Of all the topics, of all the emails and of all the questions I’m asked:
“How do I stop my sugar cravings?” – is the one that takes the cake (pun intended).
There is a simple answer to the question, but I sure do get a lot of negative feedback when I give it.
You’re a full grown, responsible adult — maybe a mother or father, balancing a successful career…
You wake up in the morning feeling strong and swear you won’t be eating sugar today. Then you blink and somehow you’re at the 7-11 buying your favorite sweet poison – “one last time” – that same day.
No worries, I’ve been there — and so have lots of people that follow this blog.
The frequently asked question is: “How do I stop my sugar cravings?” and the answer is:
— drum roll please —
“Don’t start.”
Is the simple answer.
No, I’m not trying to be a wise guy here. It really is the answer.
Wait, wait don’t click away, hear me out. Eating sugar sets up cravings for more sugar. It’s simple really, and proven, in many a test, by PhD’s way smarter than me.
“Even if it’s been two days since I had sugar?” – many ask.
Even more so. Remember my post on managing your emotions with sugar or other substances?
After about the second or third day your body is in full blown sugar detox and it starts screaming for a “fix” (and I’m not being dramatic with the verbiage).
Until we understand at a deep level that we need to embrace the emotions that begin to surface when we quit sugar we will always be drawn back to it’s power to put them off for a few more hours.
That’s really all the sugar is doing. It acts as an “emotional analgesic” to stop unwanted emotions from bothering you for a few more hours. When that wears off, you need more and more until you finally pass out at night and the pattern or cycle starts all over the next day.
The problem? Most of us have been doing this our entire lives and burying those emotions in sugar-fixes leaves you right where you are today — looking for a way out and desperate to reclaim your health.
There are tricks for quieting the cravings (and I love sharing them), but finding healthier ways in which to actually deal with those emotions is ultimately the answer. It’s not impossible. Together we can get through this.
But the first thing we need to do is put down the sugar. Get through the first weeks of abstinence without going crazy and begin to understand exactly what our years of sugar addiction did to us and how we can reverse and change that right now.
And losing a few pounds as a by-product is just the icing on the cake (see what I did there).
Till next time.
~Michael
PS: The real secret here is finding new ways to cope with our feelings. If you look around the site you’ll see lots of helpful hints on doing just that. But the most important thing to do, like a good meditation practice, is to become aware of the feelings around your sugar consumption and not the physical cravings. The best way to do that is to journal about it and you’ll find posts on that here too.
