the sugar season is only 'just' upon us and I've already OD'd

I am a sugar, wheat and beer addict.
I quit drinking all alcohol thirty four years ago so no problem there.

Baked goods and sugary things are harder though.
I can stop eating both wheat and sugar for long periods of time and feel great...but then the august/september birthday season comes along, then the November 'eat too much' day and now sugar season is going full blast.

I am fine if I just say no to all of those things, like I did with alcohol...but give me a few cookies and I'm off and running on a few months of sugar binging.

So, this morning, I'm cutting myself off...I'm on a sugar and wheat fast.  
Usually I begin in January but I have overindulged so much lately, it's time

I'm wondering if anyone else is in the same boat?

I had a hard wake-up call the other day, a gout flare up. I have lost over 200 lbs in past through keto and intermittent fasting and felt great. I have gained about 40 of that back, so now it's time to get back on track. I am also abstaining from wheat, sugar, and alcohol for the foreseeable future. I will also only be eating one meal per day. I feel like, traditionally, Winter is a season of fasting; so that is what I am going to mimic until it warms back up. I simply do not have the willpower to eat moderate amounts of these things, so I have to go cold turkey too!

Good luck!

Knowing and admitting (to yourself) that you have a problem is 90% of solving it.
In my case, I still valiantly hold to my sugar/chocolate addiction. Alcohol has been mostly gone for years.
In my humble opinion as long as I stay fit and don't (pork) out... I should be able to eat all the chocolate I want... Liz has raised eyebrows and I get "the look" when I claim this.
I wish you luck with avoiding those tasty treats!

EDIT) Feel free to box up those cookies and send them off to Montana :)

Hamilton Betchman wrote:I had a hard wake-up call the other day, a gout flare up. I have lost over 200 lbs in past through keto and intermittent fasting and felt great. I have gained about 40 of that back, so now it's time to get back on track. I am also abstaining from wheat, sugar, and alcohol for the foreseeable future. I will also only be eating one meal per day. I feel like, traditionally, Winter is a season of fasting; so that is what I am going to mimic until it warms back up. I simply do not have the willpower to eat moderate amounts of these things, so I have to go cold turkey too!

Good luck!

and good luck to you too Hamilton!
That's exactly it with me also...no ability to moderate certain things so it's so much easier to just stop all together rather than having to stop at two pieces of pie ...or two beers, for that matter

There are still so many choices without wheat and sugar stuff, I've never felt at all deprived.

thomas rubino wrote:Knowing and admitting (to yourself) that you have a problem is 90% of solving it.
In my case, I still valiantly hold to my sugar/chocolate addiction. Alcohol has been mostly gone for years.
In my humble opinion as long as I stay fit and don't (pork) out... I should be able to eat all the chocolate I want... Liz has raised eyebrows and I get "the look" when I claim this.
I wish you luck with avoiding those tasty treats!

EDIT) Feel free to box up those cookies and send them off to Montana

hahaha...they were absolutely decadent! and they are gone now....sorry

It is easy for me to say no...it is harder for friends and relatives to accept.  There is always the 'there is not much sugar in this' line and 'just a little won't hurt you'.  Having to defend my decisions bothers me more.

Stopping drinking was hard for the same reason...not the no drink part as much as the social acceptance part.  The last thing a bunch of drinkers want is a sober person in their midst.

and then there's cigarettes...that was probably the hardest thing I've ever quit and that was thirty five years ago.

Seems like I have spent the last several decades quitting things

Ahh but we thought we were "cool" "grown up" as teenagers when we started drinking / smoking ,doing all the other things that adults told us we couldn't do... We showed them huh!
Yes, cigarettes were a very hard one. Even now I still fantasize how good one would be...  I know they really taste/smell like shit but...  

Judith Browning wrote:
I can stop eating both wheat and sugar for long periods of time and feel great...but then the august/september birthday season comes along, then the November 'eat too much' day and now sugar season is going full blast.

Yep, I'm in that boat today! I had 15 friends over for thanksgiving yesterday (Sunday), and yep, you're so right, I'm still on a sugar binge. I don't have a problem drinking alcohol at a party and then not again for a month, and I don't avoid wheat at all, but I do generally avoid sugar. I baked two desserts for the party, and of course I chose to bake things I like best. And of course there was a little bit extra of each so we ate the extras the night before and the day of, and now I gobbled up the leftovers, and am eyeing the chocolate in the baking cupboard... And wolfing down sugary dried mangoes...

