s chocolate bars, instead of taking one, think: “You know what I’d really like? A glass of water!” I do this, and it sounds ridiculous, and makes me laugh. But it works. It’s distraction from stupid chocolate bars that I don’t really want anyway. If I’m honest, I never actually snack because I’m hungry.

But if you’re snacking because you’re hungry, have fruit instead. Apples and oranges are highly portable. You can keep a bowl of fruit on your own desk, if you want. Or cut veggies and dip if you have fridge access.

Anyway, if you’re selective when you shop, soon you’ll find you only have good things to eat at home, and you will find that those are the foods your body asks for. Look forward to the eventuality that you will find takeout really disgusting. Like, “Gross, I can’t eat this” disgusting. You’ll get there.

Oh… and have you tried kale? I’m one of those people who never ate anything green when I was a kid, and I discovered kale about 2 years ago. It is the most amazing thing ever! Raw as a snack, or barely sauteed with a bit of oil and coarse salt. Incredible! I swear some days it’s all I want to eat.

And finally… you say two things that don’t ring true with me. First, your hectic work schedule doesn’t allow you to prepare food. I can’t count the number of times I’ve said this in my life, and it was always bullshit. The fact is, there is time enough in a day to feed yourself properly. You just have to decide whether it’s important enough for you to actually do it on a regular basis.

And second, you can’t buy fruits and vegetables because you only buy groceries every two weeks. Assuming for a moment that it is actually every two weeks, I cannot think of a single fruit or vegetable that can’t last two weeks. Seriously. Most things will hang on that long, and even if they only last a week and a half, well so what? Eat those things a little sooner. It makes no sense that your grocery interval prevents you from buying these foods.

In other words, I think you need to redefine what is possible where your meals are concerned. Otherwise, your own attitude will be what prevents you from succeeding.

You can feed yourself. Now do it! :)

You’re very lucky. I’m 5’2 and 150 .. went up from 135. And I don’t eat half the carbs or junk you eat.

There are a lot of meals you can cook, like stir fry, in a short amount of time. Cooking is an enjoyable thing! Try looking online for healthy recipes.
Here’s a tip. My fiance always does this: if you bake something (chicken, roast, etc..) it can be at least 2 days’ worth of dinner. If you make a large pot of chili, bean soup, baked beans, etc… you can refrigerate it or even freeze it and have it last a REALLY long time. Sometimes if you get really lazy, you can put a bunch of peas, corn and carrots in boiling water. The peas will give you enough protein to fill you up.

This is all coming from a fatty :(

You will need to come up with a plan, some of which you will need to have written down, so that you can remember it : ) Don’t worry, this is going to be fun.

We’ve been going through a bit of this at our house, because my Mom is dedicated to eating much healthier, and since I’m a vegetarian and love to prepare meals and shop, I’m kind of driving this train. So, all abooooooooooard!

Let’s start with your workplace, because that sounds like the place where most of your temptations are coming from. Vow today, that other people’s snacks are off limits, but don’t be stingy, you are going to bring new and improved snacks and you’re going to share them with others (the one’s who are not afraid bwah hah hah!)

But before we even get to the snacks, treat yourself to a brand new, super-cute, lunch box. Like This or This if you’d prefer something more adult. You will no longer be eating takeout, mmmmK.

So, what you’re going to do, next time you go shopping (and by the way, I shop about as often as you do, so this whole situation should work out fine, even with the fruits and veggies) you are going to get some snacks to bring to work to keep on your desk, or inside your desk drawer. Forget about candy and think about healthy snacks that keep well. Things like Unsalted Nuts, and dried fruit (there’s 2 kinds, the kind like you normally think of like dried cranberries or dried apricots or prunes like This and then there is the freeze dried fruits and veggies like These which are actually crisp rather than moist) Although dried fruit does contain sugar, it’s not anywhere near as bad as eating candy, although you need to limit your intake, and not just eat loads of anything, really. You might want to get a little tiny container, or measuring cup, something that is a quarter cup size or smaller, and when you do get a snack, use the cup, don’t just grab and grab and grab. Limit yourself to 2 snacks per day, maybe one after breakfast and one sometime later in the afternoon after you’ve had lunch.

Other good choices for snacks are Whole Wheat Pretzels (one of my faves) and unsalted or lightly salted Air Popped Popcorn or low/no salt whole grain crackers like These and no salt trail mixes like This or find some good low salt, whole grain chips like These (another one of my faves). So these are just some of the items that you should keep on hand at work.

