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Overview
Are you a sugar addict? Beating Sugar Addiction For Dummies provides you a safe and healthy path to overcome your addiction, eliminate stress eating, and upgrade your nutrition for a healthier lifestyle.
Sugar addiction is a rapidly growing epidemic that can lead to obesity, chronic fatigue, diabetes, and a host of other medical and psychological problems. Beating Sugar Addiction For Dummies helps those who are affected by this commonly overlooked addiction to outsmart their sugar cravings and overcome their addiction. The tips in this book will help you:
- Learn to stop stress eating and perform a nutrition makeover that makes the low-sugar lifestyle easy!
- Stop the frustration of yo-yo dieting, and finally find an eating plan that works.
- Free yourself from the grip of sugar addiction and regain control over your life.
Beating Sugar Addiction For Dummies contains everything you need to start your journey down the road to wellness:
- Four common
types of sugar addicts – which one are you?
If you're one of the millions of people worldwide who relies too much on sugar for energy, comfort, or convenience, Beating Sugar Addiction For Dummies is your no-nonsense guide to decreasing your sugar intake, losing weight, and changing your life for the better!
If you're wondering "How do I get off sugar?" you're not alone. Sugar abuse is one of the primary causes of obesity, and the Western diet's love affair with this cheap, pervasive, and addictive substance has resulted in record levels of diabetes and overweight Americans. Beating sugar addiction is a matter of learning how to plan and eat proactively instead of reactively, and retraining yourself to be more mindful of why you eat, what you eat, and how much you eat.
About The Author
Dan DeFigio is one of the most respected names in the fitness and nutrition industry. His articles have appeared in numerous professional journals, and his workshops have been presented in many cities across the United States. He has appeared on the Dr. Phil show and was featured in SELF Magazine, MD News, Personal Fitness Professional, and a host of other publications.
Articles From The Book
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Strength training (also known as resistance training or weight training) is an important component of a successful exercise program. Muscle is what burns fat, so the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and the more calories you burn doing everything, even sitting down reading this!
A strength training circuit (also referred to as circuit training) is a workout consisting of a handful of strength training exercises that you perform with minimal rest between exercises.
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Though most people recognize the junk-food quality of obvious high-sugar foods like candy and ice cream, many unhealthy items are available in the stores that you may erroneously think of as healthier alternatives. These foods, on the surface, may appear to be healthy choices, but in reality are not.
Diet soda and sugar addictions
Diet drinks are artificially sweetened with aspartame (NutraSweet), a chemical that causes brain damage and can increase appetite.
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Sugar is everywhere, and resisting the urge to overindulge isn’t always easy. Stress, poor nutrition, dehydration, and lack of sleep can all drive you to grab whatever sugar-laden junk food is handy. Healthy habits and lifestyle changes can help minimize both the number and the intensity of any sugar cravings you may experience.
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Sugar, in excessive amounts, is one of the most harmful substances you can eat. When you look at a piece of candy, a soda, or a bag of pastries, you may not think of the word toxin, but refined sugars (along with other artificial sweeteners) place a huge physiological stress on your body’s systems.
High blood sugar levels cause damage to blood vessels and organs, and high insulin levels promote fat storage.
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Strengthening your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back muscles is important for avoiding injury and chronic back pain. Mastering these exercises is also good training for keeping proper spine mechanics when you’re lifting things or bending over to pick up stuff.To perform the bridge, lie on your back with your knees bent, your heels planted on the floor, and your feet flexed up off the ground.
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You’re taking steps to reduce or eliminate sugar from your diet, but that doesn’t mean that you have to swear off desserts forever. You can make smart choices to have your dessert and eat it too. Following are two recipes for tasty, low-sugar cookies
Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/ NightAndDayImages
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 12–15 minutes
Yield: 4 dozen cookies
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate chunks
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
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When you wake up in the morning, you’ve gone eight or ten hours without food, your body is craving nourishment, and your brain needs glucose to function at its best. Skipping breakfast is one of the worst possible things you can do — you set yourself up for fatigue, poor mental acuity, and sugar cravings later in the day.
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Often, lunch is the make-or-break meal that determines what you’ll feel like during the rest of the day. Poor choices at lunch leave you with low energy for the afternoon and an unstoppable appetite by the time dinner rolls around. Following are two tasty salad ideas that will help you fight sugar addiction and give you the energy to make it through the afternoon.
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Pleasing everyone in the family with your low-sugar menu planning can be a challenge. You may very well face some resistance to changing to a healthier eating style; try one (or both) of these amazing recipes that are sure to please.
Lemon Caper Tilapia
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino
Preparation time: 6 minutes
Cook time: 10–15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup rice flour
Sprinkle of salt and ground black pepper
4 large tilapia filets
2 tablespoons capers
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
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Keeping the upper back muscles strong is important for good posture and for preventing chronic neck and shoulder pain. Most people who sit a lot need extra work in this area. In your workouts, be sure to do at least as much pulling as you do pushing, if not more.The standing tubing row is a great way to strengthen your upper back and improve your posture.