Yep!

Ok, I wonder how many others hid a doughnut while reading this post.

I cannot imagine a day without something from Tim Hortons.

Wesley Kohn wrote:Ok, I wonder how many others hid a doughnut while reading this post.

I cannot imagine a day without something from Tim Hortons.

I don't know who Tim Horton is? and I've never liked doughnuts much so I guess I'm safe

Our son is the baker at Serenity Farm Bread just a few blocks away here in this little town so that is quite a temptation for me that I've given in to too many times lately.  I know that sourdough bread is much more easily digestible but I tend to make and eat toast all day long when it's around....

Judith Browning wrote:

I don't know who Tim Horton is? and I've never liked doughnuts much so I guess I'm safe

Tim Horton is the Canadian version of the American Dunkin Doughnuts.   It is on almost every street corner in Canada.   There are more Tim Hortons than bars here.  They sell coffee, pastries and sandwiches.

I've had a lot of success losing weight and feeling healthier by cutting down on processed starches (wheat, rice, potatoes etc...). The key seems to have been having a clear plan on what to replace those calories with. Simply removing them from the diet means you end up hungry and more likely to binge. I switched to eating loads more lentils and vegetables. A standard lunch went from a pile of sandwiched to big bowl of lentils, veg etc fried up. Super filling, plenty of calories for a working day, and no sugar-rush/insulin response to worry about.

The plan I followed initially also allowed a "feast day". Write down in the week all the things that you crave and on one pre-planned day per week have a massive binge. Good psychology, because you will eventually give in to some snack or junk food, and having a planned day still lets you enjoy it, but not make you feel like you have failed in some way by eating it.

I am currently fasting for about a week. It's a once a year tradition for me. Feels great. It's the only thing I ever did that normalized my blood pressure.  

I had also gotten myself onto the carbohydrates roller coaster and decided it was time to put a stop to it. Cold turkey is the only way I can manage it. Cause if I eat one cookie, then I have to eat the whole plate full. I made an electrolyte blend to add to my water, since it's so common to get flu like symptoms for a few days when switching to a low-carbohydrate diet. Seems to me it's related to changes in salt intake.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
I am currently fasting for about a week. It's a once a year tradition for me. Feels great. It's the only thing I ever did that normalized my blood pressure.  

I had also gotten myself onto the carbohydrates roller coaster and decided it was time to put a stop to it. Cold turkey is the only way I can manage it. Cause if I eat one cookie, then I have to eat the whole plate full. I made an electrolyte blend to add to my water, since it's so common to get flu like symptoms for a few days when switching to a low-carbohydrate diet. Seems to me it's related to changes in salt intake.

A whole week!? That sounds brutal. Will you strictly be drinking water with electrolytes added, and no other liquids or foods?

The holidays are the hardest, definitely in the same boat. A fun thing I tried this year was weighing myself before Thanksgiving dinner and then weighing myself after I could eat no more. It is interesting to see the instant weight gain actually. Either way I really enjoy the holidays but as a person who tries to stay fit, the food culture that comes with the holidays makes it hard to stick with your healthy eating habits. Oh and at my weigh in after dinner on thursday I had put on eight pounds! ahh!

Michael Cox wrote:I've had a lot of success losing weight and feeling healthier by cutting down on processed starches (wheat, rice, potatoes etc...). The key seems to have been having a clear plan on what to replace those calories with. Simply removing them from the diet means you end up hungry and more likely to binge. I switched to eating loads more lentils and vegetables. A standard lunch went from a pile of sandwiched to big bowl of lentils, veg etc fried up. Super filling, plenty of calories for a working day, and no sugar-rush/insulin response to worry about.

The plan I followed initially also allowed a "feast day". Write down in the week all the things that you crave and on one pre-planned day per week have a massive binge. Good psychology, because you will eventually give in to some snack or junk food, and having a planned day still lets you enjoy it, but not make you feel like you have failed in some way by eating it.