Resolve, today, that you will be making and taking your lunch to work, every day, only eating take out (or going out to lunch) for the occasional birthday party, no more than once a month. That’s why you just bought that cute lunch box.

So what will you need for lunch? Veggies, which you will purchase and prep (either on the same day that you buy, or the next day, so weekend shopping is best). I like to be budget conscious too, but if you have the money to be convenience oriented, then that might be a better fit for you, to buy already washed and cut up veggies. Start with carrots and celery and cauliflower and broccoli and red bell peppers and radishes and romaine lettuce. I like to buy the whole veggies, because they are cheaper, and then spend part of a day, washing, drying, cutting and storing these items. Make sure you have some ziplock bags, or tupperware or other favorite storage containers. You can store the items in bigger containers and then just put together your lunches the night before, or you can actually use smaller containers, so that you have your veggies all ready to go, for a week. You can also do the thing where you make the salads ahead of time in a jar like This I just keep my veggies separate, so I can either make a salad, or throw some of the veggies onto a sandwich, or simply eat them as a side dish.

The next thing that you will want to get is some low fat cheese. I’ve been getting the lowfat cheddar and mozzarella sticks like These. These are great, because you just grab one and go, rather than trying to figure out a portion size. But you can also buy bigger blocks of low fat cheese, then cut it up into portions, which you will use some of during 2 weeks, and some of which you can wrap and freeze, then thaw over night, when you need some more (this is the more economical choice). Here’s a good low fat Cheddar Squares and low fat Mozzarella Cheese. You will probably want some low fat slices too for sandwiches, like This And don’t forget about Lowfat Cottage Cheese (the nonfat kind has a weird after taste). On the other hand, nonfat plain yogurt tastes darned good. I’ve been getting Non Fat Plain Greek-style yogurt lately, because it has a much creamier texture. Then you can add your own fruit, or put it on a baked potato, or use it as a base for a dip like this Tzaziki Sauce which is delicious of fresh cut veggies, or on a falafel.

You need to avoid simple sugars like white rice, white flour, pasta made with regular flour etc. but you want to add complex carbohydrates like whole grains. For sandwiches, find a whole grain bread that you like, take out what you need for the next day’s lunch, then keep the rest of the loaf in the freezer (not the fridge or on the counter, because it will go bad much faster). No need to defrost the bread either, because you will be making your lunch the night before. My new favorite bread is Trader Joe’s Flax Wholegrain Bread Just make sure the first ingredient is whole grain, but shop around until you find one that you like.

So now you can start making sandwiches every day. Go for variety every couple of days, but obvious choices are Healthier Sliced Meats with lowfat cheese and lettuce and tomato. Peanut butter, or other nut butters (which you will most likely need to keep in the fridge). I just discovered Planters Berry Nut Peanut Butter with cranberries and I love it. And of course there’s chicken salad, which you can make from canned chicken like This or you can buy one of those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store and use that, plus you can use the rest of that chicken for other meals, and you can even cut it up and freeze some of that for later use (just make sure you label and date your freezer containers, and use the leftovers within 6 months). You can also make Wraps with multiple ingredients. Instead of bread, use whole grain tortillas or flat bread.

And don’t forget the humble Burrito or Veggie Burrito

Next, you might want to invest in a crock pot and/or a rice cooker, because you will probably want to be able to make some things in bulk, so that you can freeze them into individual portions so that you can simply take a container from the freezer and let it thaw over night. Beans and rice are your friends, as is soup and chili.

Here are a few recipes to cook ahead of time, then freeze into individual portions.

Crockpot Chili (this one has subs for meat or vegetarian style)

Crockpot Refried Beans

Crockpot Spanish Rice (you can use brown rice)

Crockpot Black Bean and Chipotle Soup

Crockpot Navy Bean Soup

Crockpot Chicken Stew

Crockpot Sweet Potato Chili

Crockpot Sausage Tomato and Spinach Soup

Here’s a site that makes crock pot cooking even easier. You prep and put together your ingredients, ahead of time, put the prepped ingredients into a freezer bag, and then put that into the freezer. Then when you want to make a crockpot meal, you grab the bag, throw the already prepped ingredients in the crockpot and go.

Now, isn’t this fun?

