Sugar - Ah Honey Honey
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Deep in the heart of Texas
Posts: 1,736
Sugar - Ah Honey Honey
As per normal, a post from AlphaOmega got me thinking...
I have come to the realization this weekend after plowing thru Girl Scout cookies, candy, ice cream & a couple of bags of gummie life savers that I *may* have a full blown sugar addiction on my hands. I say "may" in jest of course. I am, in fact, addicted to sugar. It occurred to me as I was putting the last 3 gummies in my mouth that the euphoria I was feeling was not unlike the one I have after the first few sips of alcohol. I liken it to what I perceive a heroin addict to feel with that first rush going thru their veins. Sugar literally gets me high.
As I said in Alpha's thread, I am very cognizant about how easy it is to replace one addiction with another. I have been down that road with shopping during earlier attempts at sobriety. Not willing to do it again. Plus, I don't want to get sober and then have to tackle obesity next! I've worked too hard to lose the weight I've already lost.
For those who have experienced this sugar frenzy, do you have any suggestions on how to tame this "White Monkey" I've got on my back? Am looking for your ESH (experiences, strength & hope).
Dee, if this post needs to be in another arena, please move.
I have come to the realization this weekend after plowing thru Girl Scout cookies, candy, ice cream & a couple of bags of gummie life savers that I *may* have a full blown sugar addiction on my hands. I say "may" in jest of course. I am, in fact, addicted to sugar. It occurred to me as I was putting the last 3 gummies in my mouth that the euphoria I was feeling was not unlike the one I have after the first few sips of alcohol. I liken it to what I perceive a heroin addict to feel with that first rush going thru their veins. Sugar literally gets me high.
As I said in Alpha's thread, I am very cognizant about how easy it is to replace one addiction with another. I have been down that road with shopping during earlier attempts at sobriety. Not willing to do it again. Plus, I don't want to get sober and then have to tackle obesity next! I've worked too hard to lose the weight I've already lost.
For those who have experienced this sugar frenzy, do you have any suggestions on how to tame this "White Monkey" I've got on my back? Am looking for your ESH (experiences, strength & hope).
Dee, if this post needs to be in another arena, please move.
Its a cold and its a broken hallelujah.
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 2,887
Lol ! Yes, my friend. I was mainlining Strawberry Twizzlers. I got the 5 lb bucket from Costco and would munch those suckers all night long.
And vats of coffee. Troughs.
Welcome aboard the cleaning eating train.
Every destination has to begin with a desire to get there.
And vats of coffee. Troughs.
Welcome aboard the cleaning eating train.
Every destination has to begin with a desire to get there.
Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 465
Hearts, I am right there with you! The past three months have been a super sugarfest for me. I finally said enough and cut out refined sugar and went low-carb (kind of paleo with my own twists). I'm also reading 'Sugar, Fat, Salt' which illuminates the rise of those 3 ingredients in processed food, how the food is marketed, etc. A lot of the book isn't a surprise (mass marketing, bottom line, sell, sell, sell without any concern of the societal repercussions) but the scientific/chemical aspect is pretty fascinating. Anyway. YES! The sugar overload.
All that said, I fell off the sugar wagon last night and found myself scooping lemon curd by the spoonful into my piehole, an action not unlike chugging back a bottle of wine, I now realize. Rather than beat myself up about it, I'm going to take it as a learning experience and move forward: sugar doesn't make me feel good, therefore, why eat sugar? It seems so simple when I say it that way.
I really appreciate your post and yours, too, AlphaOmega. Since quitting drinking, I've been thinking a lot about health and what I am doing to be and feel healthy now that I'm on this new path. It's nice to connect with others who are doing the same.
All that said, I fell off the sugar wagon last night and found myself scooping lemon curd by the spoonful into my piehole, an action not unlike chugging back a bottle of wine, I now realize. Rather than beat myself up about it, I'm going to take it as a learning experience and move forward: sugar doesn't make me feel good, therefore, why eat sugar? It seems so simple when I say it that way.
I really appreciate your post and yours, too, AlphaOmega. Since quitting drinking, I've been thinking a lot about health and what I am doing to be and feel healthy now that I'm on this new path. It's nice to connect with others who are doing the same.
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Sonoran Desert & Southeast Asia
Posts: 6,561
I have struggled with sugar since I was kid and if it weren't for my fast metabolism I would have been overweight. I long suspected it as a factor in my alcohol cravings - I would tend to keep the beers going just as I would sweets. In fact, after 3-4 beers or glasses of wine I would often have a dessert to stop myself from further alcohol ingestion. They are almost interchangeable for me.
Like you I am now attempting to cut down on sugar, starting with the worst offender for me - my almost nightly dessert. No more desserts and no more Starbucks cakes and sweets. This also cuts out a lot of bad fat. I gave up soda a long time ago - that has to be the first on the list for anyone as it is a pure sugar rush hitting your system. Very bad for the insulin cycle.
I still eat fruit as it is what I turn to now when I crave something sweet. Last night I had an apple and 2 tangerines and it was fine.
Like you I am now attempting to cut down on sugar, starting with the worst offender for me - my almost nightly dessert. No more desserts and no more Starbucks cakes and sweets. This also cuts out a lot of bad fat. I gave up soda a long time ago - that has to be the first on the list for anyone as it is a pure sugar rush hitting your system. Very bad for the insulin cycle.