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You can do countless variations of workouts, so you’ll never be bored. Following are two examples to get you started in your fight against sugar addiction: an easy workout and a difficult one.
Example workout 1 (easy)
Warm-up: Five to ten minutes of light activity of your choice — treadmill, elliptical, seated rowing machine, stationary bike, marching in place, and so on.
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Healthy snacks are crucial for keeping your blood sugar levels steady and for fending off sugar cravings. The right snacks satisfy your hunger and fuel your body for a few hours, leaving you sharp, energetic, and craving-free.
Three Bean Quinoa Salad
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Lauri Patterson
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
2 cups water
1 cup quinoa
One 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
One 15-ounce can red beans, drained and rinsed
One 15-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
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Sometimes the idea of changing your daily routines can seem daunting. People often report that in the past they felt overwhelmed by all the things they thought they had to keep track of when they tried to improve their eating habits.
Don’t despair! Developing new habits isn’t as complicated or overwhelming as it may seem.
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Remember that exercising your abdominal muscles doesn’t burn fat away from that area! Smart eating and consistent exercise create the physiological environment and caloric deficit needed to lose body fat. You can’t pick where your fat comes off, and you can’t out-exercise a bad diet!The U crunch is a core exercise that strengthens the abdominals and stretches the lower back.
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Keeping your arms and shoulders in good shape helps make you stronger for your daily activities. Doing so also makes you look great in T-shirts and sleeveless dresses!The basic exercise for your shoulders is the overhead press.Start in a standing position with your knees unlocked, your elbows bent so your forearms are perpendicular to the floor, and your upper arms at your sides.
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The thighs and hips are some of the largest and strongest muscles in your body. They’re responsible for moving you around all day, and they’re the driving force when you stand, sit, walk, run, jump, squat down, and go up and down stairs. Keeping your legs strong is especially important for the aging population to keep good mobility and to prevent falls.
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Beating a sugar addiction is difficult and requires a slow approach. With so many challenges in front of you, the task can be daunting. Begin with a few easy substitutions:
Drink mineral water instead of soda. Mineral water flavored with citrus will give you the fizz and the flavor that you love without the sugar and chemicals that come with soda.
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Sugar addicts needs to arm themselves with the right information to kick the habit. Not all carbohydrates are the same, and despite what some mainstream diets pronounce, not every carbohydrate is your enemy.
Complex carbs vs. simple carbs
As a general rule, the more stuff the digestive system has to break down, the more gradual the sugar release into the bloodstream is.
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Artificial sweeteners are detrimental to the sugar addict because they work by causing neuro-excitation in a part of the brain that causes people to perceive a sweet taste. The danger is that these chemical sweeteners overstimulate the neurons to the point where they basically self-destruct. You literally get brain damage from these chemicals!
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Being mindful and choosy about what you eat isn’t the same as being obsessive or neurotic about food! Making smart choices from an informed and empowered position is desirable, whereas making decisions out of fear or deprivation can lead to guilt, resistance, overcompensation, and even eating disorders.
Food isn’t your enemy, and you can’t build a successful, healthy eating plan if you consistently act out of fear or resentment.
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Understanding portions and calories is the key to kicking a sugar addiction. In nutrition, a calorie is the measure of the amount of energy contained in a food. Your body breaks down foods to provide energy and keep all the metabolic processes going. The three macronutrients have calories. Protein contains approximately four calories per gram, as do carbohydrates.
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Carbohydrates are the body’s primary fuel source. You need carbohydrates in your diet to provide energy to each cell, to feed your brain, and to fuel your muscles and organs. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, your body will break down muscle tissue to make some!
Are carbs good or bad?
Carbs have become the big bad wolf in the world of weight loss and health consciousness.
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If you're wondering "How do I get off sugar?" you're not alone. Sugar abuse is one of the primary causes of obesity, and the Western diet's love affair with this cheap, pervasive, and addictive substance has resulted in record levels of diabetes and overweight Americans. Beating sugar addiction is a matter of learning how to plan and eat proactively instead of reactively, and retraining yourself to be more mindful of why you eat, what you eat, and how much you eat.
Sugar Addiction
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A hard-boiled egg can be your go-to snack if you have zero time to get something healthy to eat. Downing an egg or two quells your hunger, adds extra protein for the day, and keeps your starving brain from driving you to sugar.
A common problem with hard-boiling eggs is that you can easily overcook them, leading to a dark green tint around the yolk and a sulfur taste.
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Excess sugar has a negative effect on all your tissues, including your bones and teeth. Sugar contributes to problems with bone density and tooth decay.
Osteoporosis and osteopenia
Osteoporosis (and its precursor, osteopenia) are conditions that describe varying degrees of bone loss (also referred to as thinning of the bones).
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The health risks associated with childhood obesity are regularly discussed, but kids’ emotional risks are sometimes forgotten. Overweight children are often teased at school, on the playground, and even at home. They look different from other children and know it, but they can’t make the changes they need to make on their own.
