I see it more and more often: people who know they eat too much sugar but just don’t want to quit.
Here are 3 reasons people seem afraid to banish desserts or other sugary foods from their diets. Please inform your clients and class participants.
Fear #1: Not having a “sugar crutch” when you need it
When the going gets tough, the stressed grab cookies. If you haven’t figured out a different — and more healthful — stress management strategy, sugar may seem like the only way you can relieve the stress you’re facing.
What To Do Instead
Several options come to mind for stress relief. Here’s a simple one.
Breathe. Most people recommend slow, deep breathing, which can be very helpful. But from my own experience, as well as from accounts by others, I know that deep breathing won’t always work. In fact, when we’re super-stressed, it can be difficult to take slow, deep breaths.
I suggest short, sharp exhalations. Breathe out forcefully enough to make noise — similar to the sound a tennis player might make when hitting a serve. (If you’re in a location where you can’t make noise, just breathe out quickly and with power.)
Do a set of 3 sharp exhalations. Stop for a moment and feel the tingling in your body. Do another set of 3. Stop again and feel your body. Do a third set of 3.
By the time you’ve done that, there should be lots of tingling and a significant change in the way you feel. It should then be possible to slow down your breathing to a deeper, more relaxed rate. If you want to follow with a short meditation, it will work better once you’ve brought your breathing under control.
Fear #2: Going a little nuts without sugar
Some people are quite aware of what happens to them when they don’t eat their usual sugary treats. That’s what they worry about when someone suggests that they get rid of sugar in their diets.
You may have experienced some of these withdrawal symptoms. They can take different, yet predictable, forms. You might feel edgy and restless. You might be irritable, impatient, or unable to concentrate. You may have serious cravings for the foods you’re trying to eliminate. You might get headaches. You might start thinking about sugary foods — and nothing but them. You might keep walking back and forth to the break room or the kitchen.
What To Do Instead
Short-term relief can be made simple with a teaspoon of liquid B-complex (the entire B-complex, not just one or two B vitamins). Check with your doctor before trying this to be sure it’s okay for you to have these water-soluble vitamins.
B-complex is highly effective. It will eliminate cravings and other withdrawal symptoms within minutes and typically prevent their return for up to 24 hours.
The vitamins are water-soluble, so you’ll excrete any excess in urine. This is a short-term strategy only. Long-term craving elimination may require nutrition changes.
Fear #3: Never being able to enjoy eating again
It’s rough to give up foods we love. It can seem as if nothing will ever take their place. And the foods we use to handle stress, to celebrate, or for comfort and relaxation usually change brain chemistry in a big way.
Anything that changes brain chem can promote a strong reaction when we think about getting rid of it. Let’s call that reaction “emotional attachment.” Anyone who knows the power those foods can have over them — especially at certain times — is aware that the attachment can be quite emotional.
A client once stomped her food and said (more accurately, whined), “Joan, do you ever enjoy eating?!”
My answer to her applies to anyone else: “Of course!”
What To Do Instead
Eat healthful fats. Or choose savory seasonings. Or use more salt for a while. If you’re concerned about hypertension, be aware that sugar (and the insulin it triggers) can raise blood pressure even more than salt. And you don’t have to use extra salt forever, just till you get past sugar’s grip.
We don’t need sugar to enjoy eating. Many, many non-sugary foods taste absolutely wonderful. Great news: As you get away from sugar, foods you didn’t like before may actually taste good!
Vegetables are a perfect example. Every client of mine who hated vegetables was hooked on sugar big-time. And every one of them changed his/her opinion after ditching sugar.
Getting past withdrawal, cravings, and unhealthful “stress junk” is the freedom I wish for your participants. If they haven’t quit sugar because they don’t think they can — or fear they’ll fail — let them know it’s easy, it really works, and they can do it. And help is available. They’ll feel great, and great about themselves for quitting.
Do you get cravings at night? Are they often for alcohol, or for sugar? Do you have trouble getting to sleep without at least one of them? This post covers a simple plan for handling night cravings.
Foods change brain chemistry (and more, but let’s stick with brain chemistry for now).
Both alcohol and sugar can change brain chem in a big way — and in almost the same way.
Serotonin is a brain chemical that makes us feel relaxed. It can reduce rotten moods (dysphoria) from depression, SAD (seasonal affective disorder), PMS, anxiety, and more.
At night, we tend naturally to want to increase our serotonin so we can relax.
Serotonin is also the precursor of melatonin, sometimes called the sleep hormone. (Melatonin is important for many reasons, including its anti-inflammatory benefits, but that’s a separate topic.)
Bottom line, serotonin can help us wind down and get to sleep. It seems logical that, before bed, we’d want something serotonin-boosting to help us do that.