So now, we need to get you set up at home, so that you can shop, and have ingredients ready, for when you need to use them.

I’m assuming that you are not a vegetarian, so that will be easier to figure out.

You will want to buy some meat, whether it’s chicken, beef or pork or fish, and bring it home, cut it up into smaller portions, put it into freezer bags (labeled and dated) so that you can thaw out a piece of meat over night, to fix for your dinner the next evening (with leftovers that you will take in your lunch the next day). I don’t know much about freezing fish, but you can get a lot of fish, that’s already frozen, so that’s easy. I know Trader Joe’s has a lot of frozen fish fillets, that are conveniently packaged in individual portions (unseasoned) so that you can do whatever you would normally do with fish. With the other meats, you will probably need to cut them up into smaller pieces, buy what’s on sale. Or you can bring home larger cuts of meat or a whole chicken, then cook that (like a pot roast or a baked chicken) then cut that up into individual sized portions and freeze as separate meals for later on.

Pasta isn’t the worst thing in the world, but consider switching to a brand such as Ronzoni Smart Taste which has added fiber, calcium and vitamin D. I don’t much care for straight whole wheat pasta, but if you can find some that has part whole grain, you will be much better off.

Keep your pantry stocked with canned beans, dried beans, partly whole grain dried pastas, tomato products, canned vegetables, unsalted nuts (store in the freezer to make them last longer, instead of the pantry) soup stocks, dried mushrooms, and lots of herbs and spices, and healthy canned soups. Most of these items come in low sodium versions. You should also have on hand dried grains (some of which you should store in the freezer after you have opened the package, like with wheat berries). Get quinoa, barley, bulgur. Make interesting salads with these items (because they’re kind of boring by themselves.

Here’s a few yummy grain recipes:

Tabouli

Wheat Berry Salad with Figs and Red Onion

Quinoa Lime and Cilantro Salad

Crockpot Barley and Lentil Soup

You were concerned about fruit going bad before you could eat it. This is just a matter of planning which fruit to buy, how you store it and how you plan to use it.

Let’s take strawberries, they’re notorious for going mushy before you can eat them all. Solve this problem, by taking some of them out of the package to eat in 2 or 3 days wash as you go, not ahead of time. Take the rest of them and wash them, then throw them into your blender or food processor and them make ice cubes out of them. That way, you can throw a frozen strawberry cube into your blender to make a smoothie. Get a dedicated set of ice cube trays just for foods (rather than ice). After you make the cubes, pop them out, into a labeled and dated freezer bag. You can do this with other berries like blueberries, blackberries and raspberries too.

With bananas, don’t buy a huge bunch, buy 3 to 5 (depending upon whether you use them every day in smoothies, or if you like to make cookies or banana bread) and get loose bananas, because you will want to get some that are yellow (ready to eat) and some that are green (which will take 3 to 5 days to turn yellow) and use the ones that are turning black for the cookies and banana bread.

With pears and nectarines, you probably don’t need more than 3 for a 2 week period. Pick one that is ready to eat (and eat that tomorrow for lunch) the next one should be a little bit hard, and will take 2 days to ripen, and the third one should be nice and hard, and will take about 5 to 7 days to ripen (you can ripen them quicker if you put them in a paper bag overnight).

With grapes, buy a smaller amount, that you can eat within 3 days, or if they only have the bigger amounts in the bags, share some of that with other people (either at work, your roomates, or your neighbors) or take some of them and freeze them. Frozen grapes make nifty warm weather snacks.

Apples usually last about 2 weeks, so buy 4 at a time and spread them out over the 2 weeks. I don’t like to eat the exact thing more than 2 days in a row.

With watermelon, don’t buy one of those big ones, get a small one, about the size of a canteloupe. You will probably be able to eat some of that every day for a week, or if you want to get a bigger one, do the ice cube/freezer/blender technique.

Citrus fruit usually lasts a pretty long time, so with oranges or tangerines, they’ll probably last 2 or 3 weeks, if you don’t buy ones that are all ripe right this second.

Next, what to drink (or rather what not to drink). You will probably have to go cold turkey on this one. Cut out all soda, whether it’s sugar free or regular. Even diet soda is bad for you because it makes you crave sweet stuff, and it will give you the idea that you can eat a much bigger portion of something else (like candy) which causes other problems.