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Dietary fat has been bedeviled in the past as the primary contributor to obesity and heart disease. However, fats are necessary to beat sugar addictions. As nutrition science progresses, it has become clear that dietary fat is a very important component of nutrition. Your body uses fats to produce hormones, transmit nerve impulses, regulate the immune system, and create cell membranes.
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A good way to beat sweets is to engage in an enjoyable substitute activity whenever you have a sugar craving. Try to find activities that you enjoy and that you find meaningful. Doing something good for someone else is a great way to get your mind off sugar. Here are some suggestions:
Do a Sudoku puzzle or play chess or Scrabble on the computer — keep your brain occupied!
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One of the main problems with a high-carbohydrate diet is that it triggers the production of too much insulin, which leads to fat storage and diabetes. By cutting back on the sugar in your diet and by choosing carbohydrates that are high in fiber and nutrients, you can keep your insulin levels under control, get off the sugar high/sugar crash roller coaster, and stop storing so much fat!
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Chronic stress activates the adrenal glands to produce stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine. Overproduction of these hormones drops your blood sugar because stress hormones make you burn circulating blood sugar for energy instead of body fat. When blood sugar drops, your brain turns on the sugar cravings to replace the burned-off sugar.
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A handful of social situations often crop up that can destroy your nutrition plan if you’re not careful. If you can avoid these common pitfalls, you’ll have a much easier time keeping the event from turning into an eating disaster:
Eating everything you’re given: Many events have a constant flow of food coming at you from all directions, much of it carbohydrates.
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Because a lifetime of sugar abuse can cause significant damage to the body, some sugar addicts struggle with serious medical conditions resulting from years of an abusive diet. Improving your diet and getting some regular exercise are great first steps toward improving your health, but you may consider widening the scope of your health improvements to include stress management, personal growth, and holistic medical care.
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When it comes to food, not following the herd can be challenging. If you announce to your friends and family that you've decided to overcome your addiction to sugar, be prepared for some unexpected reactions. Though some people will congratulate you and wish you the best, others will react as if you're declaring war on their own favorite foods.
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The primary cause of depression is a problem with the hormone serotonin, which is a substance that makes people feel happy and satisfied. Most serotonin is produced in the gut. Many things affect the body’s production of serotonin, including attitude, nutrition, and sleep.
Eating sugar and other high-glycemic carbohydrates (carbs that raise your blood sugar quickly) like white flour triggers the pancreas to secrete a large dose of insulin to control blood sugar levels (insulin is the hormone that shuttles sugar from the blood into cells).
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Several types of diabetes exist, but 90 percent of all cases in the United States are type 2 diabetes, which is caused by a diet that keeps insulin levels high. Eating too many carbohydrates (especially sugar) leads to excess insulin production and increased body fat. Large amounts of body fat and frequent high insulin levels decrease your ability to respond to your own insulin.
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The exercise physiology field separates exercise into two major categories: cardiovascular exercise (also known as cardio or aerobic exercise) and strength training (also called resistance training or weight training).
Cardiovascular exercise
Cardio (aerobic) exercise involves repetitive body movements that can be sustained for long periods (for many minutes or, in some cases like a marathon or the Tour de France, even hours).
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The human body is mostly water. Without it, people would have no cells, no nerve impulses, and no metabolic processes. Even a small amount of dehydration (2 to 3 percent) can result in fatigue, low blood pressure, elevated heart rate, headaches, dry skin, constipation, and decreased mental function.
The part of your brain that controls the thirst sensation is called the hypothalamus.
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Your body is designed to run on natural foods like vegetables, meat, eggs, fruit, fish, nuts, and seeds. When you start to stray from that nutrition foundation by eating lots of processed foods, you lose vital nutrients and consume large amounts of manmade chemicals.
To make convenience or packaged foods, companies add chemicals like artificial flavors, chemical coloring, preservatives, emulsifiers, hydrogenated oils, and high-fructose corn syrup and other cheap sweeteners to extend shelf life and add “taste.
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Eating purposefully (instead of reactively) is the most important skill for controlling your weight and staying away from sugar. The lifestyle of modern society has created a host of external food cues that can easily override your body’s natural cues about eating.
While eating, instead of deciding whether they’re still hungry, people typically use external cues to tell them when to stop.
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Some published research has concluded that the consumption of eggs (or red meat) raises your risk of cardiovascular disease — atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, and so on. The current research available and an understanding of how the body’s inflammatory response affects the cardiovascular system indicates that the bad rap given to eggs and red meat is due to the quality and origin of the food itself.
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Confiding in a small group of friends who know you well can strengthen your support system. However, involving the right friends is important because you won’t receive the right kind of support from everyone you know.
Supporters
The ideal support partners are friends who truly support your goals to free yourself from the grip of sugar and to lead a healthier life that’s under control.
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Sugar consumption in the United States has skyrocketed in recent decades, and this increase has resulted in a corresponding rise in obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. The use of high-fructose corn syrup has increased over 1,000 percent since it first entered the American food supply in 1975!
Notice that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup peaked around the year 2000.
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Regardless of whether you decide to buy organic produce, if you eat meat choose pasture-raised beef and chicken. Animals that are pasture-raised are much healthier because they have access to their natural diet and get plenty of exercise and sunshine.