I think that is sound advice for some
For me, the 'feast' day would just put me back into the sugar cycle.  When I go without, after only a short while, there's no craving at all really.  Usually, what it takes me to start in again is social food guilt when someone really wants me to try their dessert...or they say they have made it just for me without much sugar...

In general we eat as you've mentioned, lentils and lots and lots of vegetables, soups, varieties of organic beans, buckwheat, quinoa, barley, bone broth, chicken  and some cheeses everything cooked from scratch.....plenty filling but when I add in sugar and wheat my calorie consumption goes way high because I crave those ingredients whether I'm full or not.

Hamilton Betchman wrote:A whole week!? That sounds brutal. Will you strictly be drinking water with electrolytes added, and no other liquids or foods?

When I was a child, fasting meant no food nor fluids. That was brutal. The zealotry thing doesn't work for me any more.  My current fasting regime is joyful and easy. I eat a small vegan meal each evening. It's flavored with about a teaspoon each of various spices: turmeric, ginger, garlic, Italian seasoning, paprika, cumin, etc. Last night's meal was flax seed porridge made with 3 tablespoons of flax seeds. Tonight I'm expecting to eat a small bowl of mixed frozen greens (about 5 ounces). I drink as much unsweetened tea or other drinks as I like. I drink about 5 ounces of hard cider each morning. I expect to have  a diet soda this evening. I might even choose something with caffeine. That works out to about 250 calories per day.

One thing that I have noticed about people's fasting habits, is that they will start a fast, and stop their caffeine intake, then get terrible caffeine withdrawal headaches, and blame it on fasting, when it's really just caffeine withdrawal. I'm not currently addicted to caffeine, but if I were, I would continue the caffeine while fasting. For what it's worth, I gave up a decades long energy drink habit a few months ago. Withdrawal was a bitch!!! (And not from caffeine withdrawal, that's manageable by cutting the dose by half each day.)

When I was a child, fasting was about rules, duty, obedience, compliance, and avoiding getting people or gods mad at me. These days, fasting to me is about health, self-love, choosing my own path, and joyful participation in life.

Judith Browning wrote:It is easy for me to say no...it is harder for friends and relatives to accept.  There is always the 'there is not much sugar in this' line and 'just a little won't hurt you'.  Having to defend my decisions bothers me more.

My favorite reply to those kinds of things is, "Sugary things taste gaggy to me", or "I dislike sweets", or "I get bloated when I eat wheat". Then it's only about me, and what I enjoy or don't like. No science allowed to enter the discussion, and I'm not badmouthing them for poor food choices.

Judith Browning wrote:I am a sugar, wheat and beer addict.
I quit drinking all alcohol thirty four years ago so no problem there.

Baked goods and sugary things are harder though.
I can stop eating both wheat and sugar for long periods of time and feel great...but then the august/september birthday season comes along, then the November 'eat too much' day and now sugar season is going full blast.

I am fine if I just say no to all of those things, like I did with alcohol...but give me a few cookies and I'm off and running on a few months of sugar binging.

So, this morning, I'm cutting myself off...I'm on a sugar and wheat fast.  
Usually I begin in January but I have overindulged so much lately, it's time

I'm wondering if anyone else is in the same boat?

sugar....check
wheat....check
beer....check
cutting myself off....not in the same boat yet....you are stronger than me Judith.  I'm actually pretty good about not intaking too much.  My problem is more with chocolate and coffee.  Heck, I'm planning to start breeding Maine hardy yaupon to grow my own caffeine....is that a sign?

Greg Martin wrote:

Judith Browning wrote:I am a sugar, wheat and beer addict.
I quit drinking all alcohol thirty four years ago so no problem there.

Baked goods and sugary things are harder though.
I can stop eating both wheat and sugar for long periods of time and feel great...but then the august/september birthday season comes along, then the November 'eat too much' day and now sugar season is going full blast.

I am fine if I just say no to all of those things, like I did with alcohol...but give me a few cookies and I'm off and running on a few months of sugar binging.