Alcohol and sugar are frequent options.
Will Alcohol Put You To Sleep?
Alcohol can help you fall asleep. In fact, you might even have started using alcohol as a late-night relaxant because it put you to sleep a few times before. The brain remembers that and will prompt a craving for something that worked in the past when it wants to fall asleep. (It’s about brain chem, but let’s keep things simple.)
But if it’s good sleep you’re after, alcohol isn’t the best choice. It will change the quality of your sleep — and not for the better.
Until your body has processed the alcohol completely, you’ll stay in lighter sleep stages. The full sleep cycle includes light and deep stages. Deeper sleep (theta and delta waves) is the most restorative, so sleep brought on by alcohol might leave you feeling less refreshed than more natural sleep.
Is Sugar Any Better For Sleep?
Late-night cravings for sugar might be prompted for a similar reason to alcohol cravings. Maybe eating something sugary helped you get to sleep on several occasions, so the brain sends signals asking for that same sleep “cure.”
Sugar and alcohol can wake us after a few hours and make it difficult to get back to sleep. This has more to do with low glucose levels than with brain chemistry, but the impact on your night’s sleep can be severe. In both cases, the effect in the morning may be dramatic and unpleasant.
It’s easy to be casual about sugar consumption, thinking sugar’s “just” food. Actually, it’s a drug with strong effects on brain chemistry and more.
Don’t underestimate the impact of sugar on your morning-after. One of my clients said that, after eating a lot of sugar at night, she used to wake up feeling “like I’ve been run over by a truck.” Another client described it as a “sugar hangover.” Both are accurate!
Mixed drinks include alcohol and a mixer that typically contains sugar, so you’re likely to get all of the above effects — less restful sleep, middle-of-the-night awakenings, and AM hangovers. If so, you may need a better alternative.
What Works Better Than Alcohol or Sugar?
Please keep in mind that the end game is to increase serotonin. Starches will do that, and usually without side effects.
Starches are the foods that most people call “carbs” — even though plenty of other foods are carbs, too. (Vegetables, fruits, and roots, for example, are carbs. Yes.)
Starches include lentils, quinoa, sweet potatoes, rice, potatoes, pumpkin and other squash, beans, bread, and more. And it doesn’t take a lot to trigger sleep.
A small serving of one of the above starches will help you get to sleep. Just eat it about 60 to 90 minutes before your desired bedtime and let it work for you.
If you feel you need a slightly bigger serotonin boost, try adding a bit of saturated fat to the starch, such as coconut oil or butter. The combination will increase your insulin release and your serotonin production.
If you try this a couple of times and find that it doesn’t work, haul out the big guns. Have a little turkey with one of the combinations above, making a powerful sleep-inducing trifecta.
Keep your portions small to avoid feeling stuffed or ill as you lie in bed. The goal is just to change brain chem, not to eat an extra meal.
Much more can be said about cravings, and will be in a future post.
I'm a little late the party of Prince tributes, but I thought I would share these two Power of 3 Music Mixes featuring Prince.
Premium Members can download these mixes for free by following the links below:
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Power of 3 Music Mix – Let's Go Crazy, Raspberry Beret, I Would Die For You
Right Click on the blue underlined link
Select “Download Linked File As”
Select a download location
Once file is completely downloaded, find it in the location you selected
Drag the file into your iTunes or Spotify library OR
Right Click on the file and Select “Open With”
From the drop down menu select “iTunes” or “Spotify”
File should begin playing and is now part of your iTunes or Spotify library
To download the above media on a PC:
Right Click on the blue underlined link
Select “Save Link As”
Select a download location
Once file is completely downloaded, find it in the location you selected
Drag the file into your iTunes or Spotify library OR
Right Click on the file and Select “Open With”
From the drop down menu select “iTunes” or “Spotify”
File should begin playing and is now part of your iTunes or Spotify library Click here to watch a video on how to download media files from ICI/Pro.
Premium Members can download this mix for free by following the links below:
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Right Click on the blue underlined link
Select “Download Linked File As”
Select a download location
Once file is completely downloaded, find it in the location you selected
Drag the file into your iTunes or Spotify library OR
Right Click on the file and Select “Open With”
From the drop down menu select “iTunes” or “Spotify”
File should begin playing and is now part of your iTunes or Spotify library
To download the above media on a PC:
Right Click on the blue underlined link
Select “Save Link As”
Select a download location
Once file is completely downloaded, find it in the location you selected
Drag the file into your iTunes or Spotify library OR
Right Click on the file and Select “Open With”
From the drop down menu select “iTunes” or “Spotify”
File should begin playing and is now part of your iTunes or Spotify library Click here to watch a video on how to download media files from ICI/Pro.