Animals raised in conventional feedlot operations are confined to overcrowded pens where, instead of their natural diet, they’re fed genetically modified grains and given large doses of antibiotics and growth hormones.
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Fibromyalgia is one of the terms given to the condition of chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. Emotional stress coupled with inflammation from too much sugar causes the nervous system to remain in an overactive state, keeping muscles “turned on” when they shouldn’t be.
This causes muscles to go into tight, spastic knots that reduce circulation.
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To successfully implement an improved eating plan, you must make sure that healthy, low-sugar foods are available in your house. If your kitchen and pantry are filled with junk food, your overloaded brain will drive you there when you finally take a moment to eat something.
You’re most likely going to eat whatever is handy, so the first step in upgrading to a healthier kitchen is to remove the junk food and stock a supply of quality food instead.
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If you’re like most addicts, you use sugar to medicate yourself. Sugar is a substitute for something that’s missing in your life. To stop the cravings and heal your addiction, you have to figure out what emotional “hole” you’re trying to fill with sugar.
The next time you have a craving for something sweet, stop to figure out what it is that you really want — chances are it’s not sugar.
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The nutrition facts label is your key to uncovering the truth about the food and amount of sugar inside. The nutrition facts label shows you the serving size, the calorie count, the basic nutrition breakdown (protein, carbs, fat, sugar, sodium, and so on), and, most important, the ingredients.
Even though most of your healthiest meals consist of whole foods without labels, you should watch out for trouble on the nutrition labels of anything you buy that comes wrapped or boxed — bread, crackers, nuts, and condiments, for example.
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Today, more and more people are trying to live life with less sugar. Getting off sugar gives you a jump-start down the road toward weight loss, improved energy, better immune system function, and superior nutrition.
Download the guide to get simple, effective strategies to help you.
Live life with less suga
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Gluten is a plant protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. People trying to reduce their carbohydrate intake often also attempt to reduce gluten consumption because eliminating gluten can potentially eliminate a lot of junk food from the diet. Some people have a confirmed sensitivity or allergy to gluten and cut it out of their diets to avoid the side effects.
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Many foods that are generally considered healthy are actually quite high in sugar content. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have nutritional value, but it does mean that you have to be aware of how much sugar they contain. Orange juice isn’t bad for you, for example, but it does have a lot of sugar and a lot of calories in one small glass.
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Diabetes is one of the biggest threats to modern human health. With high sugar intake, low amounts of exercise, and too many calories overall (which unfortunately describes most of America these days), the body is forced to produce more and more insulin, a hormone that’s essential for preventing a dangerous buildup of sugar in your bloodstream but that, at high levels, can cause problems.
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Some of the worst effects of a high-sugar diet are fat storage and insulin resistance. The good news is that regular exercise can reverse both of those!
Exercise improves insulin sensitivity, and it also improves your cholesterol profile. Improved function of the insulin receptors means that your body produces less insulin and stores less fat.
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Any aspect of your life — your body, your relationships, your friendships, your attitudes — is strongly influenced by what you do most of the time. Whatever is “normal” for you yields a certain result. If you want to change some part of your life, you have to change what you usually do. You have to create a new normal.
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Winter can be a difficult season for staying on track with a reasonable eating plan. From Halloween to New Year's Day, holiday treats abound, there are parties galore, and family and friends love to stuff you with cookies, candies, and way too much home-cooked food. Though you don't have to be a complete Scrooge about indulging in some goodies during the holidays, you have several ways to execute some damage control and keep holiday weight gain to a minimum:
Eat vegetables with every meal.
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It’s very easy to turn to food, especially sugar, when you feel stressed or out of control. Proactive eating can help you assert control of the situation. Sugar is pervasive in most of the world, and this cheap, readily available drug can exert harmful control over your life if you let it.
Proactive eating means that you don’t allow these external cues to affect your eating behavior (what you choose to eat, when you eat, and how much you eat).
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Which cardio exercise (or which cardio machine) is the best? They’re pretty much all the same. Cardiovascular exercise is the simplest kind of exercise. If you walk, jog, dance, or hike, you don’t need any special equipment, and you can exercise pretty much anywhere and at any time.
Cardio exercise generally requires no practice or special skills, and it provides an easy way to work up a good sweat, burn some extra calories, loosen your stiff muscles, and clear your head.
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A comprehensive strength training program needs to incorporate the six basic types of body movements that utilize all the major muscle groups. Although it’s tempting to seek out exercises that target your so-called problem areas, exercising particular muscles doesn’t burn fat away from that specific area; that’s a myth called spot reduction.
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No one is perfect, and no one eats perfectly all the time. The good news is you don’t have to! The key to long-term success is to learn how to make good decisions on a regular basis and not to get derailed just because you’ve had a less-than-mindful day.
Start with forgiveness
Mindful eating is a process, a practice that requires, well, practice!
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The reason diets don’t work is that they don’t lay out a realistic, sustainable plan that you can use to replace how you’ve been feeding yourself. Eating right doesn’t require completely eliminating any one type of food (even sugar!) or some “revolutionary” new system of nutrition that has just been uncovered by scientists from another planet and is now available to you for only five easy payments of $49.