So, this morning, I'm cutting myself off...I'm on a sugar and wheat fast.  
Usually I begin in January but I have overindulged so much lately, it's time

I'm wondering if anyone else is in the same boat?

sugar....check
wheat....check
beer....check
cutting myself off....not in the same boat yet....you are stronger than me Judith.  I'm actually pretty good about not intaking too much.  My problem is more with chocolate and coffee.  Heck, I'm planning to start breeding Maine hardy yaupon to grow my own caffeine....is that a sign?

yes, coffee will stay  I think one vice is reasonable and I choose coffee!
Is yaupon a type of coffee bean?

Chocolate was hard until someone suggested magnesium supplements and the craving is gone now.  We once house sat for someone who left us with a 'death by chocolate' cake as a treat.  I broke out in hives and we finally linked it to the amount of chocolate I had eaten.....

Judith Browning wrote:
yes, coffee will stay  I think one vice is reasonable and I choose coffee!
Is yaupon a type of coffee bean?

Chocolate was hard until someone suggested magnesium supplements and the craving is gone now.  We once house sat for someone who left us with a 'death by chocolate' cake as a treat.  I broke out in hives and we finally linked it to the amount of chocolate I had eaten.....

It's a holly that grows in the south east and is America's only caffeine containing plant.  It contains theobromine as well so I'm not sure it's ok for a person with a chocolate problem, though.  There's a thread on yaupon here somewhere.  Here's a link to an NPR article on it .

Your death by chocolate story reminds me of my recent experience with "Death Wish" coffee.  A lovely coworker of mine kindly shared some with me....more than 600mg of caffeine per cup is what I found out when I looked it up after getting the jitters for the first time in my life (I'd already had 2 cups of normal coffee before that....perhaps 300mg from those.  Recommended dose is to stay below 500mg so I hyperdosed in a relatively short period.)  Yikes...will never touch Death Wish again, though it was tasty

Trial cautiously, the Latin name for yaupon is Ilex vomitoria!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria

I don't intend to give up either wheat or sugar, but I can and will only eat sugar if it's part of a treat that has complex carbs in it and what I refer to as "redeeming characteristics". Since my blood sugar runs low and I don't tolerate more than about 2 ounces of alcohol, I've learned to use the, "that will make me sick" line. If they try to persist, "Really sick like throwing up and fainting, but thanks anyway." I also refill my wine glass with water (after tossing the original contents in a potted plant or sink if need be). People don't tend to look that closely, so if I've got what looks like a drink, they'll often let me be.
Maybe I'm just resistant to social pressure, but I also just don't like feeling like shit. Just don't take away my dark chocolate covered almonds. I rarely eat more than 3/day, but they give me a boost without getting all the bad reaction stuff.

Not at all compatible with refined sugar or other high-glycemic carbohydrates these days.  I used to be obese until I became really ill.  Not from the obesity directly, but it wasn't helping.  I lost 115 lbs and have kept it off for the better part of two decades now.  A big part of figuring out what I needed to do involved learning the skills to cook and eat for better satiety among other trials and errors.  I incidentally resolved type-2 diabetes, hypertension and NAFLD -and also vastly improved a couple serious conditions not directly attributable to obesity.  

Sugar ruins my satiety.  As does other fast-carbs.  Not a low-carber really, but I'm selective about the ones I choose.  Minimally processed, lower-glycemic is what works best for me.  Legumes, oat groats, lots of cruciferous veggies.  Lean proteins -we have chickens so eggs are nice.  Decent fats.  

It seems a strict lifestyle to some, but knowing what is at stake, I'm more than happy to keep it up.  

Jay Angler wrote: Just don't take away my dark chocolate covered almonds. I rarely eat more than 3/day, but they give me a boost without getting all the bad reaction stuff.

Wow, I don't think that I could stop at just 3.  I would do good to stop at 30. lol

Wesley Kohn wrote:

Judith Browning wrote:

I don't know who Tim Horton is? and I've never liked doughnuts much so I guess I'm safe

Tim Horton is the Canadian version of the American Dunkin Doughnuts.   It is on almost every street corner in Canada.   There are more Tim Hortons than bars here.  They sell coffee, pastries and sandwiches.

I didn't realize that Tim Horton's was a Canadian chain.  We have more TH's in my area of Ohio then Dunkin' Doughnuts.  They aren't on every other corner, but there are a couple on all sides of the major city closest to us and often paired with gas stations along the major highway.

greg martin wrote: My problem is more with chocolate and coffee.

thomas rubino wrote:... I should be able to eat all the chocolate I want...

