It’s time to break up with sugar. These 5 habits will help you conquer cravings, clear up your skin, shed stubborn weight and achieve better health.
Sugar is awful for you.
Easily one of the most damaging ingredients you can put in to your body.
It causes inflammation, a spike in glucose levels and reduces immune function, and leads to undesirable things like weight gain, acne, accelerated aging, tooth decay, and chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.
Unfortunately, sugar cravings are one of the toughest things to get a grip on and overcome.
This is likely because, unlike other foods, sugar cravings are a result of stress, fatigue, nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances and boredom - all things most of us have come quite accustomed to in our day-to-day lives.
But there’s good news.
In many cases, the key to conquering your cravings involves establishing better habits for yourself.
With better habits, many of which revolve adequate self-care and awareness, you will probably find your sugar cravings all but disappear.
In this post I’m going to help you do that.
I will not only elaborate on the habits that will help you stave off sugar cravings but also help you mitigate what’s triggering them in the first place.
Never skip a meal…ever
Some do it to reduce their caloric intake, while others do it because they’re busy with other stress-inducing activities.
Whatever the reason, skipping meals is not only terrible for your health but a big precursor for sugar cravings and binging.
When you skip a meal or go a long time without eating your body goes into survival mode. This causes a lot of negative reactions in the body, including reducing energy levels and poor decision making.
Sugar cravings are your body’s response to needing energy. And after not eating for too long, we aim to solve that problem fast and without much thought - usually reaching for something processed and riddled with sugar.
To prevent this from happening, you have to eat enough throughout the day.
Three meals, and a snack or two in between if you feel hungry in between- all made with real, whole foods that are rich in fiber, protein and other important nutrients.
This will allow you to maintain energy levels, ensure a varied diet that helps you avoid nutrient deficiencies - both of which go a long way in reducing sugar cravings.
Stop bringing it into your home
Stocking the house with sugary products is terrible practice. By doing so you’re making yourself jump through hoops to avoid them and setting yourself up for failure.
Making good choices about food at home means having good things in your fridge and pantry to choose from.
It’s that simple.
When I go to the grocery store, I skip the junk food aisle altogether. I rarely even think about “getting snacks”. I focus on foods that I’ll eat at meals that will fill me up and give my body the nutrients it needs to feel satisfied so that I’m not even having to snack.
If you can do this, it will be a game changer for you. You will drastically cut back on your sugar intake, and as a result how much you crave it.
Opt for things that are naturally sweet instead
There are a lot of “sweet” things that aren’t terrible for you.
Like fruit.
Unlike processed foods that are filled with refined sugar, fruit is packed with fiber vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and all of them are actually health promoting.
When I go to the grocery store, I choose 2-3 varieties of fruit specifically for satisfying a sweet tooth.
I normally only eat fruit in the morning for breakfast, but if I get craving for something sweet mid day or in the evening, I grab a small serving of the fruit I chose at the grocery store specifically for this purpose.
The idea of not bringing store-bought processed sugary snacks into the house, and opting for something naturally sweet instead (like fruit) may take some getting used to.
Think of it like a muscle you’re building: it will get stronger the more you use and work it.
Add quality sleep to the top of your list of priorities
Sleep and healthy eating go hand-in-hand.
For starters, fatigue, stress and exhaustion are all common triggers for food binging.
What ingredient spikes energy faster than any other food source? Sugar, of course. And it’s never for too long, either which is why we tend to reach for more and more of it.
We also tend to make entirely different food choices throughout the day when we are rested, clear-headed and energetic as opposed to tired and dragging.
When we’re tired, we want what’s easy. Sugary packaged snacks are much easier than chopping up veggies or preparing a stew.
So one of the best things you can do to crush sugar cravings is make quality sleep (every single night) a major priority.
Take a minute before you’re about to make a bad choice and talk to yourself.
The more mindful and intentional you are about your goals, the more likely it is you’ll achieve them.
It’s not enough to say to yourself “I won’t eat sugar” once every so often or if you’ve fallen off the wagon.
You’ve got to remind yourself (often), that sugar is terrible for you and eating it is never going to bring you closer to your goals.
In fact, it will do the opposite: it will make it harder for you to achieve them.
Whether your goal is to lose weight, improve your skin, balance your hormones or something else, if you find yourself craving something sweet, before you reach for something sugary, pause for a moment.
Talk to yourself, and ask yourself questions like:
“Is this snack going to help me achieve my weight loss goals, improve my health, better health, lead to breakouts, etc.”
“Am I reaching for this because I’m bored, tired or procrastinating”
“Is there something else I can do or eat instead”
Mindfulness around food has a lot of benefits. Making wiser choices is one of them.
Sugar cravings are almost never about actual cravings, and usually about some kind of imbalance or void that needs to be filled.
Talking to yourself will help you figure out what you really need
Often you’ll find that snacking or reaching for sugar is about filling some kind of void. If that’s the case, consider what other ways you can nourish yourself.
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