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The keys to beating a sugar addiction with a healthy eating system are to plan ahead and to make sure that healthy foods are available and convenient. After you remove the sugar-infused garbage from your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, it’s time to refill them with upgraded food choices.
Stock up on protein to beat your sugar addiction
Protein and vegetables are your two best friends when it comes to staying sugar-free.
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Mindfulness and planning are very important to prevent the act of eating out from turning into a sugary, nutritional disaster. Restaurants serve up enticing appetizer and entree concoctions topped with sauces loaded with fat and sugar, and they deliver portions large enough for a whole family. Then they tease you with a delightful dessert menu that would drive any pastry lover mad with envy.
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Collaborating with other people with similar goals and experiences can be a helpful way to share pitfalls and celebrations, especially if they're in similar circumstances. Sometimes, staying on track is easier if you're part of a team on which everyone has the same goal.
Hearing others' stories can help validate your own experiences, and sharing your own experiences and advice can help others.
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Despite what you may believe, getting off sugar and eating a healthier diet don’t require superhuman discipline, some infomercial’s “secret” pills, or a lifetime dedicated to eating like a rabbit. Try these easy steps to begin your journey:
Keep sugar and junk food out of your house. You can’t eat what you don’t have!
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Beating a sugar addiction can be expensive. In general, whole food is more expensive than packaged convenience foods, and organic food costs more than industrial food products. The popularity of clean organic food is bringing the price down over time, but at present, sugar and chemicals are unfortunately still cheaper than quality food.
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As you change your mind-set and eating habits to reduce sugar, you can experiment with two different approaches. One is to work through a gradual transition in which you phase out sugary foods and make selective substitutions over time. The other approach is to quit sugar cold turkey.
Some folks have better success making a gradual transition away from sugar.
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Triggers are events or situations to which people react. Often in the case of the sugar addict, those reactions are habits that are both learned and chemically induced. To consciously change your reactions to triggers, you must first identify that you’re reacting to a situation.
Here’s a new drill for you to practice:
Every time you have a craving, stop and ask yourself what you’re reacting to.
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The ideal breakfast to beat your sugar addiction has a high protein content. Higher-protein breakfasts translate into a more sustained level of energy throughout the morning. Protein fills you up longer, meaning you’re less likely to have midmorning cravings.
Traditional protein sources for breakfast include eggs, ham, sausage, yogurt, and whey.
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When planning your snacks, think of them as mini-meals. Using the same low sugar nutrition principles you use with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, make sure your snacks contain a protein and a plant, and plan out your snack times in your schedule so you’re sure to supply yourself with healthy nutrition during the day.
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Many sugar cravings stem purely from habit — the more sugar you eat, the more you want. When you eat dessert every day, you continue to want dessert every day. Don’t make after-dinner sweets an everyday habit.
Reserve the heavy-sugar desserts for very special occasions, if at all. Having something sweet after a meal doesn’t mean that you have to cram a thousand calories after dinner.
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One difficulty that people often express when kicking the sugar habit is finding the time to cook healthy meals. When you work long days and the kids have activities, you don’t have much time left for cooking. Here are some tips for cutting down your time in the kitchen:
Build a repertoire of dependable recipes.
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If you’re not at home during the day, bringing your lunch (and sugar-free snacks) is the only way to ensure that you’re supplied with healthy food throughout the day. Here are some tips for planning and packing your lunch:
Plan ahead. When cooking fish, poultry, or meat for dinner, make some extra for a sandwich or salad for lunch the next day.
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Throughout the course of a year, you’ll experience stretches of time where sugar and junk food are plentiful, like vacations and holidays. These tips can help you keep tabs on your sugar intake while still enjoying some treats in moderation during these times. These tips guide you through making the best choices out of whatever food is available to help you stay on track.
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If you’re not in great shape when you start off, staying on track with your exercise program can be a challenge. If you’re a beginner, exercise isn’t yet a lifestyle habit for you, so it’s still something you have to plan for and put on your schedule.
Your workouts may feel underwhelming or you may feel embarrassed or ashamed of how hard it is for you or how quickly you tire out.
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According to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, more than 50 million Americans are affected by some type of thyroid disorder. Diet and stress are the two things that most strongly affect your thyroid function.
After you eat too much sugar, you get a large rush of sugar into the bloodstream.
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Research clearly shows that ingesting large amounts of sugar results in a significant decrease in the ability of the immune system to engulf bacteria. This effect occurs rapidly after eating sugar and lasts for several hours afterward. If you eat sugary foods several times per day, you’re keeping your immune system in a depressed state almost constantly!
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Not surprisingly, your digestive system is one of the first body systems to be affected by your diet. Consistent consumption of fast food, chemicals, and high-sugar food creates a continuous state of inflammation in the gut.