No worries coffee and chocolate make you smarter, according to the latest neuroscience

Judith Browning wrote:

greg martin wrote: My problem is more with chocolate and coffee.

No worries coffee and chocolate make you smarter, according to the latest neuroscience

Hmm...have to figure out a safe way to add even more to my day!  Thank you Judith...best news today!

Sugar OD is definitely a real thing. Until I figured this out, along with wheat, I would get so much inflammation in my neck/shoulder area, and a screaming headache. Now because of the Holidays, I have my Grandchildren over to bake cookies. They take the cookies with them and none are left behind. This takes a lot of will power. I tell myself that the enjoyment of these treats(for me) are not worth the pain. If I want something sweet, I'll get a handful of blueberries, and seems to do the trick. When younger we could handle these high carb treats, but a cruel joke has been played on us the older we get.

Not sure how much sugar is in Sweetened Condensed Milk, but that is whats in a Pumpkin pie.
If I have a slice of Pumpkin Pie, I'm okay. not so with any other sweets.

larry wrote:Now because of the Holidays, I have my Grandchildren over to bake cookies. They take the cookies with them and none are left behind.

Great idea!

There are too many excellent bakers in our family, both of our sons and their wives and a few of the grandkids, between them they make all kinds of desserts and breads and then for the holidays the choices get even more delicious.  

I'm doing fine on my wheat and sugar fast though.  This morning my husband is baking his yearly round of springerle cookies to send off to family farther north for the holidays.  I had my fill from the batches he made two weeks ago so am not tempted.

I live with a relative who is a sugar addict.  I think she traded one addiction (alcohol) for another.  She eats more sugar than any other food and now it is baking season and I keep telling her "NO Thank You" when she wants me to eat a little cookie here, or a piece of chocolate there.  If she can get me to eat the sugary stuff then she feels justified with her behavior and dives right in and eats even more.  Yesterday she bought some store bought cookies because she was eating her Christmas cookies that are in a tin in the freezer right out of the tin - frozen.  I don't know what to do about this because I have never been a sugar person, and I am constantly having to justify my lack of participation in the sugar fest.  If I mention sugar feeds cancer cells, which it does, I get the oh well zombie look.  In one ear - out the other.

Larry Koelsch wrote:

Not sure how much sugar is in Sweetened Condensed Milk, but that is whats in a Pumpkin pie. If I have a slice of Pumpkin Pie, I'm okay. not so with any other sweets.

The recipe I use just uses Homo Milk (3 something % milk fat). I admit I'm not willing to buy Sweetened Condensed Milk, but will occasionally buy the plain Condensed Milk with no added sugar. I suspect that it is two factors - 1. pumpkin pie on a scale of "sweet deserts" is on the low end which is why some people I know won't eat it without ice cream, and 2. the fat and pumpkin slow your digestion sufficiently that you don't get a "sugar rush".

Kate Callahan wrote:I live with a relative who is a sugar addict.  I think she traded one addiction (alcohol) for another.  She eats more sugar than any other food and now it is baking season and I keep telling her "NO Thank You" when she wants me to eat a little cookie here, or a piece of chocolate there.  If she can get me to eat the sugary stuff then she feels justified with her behavior and dives right in and eats even more.  Yesterday she bought some store bought cookies because she was eating her Christmas cookies that are in a tin in the freezer right out of the tin - frozen.  I don't know what to do about this because I have never been a sugar person, and I am constantly having to justify my lack of participation in the sugar fest.  If I mention sugar feeds cancer cells, which it does, I get the oh well zombie look.  In one ear - out the other.

Wow, Kate, I truly feel for you. Sugar addiction is probably cheaper and safer than alcohol, but unless you can get your relative to look at what's underneath - which if it's actually really nasty, suppressed stuff, could lead to worse behavior, you're in a tight spot. That said, has she had her blood sugar tested? A friend of my husband didn't find out he had serious blood sugar issues until he showed up a work confused and his co-workers called an ambulance (and thank goodness they did!) Have you tried having snack food around that you can eat, so you can pull the, "no thank you to a sweet, but I'd love a cup of that special herbal tea I bought" type card?