Your best bet is water, water and water. If you don’t like the taste of tap water, then buy bottled water, or get a filter for your tap or fridge. After you’ve gone without sugary sweet drinks for about a month, you will notice that if you taste a sweet drink, it will taste way too sweet. Decide right now, that you are going to drink tea (not sweetened, nasty pre-made teas) but good old regular brewed (at home for iced tea, every few days is what we do here) black or green tea from tea bags. What I do is heat up water in a big 3 cup size glass measuring cup, in the microwave, until it just boils, then I add 5 regular sized tea bags (my favorites are Bigelow Decaffeinated Earl Grey and just about anything by Tazo) let that steep for about 10 minutes, then pour over ice in a pitcher.

Occasional full fat milk is OK, every now and then, but your best bet is to wean yourself down to 1%. I used to hate anything less than whole milk, but then I started adding some of the lower fat milk to the regular stuff, and now I think that 1% is perfectly creamy and whole milk is just, way too thick. This is a weaning process, but it will do you good in the long run. You might also want to check out some of the other yummy milks like almond or hazelnut.

Decaf iced coffee, with lowfat milk and no sweetener is another good choice. Don’t drink too much caffeine, because it can make you feel like you want sugar too.

If you want to drink juice (limit your intake to 2 or 3 times a week, in small juice glasses) and ONLY drink 100% juice. Read your labels! Best bets: cranberry, and concord grape because they are loaded with antioxidants. Be careful of grapefruit juice if you take any medications, because grapefruit (but not other citrus for some reason) has a particular enzyme that interacts with other chemicals rendering the meds useless or toxic, so beware.

It’s better to avoid any kind of artificially sweetened drinks, because they just fuel your cravings for sweetness, but usually don’t give you any added benefits.

If you want a little bit of refreshing flavor for your plain old water, try this Cucumber Water or Watermelon Water

Anyway, the moral of this culinary story is that with a little planning (make lists) and little bit of willpower (vow not to continue in your current ways, but don’t beat yourself up if you slip up, just get right back on the horse) you can do this, and you will feel much better in the long run, and you’ll probably save yourself a few bucks. Imagine that you spend anywhere from $5 to $10 per lunch when you order out, but if you plan your system well, you might only be spending $1 or less per day per lunch.

And remember, if you need assistance, operators will be standing by.

damn kardamom! Beautiful and brillaint. Thanks for sharing.

@marinelife ” If you are craving them you probably have candidiasis. It will take a week for the yeast to die.”

What is candidiasis and what do you mean the yeast has to die? (I never knew yeast was alive!)

^ I have had this problem. Yeast infections can invade the whole body. In the mouth they call it thrush and shows by a white coated tongue.

It causes sugar cravings as that is what the yeast eats, fatigue, low grade fevers etc.

I also avoid yeast and mold in nature and in foods like blue cheese. Also medications, I am very allergic penicillain or anything with crossovers or in the same family.

Yeast is “alive” or active organism. That is why we use it in foods like bread. It can invade the body. It prefers warm moist environments and some people are more susceptible to it. Though every one has had issues with it lowered immune systems, medications and even sexual activity with people with yeast infections.

Sometimes this can be self treated, removing oneself from sugar and yeast products, diuretics, cranberry juice even cranberry pills or the otc treatments. Though don’t mess around, if problems persist see a doctor.

Try this 21 day sugar detox. It’s great. Recipes included.

@Kardamom Quinoa salad is amazing!! So much you can do. I like putting a Mexican twist on it.

Don’t. Allow for moderate doses of sugar every now and then. Brains need rewards. Brains need carbs to fuel willpower. Extreme approaches do more damage than good. A sugar molecule as such is perfectly healthy. In fact, without the glucose part of it, your brain will die within a few minutes, like it does due to the lack of oxygen.

Small or big amounts. That’s what matters.

@mattbrowne How do anorexic people live, then? Like people who don’t eat ANYTHING all day (I’ve seen it, sadly).

@sparrowfeed – They live because their body produces sugar. First by converting glycogen stored in their livers, then by converting muscle mass and body fat into sugar.

In my opinion instead of asking how to give up sugar, we should ask how we can limit our caloric intake without feeling hungry.

That’s why you can live for so long without food. Problem is, it’s extremely difficult when you actually have things to do during the day.

Once the liver is empty, new supply requires time and concentration becomes more and more difficult.