High sugar consumption elevates blood acid levels and increases levels of inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein and homocysteine, and this consistent inflammation can lead to a chronic irritation of the digestive system known as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
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A food journal (also known as a lie detector) is one of the best tools for staying mindful and honest about how you’re actually eating. After you eat something, write it down right away; at the end of a busy day, trying to remember what you had at what time (and how much of it) is asking for inaccuracy and denial.
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After you develop the skills and the mind-set to defeat one addiction, such as your sugar addiction, you can apply the same skills and methods to rid yourself of other unhealthy habits, too!
If you find yourself saddled with any of the following unhealthy addictions, see whether you can find some similarities between the beliefs and mind-set you have about sugar and the ones you have about these other addictions.
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If you eat a high-protein lunch with lots of organic vegetables, you’ll likely stay satisfied, energized, and craving-free for the rest of the day. Lunches that contain mostly high-glycemic carbs — lots of bread, pasta, or sugar — lead to a sleepy, brain-fogged afternoon.
A high-insulin afternoon makes you feel lousy, increases your fat storage, and makes you crave carbs later in the day.
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One of the most reliable paths to sugar addiction and obesity is high stress, because stress changes your appetite, stimulates overeating, and increases insulin resistance.
Surveys show that a majority of women often eat for emotional reasons rather than hunger. Stressful emotions dampen the reward response in the brain, which causes cravings that drive overeating (and, for some people, the abuse of other substances, too).
Sugar Addiction
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Metabolic syndrome (formerly known as syndrome X) is a term used to describe the inevitable results of the typical high-sugar diet: abdominal fat, elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar levels.
Metabolic syndrome should be renamed “excess carbohydrate sickness” because that’s really what it is.
Sugar Addiction
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Overconsumption of sugar causes obesity in two primary ways: excess calories and excess insulin (the hormone that shuttles sugar from the blood into cells). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that obesity has overtaken cigarette smoking for the number-one spot on the list of healthcare costs.
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When some people sit down for breakfast, they automatically grab a quick, all-carbohydrate food like breakfast cereal or a muffin. Don’t be afraid to think outside the American breakfast food box — even the recommended high-protein breakfast can get stale if you’re stuck on just eggs and sausage.
A traditional Japanese breakfast consists of a small piece of fish (like salmon), some light vegetables, and a tiny portion of rice accompanied by a small bowl of miso soup.
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Many people fall victim to reactive eating because they’re unprepared. If you don’t know in advance what your food will consist of for the day, you’re at the mercy of the cravings of your starving brain, which will drive you to grab whatever you can get quickly — and lots of it!
Eating on the fly with no plan is akin to investing in a company that has no budgets, where everybody says, “We just spend whatever we feel like from day to day and hope it all works out in the long run.
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It’s very easy to turn to food, especially sugar, when you feel stressed or out of control. Sugar is pervasive in most of the world, and this cheap, readily available drug can exert harmful control over your life if you let it.
Proactive eating means that you don’t allow these external cues to affect your eating behavior (what you choose to eat, when you eat, and how much you eat).
Sugar Addiction
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Overhauling a lifetime of destructive food habits can be a daunting task, especially when you also have a lot of other issues with work and family on your plate. Finding a professional therapist or counselor who has helped hundreds of people in your shoes is a smart way to propel your personal growth to a new level, especially if you’re struggling with some deep emotional issues.
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For a high-protein, healthful snack, try this Baby Shrimp Salad. It’s light and flavorful and will keep you satisfied and away from the temptation of sugary snack foods.
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/gilaxia
Preparation time: 6 minutes
Cook time: 7 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
3/4 cup white wine
2 bay leaves
1 fresh lemon, sliced
1 pound baby shrimp, peeled and deveined
Dill Dressing (see the following recipe)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
In a 2- or 3-quart saucepan, combine the wine, bay leaves, and lemon slices.
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If you’re the head chef in your family, dinnertime can be stressful. Not only are you responsible for feeding yourself sensibly, but you also have several other people to consider, each with his or her own tastes, preferences, and sometimes, specific dietary requirements. This recipe is sure to please your entire family and is a healthful alternative to fried chicken, with lots of added flavor!
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When choosing scallops for this healthful, low-sugar recipe, be sure you choose dry scallops. Dry scallops are all-natural and haven’t been treated with any chemicals. They’re harvested directly from the ocean, shucked on deck, and immediately frozen on the boat to preserve quality. Dry scallops caramelize during cooking to a golden brown color that’s very attractive when served.
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For those who are trying to fight sugar addiction, protein is important for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This recipe is not only low-sugar and healthy, but it’s high in protein.
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Lauri Patterson
Prep time: 12 minutes
Cook time: 8–9 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
8 wooden skewers
1 large green bell pepper
12 cherry tomatoes
1 purple onion
1 large portobello mushroom
8 ounces beef filet (or beef tips)
Cajun Basting Sauce (see the following recipe)
Salt and ground black pepper
Soak the wooden skewers in warm water for 20 to 30 minutes.
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This is a speedy dinner recipe that’s nutritious and low-sugar. Taking less time to make dinner gives you more time with your family. Dinnertime isn’t just about the food. Often, a few minutes together at the dinner table is the only time family members have to connect with one another. Be sure to appreciate this time together, and use it to listen, learn, and bond.