A friend of my son's seemed to have huge sugar cravings and turned out to have *really* low iron. Since she's started having her iron levels monitored and treated, I'm not hearing near the complaints about always wanting sugary treats. It makes me wonder if some of the people having sugar cravings, need to look at what's missing in their diets. ( I would sooo... love to get some of my home-raised, home-made liver pate into her, but she grew up vegetarian and hasn't been willing until recently to even consider compromising a little for specific things that might actually improve her health. I understand her point of view, but I worry for her health.)

I gave up sugar and grains almost ten years ago and have found that if I cheat, it takes at least 2 weeks of cravings before I settle back down.  That said, I find the holiday season just too hard and a few years ago I decided to forgive myself for giving in.  It lasts from Thanksgiving to New Year, and I still eat my normal meals, but don't beat myself up for eating sugary things.  I accept that sugar/grains will happen and in January I will endure 2 weeks of cravings;  then it's 11 months of good food again.  I'm lucky that we don't have many cookie-pushers around us, and my husband's diabetic so we don't have sweets in the house as a rule anyway.

If I'm going to cheat, I want it to be worth it:  for me, that means real butter in it not vegetable oil, real cream, real eggs, etc.  I don't want to have to go through those two weeks for something mediocre.

It's curious to me, that as we age, we learn that food habits that were taught to us by our ancestors and society are detrimental to us as humans, and yet generation after generation, we continue teaching those habits to our children and grandchildren.

Even though I believe that many of my family and friends have terrible eating habits that are sending them to early graves, I keep my mouth shut. Not my place to be telling other people how to live. If they ask, then I bluntly tell them my beliefs. They rarely ask.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
It's curious to me, that as we age, we learn that food habits that were taught to us by our ancestors and society are detrimental to us as humans, and yet generation after generation, we continue teaching those habits to our children and grandchildren.

Even though I believe that many of my family and friends have terrible eating habits that are sending them to early graves, I keep my mouth shut. Not my place to be telling other people how to live. If they ask, then I bluntly tell them my beliefs. They rarely ask.

When looking at old pictures of family members, I can't help but notice how thin everyone appears.
Because of the sugar OD that some of us suffer, I have to ask......Has the ingredients of the food we eat changed? Most, if not all recipes have high amounts of sugar, and maybe "Old recipes" used honey?
Perhaps that it's so plentiful at grocery stores.......Or (sorry for getting off topic) maybe people were more active, instead of "binge watching" TV, or playing video games.

Have you had a chance to see "The Sugar Movie" on Youtube?  It's a very entertaining and informative look at all the hidden and not so hidden sugar in our diets.  We gave up all added sugar and most processed foods about 2 years ago.  It is actually not as much of an adjustment as we expected.  I had some cravings but they went away pretty fast. And my arthritis has disappeared as well as my husband's high blood pressure problems.  I still use some honey and maple syrup in baking but  that is really about it and we don't miss it.

K Sweet wrote:Have you had a chance to see "The Sugar Movie" on Youtube?  It's a very entertaining and informative look at all the hidden and not so hidden sugar in our diets.  We gave up all added sugar and most processed foods about 2 years ago.  It is actually not as much of an adjustment as we expected.  I had some cravings but they went away pretty fast. And my arthritis has disappeared as well as my husband's high blood pressure problems.  I still use some honey and maple syrup in baking but  that is really about it and we don't miss it.

Is this it? I haven't watched yet but will embed here for later...thanks!

The sugar season is killing us this year. It's the first year my son is in school, and suddenly there's birthday cupcakes and Thanksgiving parties with Cool Whip, cookie decorating, free cookies at Chiristmas light shows, and more. I don't want to be the parent who creates phobias and eating disorders or just plain rebellion because I deny them sweets. It's a party, and I want them to partake...but I also don't want it messing them up for days on end, only getting better just before they're given yet more junk.

My son always wants pomegranates, though. And they're stinkin' expensive, so we rarely buy them (especially since we've got lots of delicious, antioxidant-rich berries that we grew and froze). So, we made a deal. He gets to pick whichever expensive fruit he wants at the store, if he doesn't eat any of the sweet treats. So far, it's working well!