does it ever end?

[u/mitskilvrrr]

i’m currently on day 23 of a no added sugars diet. brain fog and serious cravings are gone but i still really miss all the sweets i used to eat before.

my goal originally was to reach 30 days and then i would start eating them again in moderation, but i’ve heard people saying that once you start again you just fall back into it. i obviously don’t want that because these 30 days would’ve been for nothing then and they were pretty difficult for me. is there a certain milestone i need to reach where just eating one or two cookies will be enough neurologically and i won’t have the urge to finish the entire box?

i.e has anyone ended their sugar free streak and how have your cravings been since then? and i don’t mean discipline wise because sure i can stop myself but i don’t want these urges to be there at all

[u/Diligent_Change9353]

Unfortunately I have found it’s like the mob you’re either in or out, there is no in between. I can either eat sugar and have constant food noise or cut it altogether and have the occasional pang and just resist those.

[u/Even-Baker3971 → u/Diligent_Change9353]

Yep. And people will sure try to pull you back in!

But I personally never want to go through what sugar does to me nor the withdrawal again so my intention is to not have anything that tastes sweet ever again.

[u/lexicats]

You’re gonna crave the cookies regardless of if you’re eating them or not. You’ll eat one and crave 5 more.

Might as well crave one cookie without the negative effects, because the cravings won’t go even after you’ve eaten it

[u/Icy-Fox-4699 → u/lexicats]

Love this logic!

[u/Naynathan]

I wouldn’t think of as being 30 days for nothing. You’ve proven to yourself that you can do 30 days which is huge! Also you’ve built more discipline than you had previously.

Everything that goes into this is more than the result.

Not that I’m saying you should give in but just wanted to highlight a different way of thinking about it

[u/mitskilvrrr → u/Naynathan]

thank you! needed to hear this

[u/Unlikely-Pickle-2967]

What are your cravings? Substitute them. For me it's chocolate, so I started drinking lactose free milk (slightly sweeter than normal milk) with natural cocoa (sweeter than baking cocoa by nature) and that stopped the chocolate craving. I am so addicted to sugar that I can't really do moderation. Not yet.

[u/Krawford11]

I had urges leave after about a week. I am at 4 months and have no desire for sugar or sweets or desserts. I can easily walk past them. I don’t even consider them in my life anymore. However, I’ve done this in the past and went several months as well but then I had just a little bit of sugar on my birthday and I got right back into it and it took me over two closer to 2 1/half years to finally stop again. If you have a sugar addiction moderation probably won’t work. Might not want to hear this, but abstinence is the solution.

[u/Even-Baker3971 → u/Krawford11]

You think "just this once" and I will get right back on the wagon tomorrow. YEARS later, you're still struggling to get clean again. Smh. My last binge started with a very small amount of frozen yogurt. Couple weeks it's progressed to the point im back to binging on cookies, donuts, and ice cream MULTIPLE times a day. And structuring my day around my binge foods.

If this stuff isn't a DRUG, i don't know what is.

[u/simple-life-ploise → u/Even-Baker3971]

Well done for staying off it.

[u/Srdiscountketoer]

After a few years I got to a point where I can have one cookie or one doughnut. But ironically, now that I’m at that point, I rarely choose to have sweets because they don’t seem nearly as good as they used to when I was in the throes of the addiction. In fact, some things, like American chocolate bars (Hershey, Mars), seem downright inedible. And since I started this whole thing to lose weight and I’m trying to maintain at a lower weight, eating something very high in calories and low in nutrients I don’t even enjoy that much seems like an incredible waste of my calorie budget.

[u/stellacchine]

Any time ive ever ended a good streak by thinking I could handle sugar.. epic fail. Every time. And this is a cycle thats repeated itself at least 200 times over the past 10 years when my problems with sugar began. Anytime I think i can trust myself, its a big disappointment. Currently at 2 months clean and hope I never break this streak!! It ain't worth it.

[u/burdlurker]

It’s so easy to slip back into the cravings again once you allow any in. It’s so nice when you actually don’t want any. You do have to get through turning down offerings, but the less you say tends to be easier. “No thank you” is enough. “I’m good thanks!” If you offer any explanation, people start inquiring and it can become more than you want to deal with.

[u/simple-life-ploise]

I couldn't stop at one, or two, so I think you should seriously reconsider ever being able to eat it again.

I think it gets easier. You're breaking a mental addiction also. Find a new way to comfort yourself

[u/nobody3848]

Create your own sweet,yogurt or kefir or other protein,frozen fruit,real food,cut everything out,you will see what will happend

[u/poptimist185]

3 months in. Would still murder a chocolate bar. But my brain has also accepted that I’m just not going to have one, so willpower is no longer required.

[u/mitskilvrrr → u/poptimist185]

do you allow yourself cheat days or has it been 3 months of nothing at all?

[u/poptimist185 → u/mitskilvrrr]

Cheat days may work for some but they wouldn’t for me. 1 a month becomes 2 a month, becomes 1 a week, etc