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Under-eating during the day and overeating at night is exactly the wrong way to eat if you’re trying to lose weight and fight sugar addiction. Doing so also works against you if you’re trying to keep your energy up and your mental performance sharp. These pancakes are a great low-sugar, nutritional breakfast option.
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A low-sugar lunch doesn’t have to be a dreary sandwich or salad! Instead, use lunch as an opportunity to experience new and exciting foods like ostrich medallions with corn relish.
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/ruvanboshoff
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Eight 2-ounce ostrich medallions
Corn Relish (see the following recipe)
Grease an iron skillet with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.
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To keep your blood sugar levels stable and ward off emergency cravings for energy, it’s important to eat often. A good rule of thumb is to eat a combination of protein and carbohydrates every three to four hours. If you go longer than that without eating, your body goes into “starvation emergency” mode and starts holding on to its fat stores and cranking up the appetite center.
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Sugar goes by a lot of different names, and that makes avoiding it particularly tricky. Not everything that contains sugar uses that specific word in the list of ingredients, so here's a reference list of some alternative names for sugar that you may not recognize.
Agave nectar
Fruit juice
Agave syrup
Fruit j
Sugar Addiction
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Planning your meals in advance is a vital part of eating well and avoiding reactive eating. An integral part of executing your plan is maintaining your grocery list. Without the right supplies, you’ll have a hard time providing quality nutrition for yourself and the rest of your family.
On your grocery list, keep a running list of all the items you need for the upcoming meals that you’ve planned.
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The biggest obstacle to regular exercise is finding the time to do it. Everyone is busy, and most people overbook their schedules to the point that they don’t have any time for self-care. To be healthy, this must change!
Exercise doesn’t take a lot of time, but you do have to be consistent to have success, which means you have to put workouts on your schedule, just like you do any other important commitment.
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If you are planning to adopt a sugar-free lifestyle, consider these must-do strategies for success — vital skills to achieve the new habits and new mind-set you’ll need. As you pick up these principles, not only will you have more energy and feel much better, but your tastes will probably change. After a few weeks of nonaddictive eating, your desire for sugar is likely to drop dramatically!
Sugar Addiction
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If you’re an Exhausted Addict, you’re the epitome of someone who runs herself too hard. You don’t know the meaning of the word downtime, and fatigue is almost constant. There never seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done, and you pressure yourself to try to be the one who does everything for everyone except yourself.
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As the name implies, Sad Eaters spend a lot of time feeling sad and depressed. They use sugar as an artificial mood elevator, and their behaviors with food embody the very definition of the term emotional eater.
Out of all the addict types, the Sad Eater has the unhealthiest relationship with food. It’s common for Sad Eaters to turn to sugar for comfort and companionship; often Sad Eaters feel like food is their only friend, even if they’re surrounded by family or co-workers.
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Out of all the addicts, the Sugar Stalker is most physically addicted to sugar — meaning true chemical/physiological addiction. The Sugar Stalker’s taste buds have been overstimulated and desensitized to the point of finding nothing but the most over-sugared, sickly sweet treats to be even remotely satisfying.
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Classic Undereaters are often low-energy people. They love to sleep, and they generally find it very difficult to muster the energy to do anything above and beyond what is absolutely necessary — even things they enjoy. In that respect, Undereaters are similar to Exhausted Addicts, but while Exhausted Addicts continue to unhealthily push themselves through their stress and exhaustion, Undereaters crash and shut down instead.
Sugar Addiction
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To understand how too much dietary sugar can impact your cholesterol levels, you first need to understand how sugar creates triglycerides. When you eat fructose, your body sends it to the liver, which converts the fructose molecules into triglycerides (basically fat). The liver exports the triglycerides into the bloodstream, where they’re picked up and stored as body fat.
Sugar Addiction
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Sugar addicts commonly suffer from anxiety. Sugar abuse produces a blood-sugar roller coaster that can trigger anxiety attacks. When blood sugar levels crash, your brain gets desperate for food, and your body can become shaky, weak, confused, and anxious.
If you’re stressed out all the time, check yourself — do you frequently find yourself breathing shallowly or even unconsciously holding your breath?
Sugar Addiction
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The epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the Western world has three main causes: the sugar content in food, inactivity, and increased overall calorie consumption. Combining all three, as has happened over the years, creates the perfect storm for a health and wellness catastrophe.
Sugar abuse can lead to a myriad of health problems, including weight gain, diabetes, depressed immunity, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, cancer, tooth decay, yeast infections, liver disease, depression, chronic fatigue, increased appetite, and metabolic syndrome.
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Fortifying your diet with the right nutrition supplements can help fend off sugar cravings and add a much-needed boost to your health and vitality. Proper supplementation is an important component of long-term health and wellness because it’s difficult to obtain all the vitamins, minerals, essential fats, and phytonutrients that you need to defend against the onslaught of dangerous chemicals found in the food supply and the environment.