I still eat fruit as it is what I turn to now when I crave something sweet. Last night I had an apple and 2 tangerines and it was fine.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Nutmegger
Posts: 1,799
AO….Twizzlers!!!!!!! LMAO, I had 3 bags this week……Swedish Fish. Totally agree Hearts Afire, I stood back and realized that these choices are like mainlining sugar.
And the coffee! What is that all about. I am embarrassed to say I have developed a 3 can a day diet Red Bull habit.
No drinking urges….but I am certainly supplementing it.
I have to stop the sugar and start exercising. I am headed to the rink to skate for the first time in months. This isn't going to be pretty but I am getting out there. I am on here because I am doing my new worst habit….PROCRASTINATING.
Procrastinating and sugar, next on my list!
And the coffee! What is that all about. I am embarrassed to say I have developed a 3 can a day diet Red Bull habit.
No drinking urges….but I am certainly supplementing it.
I have to stop the sugar and start exercising. I am headed to the rink to skate for the first time in months. This isn't going to be pretty but I am getting out there. I am on here because I am doing my new worst habit….PROCRASTINATING.
Procrastinating and sugar, next on my list!
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,359
I am not advocating a sugar addiction but it certainly distracted me early on. Someone on here said that alcoholics don't process sugar properly either. I was making my way through a bag of 1000 calorie taffy my stomach started to hurt half way through and I just kept eating. Then a couple hours later I wanted more. A cold turkey month long reset really does help.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Europe
Posts: 1,361
I try to moderate coffee and sugar and chocolate and this and that...for health purposes not addiction-purposes.
However my main focus remains on my DOC and gateway drugs that will drag me back to hell if I let them..
In the past i've been overobsessing about getting clean in a absolute way, in a society were almost everything is addictive (marketing, consumerism, food, etc.). This led to depression, and relapse.
However my main focus remains on my DOC and gateway drugs that will drag me back to hell if I let them..
In the past i've been overobsessing about getting clean in a absolute way, in a society were almost everything is addictive (marketing, consumerism, food, etc.). This led to depression, and relapse.
Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,649
It's really common to get into a serious sugar habit after quitting alcohol. I never have been much of a baker but I turned into a cake and pie baker extraordinaire in early sobriety. And my two best friends were Ben and Jerry.
And chocolate.
But I never worried about it or even classed it as a problem, I suspected it would pass, that it was a phase. And, it was. I think part of the cause of it is that alcohol was giving us a lot of sugar and our bodies continue to crave it.
Now I have zero sugar consumption.
If you find yourself worried about it, there are really good tasting sugar substitutes available these days that are a lot better than the old sugar subs.
I still bake apple pie now and then with stevia sugar substitute and slow carb almond flour: delicious!
And chocolate.
But I never worried about it or even classed it as a problem, I suspected it would pass, that it was a phase. And, it was. I think part of the cause of it is that alcohol was giving us a lot of sugar and our bodies continue to crave it.
Now I have zero sugar consumption.
If you find yourself worried about it, there are really good tasting sugar substitutes available these days that are a lot better than the old sugar subs.
I still bake apple pie now and then with stevia sugar substitute and slow carb almond flour: delicious!
Grateful to be free
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Arizona
Posts: 3,680
The easiest way I know of (my own and friend's experiences) to get off sugar is to go cold turkey. The cravings usually stop between one and three weeks.
Taking refined carbs off the table has been a huge help to me. If I eat then now I get that sugar rush you describe...feel like I took a hit of a drug...I feel "glassy".
I have found that if I do give in to a craving...and binge, I start craving booze, so there is definitely a link in my body...the whole carb processing thing.
Life without sugar isn't a horrible deprivation either. It's another kind of sobriety, another level of freedom from cravings, and for me the 'high" down, shame/guilt issue of binges etc.
The world is full of good things to eat...and drink...it's only a deprivation if we stay focused on the few things we can't eat or drink rather than on the hundreds of thousands of things we can.
Taking refined carbs off the table has been a huge help to me. If I eat then now I get that sugar rush you describe...feel like I took a hit of a drug...I feel "glassy".
I have found that if I do give in to a craving...and binge, I start craving booze, so there is definitely a link in my body...the whole carb processing thing.
Life without sugar isn't a horrible deprivation either. It's another kind of sobriety, another level of freedom from cravings, and for me the 'high" down, shame/guilt issue of binges etc.
The world is full of good things to eat...and drink...it's only a deprivation if we stay focused on the few things we can't eat or drink rather than on the hundreds of thousands of things we can.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 430
I went on a year-long sugar binge when I gave up liquor and diet soda in the same week. I did feel a lot better cutting the artificial sweetener out, but the sugar became a compulsion that never tapered off on its own. Last month I finally signed up for a free nutrition/fitness website with a mobile app, and the act of logging all of my food and trying to meet calorie-intake goals has really helped me break the daily cravings and be more mindful about nourishing my body. Today is Day 18, and I can confidently but conservatively estimate that I've saved 4300 soda pop calories in that time. (The true amount is probably much closer to 10,000 soda pop calories saved!) I didn't go back to the diet stuff, either. I'm trying to eat whole foods and drink 8-12 glasses of water each day. Best of luck to you!
Community Greeter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 51,564
Hello Heart
I had an insatiable desire for anything sweet for about 3 months. Lollipops, candy bars, stuff I never even liked before. It all settled down. Except for the ice cream obsession.
I had an insatiable desire for anything sweet for about 3 months. Lollipops, candy bars, stuff I never even liked before. It all settled down. Except for the ice cream obsession.
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