Let me get personal for a minute, shall I? A few years back, I decided to give up consuming refined sugars. I soon realized I am not giving up sugar, but actually a lifelong addiction, a love and equally hate relationship with sweets.
Giving up sweets was my biggest challenge. It might be different for you, but for me, it was the sweets. I shifted to natural healthy sweeteners alternatives like maple, honey, dates, and more to quench my addiction to sweeteners.
One thing true I identified is that ‘addictive eaters cannot stay away from sweeteners and on long diets. Not because they lack will power or are weak, but because their food cravings are more towards addictive sweets just like some have it for cigarettes or drugs.’
I want to tell you that you are similar to others and you are not the problem. You do not lack in anyway or not weak just because you cannot stick to a diet. Addiction in nature is something very natural. It becomes challenging for most of the people because of the little guy in our body ‘dopamine.’ Dopamine is released from the body every time we consume or eat an addictive substance. The best way to get rid of an addiction is to stop consuming and quit the addictive food, just like you would do by not putting a cigarette in your mouth, or you would stay away from junk or processed food.
The truth about addiction is that once you avoid putting in addictive substances in your mouth and eventually your body, initially your body will miss it. But over time, it will adjust and adapt to the new normal routine.
I have introduced hundreds of my clients to the holistic eating weight loss program. This program is 100% refined sugar free and soon the clients noticed a remarkable reduction in their weight. Within the initial few weeks of the program, there were cravings of sweets, sugar, and refined foods that slowly decreased. You too can begin with this challenge!
The initial 3-4 days of the challenge reported ‘withdrawal effects’ and then your cravings for refined sugar stops. Now, there is one thing that you might experience, which is known as ‘emotional eating.’ This is something that will make you want to break the newly introduced routine and good habit because of a reaction to your emotional connection to this unhealthy food refined sugar. But is you successfully overcome these sugar relapse triggers, you can very well handle the initial sugar addiction.
The One Year Challenge…
You can do it the way I did it, set a one year mark. An entire year without consuming refined sugars. If you are successful then treat yourself with a celebration!
I celebrated by allowing myself one day free of guilt and eat whatever I wanted to. So, I bought myself chocolates, berries, ice-creams, milkshakes, and other things that were my favorite treat. But the surprising thing for me was that now all these things tasted awful or not too tempting to me. My body does not want them anymore like it wanted them earlier.
You see, our bodies are not designed to consume and digest a monochromatic substance that causes all kinds of nutrient imbalances in our bodies. Rather, it needs food that contains a healthy balance of nutrients, proteins, and fibers. When we consume balanced food, our body too becomes balanced and hence we do not have to work hard to keep up with our off balance routines.
Foods Available in the Market…
It was during my one year mark celebration that I realized my tastes have altered. I have been including more probiotic foods into my diet to meet those energy levels.
I used to buy these items from fresh farmer’s market. But one day I bought them from a grocery store nearby. As per the label, it contained salt and cabbage. I trusted the label, but there was actually sugar in it, which was not labeled.
So if you are on a ‘no – sugar diet’ like me then do not trust the label always. You must trust your own taste buds. Most of the times, these packed and processed foods are packed with refined sugar, which is not labeled. And as a result, even you don’t consume sugar for a long time; still, you are not able to make it up to the mark.
Just track the taste changes of your taste buds and enjoy food in its live, real, nutrient defense, delicious and good quality form. Eventually, your ability to crave for processed, sugary, salty, refined, or Tran’s fatty foods will subside.
How do I feel now?
Even today my body is addicted to sugar and the same holds true for all my clients who took the ‘holistic diet weight loss program.’ But this time the sugar is not refined and processed, it is natural and healthy!
Seeing where I am now and where I was before, gives me a feeling of 100% recovery. I now enjoy healthy treats and then I require only one or two pieces in a month to keep my zeal satisfied. I and my clients are not weak and not addicted. We do not lack will power and have that all strength and energy.
Simply, we are no more addicted to an unhealthy form of sugar. Our mind is now more powerful and we now make healthy food selections, which are at the same time tastier and provides more levels of energy to the body.
Final Words…
Yes, I know that staying away from sugar is difficult and a big challenge. But you need to understand that it is not good for your gut, weight, and overall health. Hope you have understood from my personal experience and now have the courage to handle your addictions head on.
And just remember, the only way to stop addiction to sugar is to stop consuming those addictive foods. Whatever they are and in which form if you don’t want to lose control of your body then switch to the healthy way of living today.
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