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If you're in a hurry, it can be difficult to come up with a healthy snack instead of one that's loaded with sugar and chemicals. Here's a list of ten healthy snacks that you don't have to cook, so that you can grab, gobble, and go:
Can of low-sodium tuna in water
Celery boat filled with peanut butter or chicken salad
Coconut milk (unsweetened) with a scoop of whey protein
Cucumbers or bell peppers with salsa
Cup of cottage cheese or Greek yogurt
Half an apple topped with (real) peanut butter, almond butter, or cheese
Handful of nuts
Hard-boiled egg
Lettuce roll stuffed with sliced turkey breast
Raw veggie plate and hummus
Keep some of these snacks prepped in your refrigerator or pantry so they're ready to grab when it's snack time.
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Consistency is one of the most important parts of making an exercise program work for you. This is a cause-and-effect universe, so you can’t expect any improvements if you don’t put in the time and effort to get them.
Exercise programming is based on the concept of progressive overload — taxing the body just a little bit more than it considers normal so that it’s forced to adapt to the new demands that are imposed on it.
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There's an old saying: "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper." Many people do just the opposite, which is exactly the wrong way to eat if you're trying to lose weight! Skimping on breakfast works against you if you're trying to keep your energy up during the day and your mental performance level high.
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Whenever possible, you should buy fish that’s wild-caught instead of farmed. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmed fish are clearly inferior to their wild counterparts from both a nutritional and environmental perspective:
Farm-raised fish contain much higher amounts of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats than wild fish.
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To get a feel for how mindful eating can enhance your eating experience, try this sequence the next time you’re ready to sit down to eat something that you love. Cheese ravioli is used for this example:
Before you do anything else, stop and be grateful for what you have and for what you’re about to do.
Cut into a piece of the ravioli with a fork.
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Mindfulness is the act of being mentally and emotionally present, without judgment, while being aware of and intentional about your state of mind and your behavior. Basically, it means paying attention to what’s happening without judging or reacting, and acting purposefully and intentionally.
Mindful eating requires that you pay attention to the cues your body gives you.
Sugar Addiction
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Four main types of sugar addicts exist. If you understand what kind of sugar addict you are and you learn to recognize some behaviors and thought patterns common to each addict type, you may start to understand how you’ve become addicted to sugar. Even more important, you’ll discover what you need to do to overcome your addiction and regain control of your life.
Sugar Addiction
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Alcoholic drinks generally contain only small amounts of sugar (assuming that you don’t add lots of sugary mixer). Even a glass of sweet white wine usually contains only about 8 grams of sugar. But be careful — this doesn’t mean that the wine is low in total carbohydrates or calories! Most alcoholic beverages consist of mostly high-glycemic carbohydrates.
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Dietary protein is essential for maintaining the structure of your body and beating your sugar addiction. All the soft tissues in the body — muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, and even skin and hair — are made of protein. Most enzymes are proteins, and your body uses proteins to catalyze almost all the reactions in living cells, so proteins control virtually every cellular process.
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As a species, humans evolved eating the small amounts of sugar found naturally in fruits and plants. Today, the modern American consumes more than 130 pounds of sugar each year, half of which comes from artificial corn sweeteners.
Your body isn’t designed to handle the massive load of sugar that the modern diet thrusts upon you, and the United States shoulders the embarrassing obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome statistics to prove it.
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Regardless of how clean your diet is, almost everyone gets cravings for sweets or junk food now and then. As you practice better eating habits and wean yourself off sugar, use these suggestions to fight back when a sugar craving strikes:
Drink a cold glass of distilled water or citrus-flavored mineral water.
Identify what triggered the craving, and don't allow yourself to have the treat until you come up with the answer.
Sugar Addiction
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Cutting back on sugar is a common practice for people who are trying to lose weight. A high-sugar diet contributes to weight gain by adding calories without adding nutrition (often referred to as empty calories), by increasing appetite and desire for more sugar, and by elevating insulin levels (which promotes fat storage).
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In a nutshell, sugar cravings are chemical reactions or learned emotional responses (or sometimes both) that typically originate from one of these common situations or conditions:
Abrupt weight loss: A common condition that triggers a physiological sugar craving is losing weight too quickly (commonly the result of crash dieting).
Sugar Addiction
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Sugar addiction is prevalent in modern society because sugar is legal, cheap, pervasive, and socially acceptable. You can’t say that about the other substances people get addicted to. Combine all that with a stressful job, a harried family life, and an impossible schedule, and is it any wonder that people stuff themselves with sugar-packed convenience foods?
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Carbohydrates are very important to living beings. So, why is sugar so bad for you? You need carbohydrates in your diet to provide energy to each cell, to supply your brain with glucose, and to furnish fuel for muscles and organs. All your DNA and RNA molecules have a sugar molecule in them. In fact, if you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, your body breaks down muscle tissue to make some!
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Sugar detox is simply the act of stopping the ingestion of harmful amounts of sugar so that your body can begin to heal itself by de-acidifying your blood and tissues, shedding excess body fat, and coaxing your hormone and energy systems back to normal, healthy function.
Follow these tips to ensure success when you begin detoxing from sugar:
Create a list of reasons you want to live differently.