***As a disclaimer, I am not a healthcare professional or nutritionist. Healthy living and nutrition are hobbies of mine and this blog is my own personal experience. For more information, please see my blog disclaimer.
I have THE WORST sweet tooth. I love a good chocolate chip cookie, slice of cheesecake, or piece of pie…and I struggle to find the will power to not eat them. While I do enjoy a sweet treat every once in a while, I hate the sugar cravings that come with enjoying a treat. Once you eat one cookie, you want another, and a piece of chocolate too!
I’m at the point where I don’t over-indulge anymore and I can go days without eating an unhealthy dessert. I’ve put together a list of things I do to help satisfy my sweet tooth without all the refined sugar! If you want to kick your sugar cravings, keep reading!
1. Drink Tea (or water):
If you’re having sugar cravings, make a cup of tea (and don’t sweeten it with anything sugary like honey. If you need to sweeten it, use a tiny bit of stevia.) There are so many yummy flavors of tea and since it’s hot, it takes a little while to drink. (One of my favorite teas when I want something sweet is the Yogi Green Tea Blueberry Slim Life.) Also, when you feel hungry or you’re craving something, sometimes it’s because you’re thirsty. Having a cup of tea (or glass of water) helps the hunger feeling and it can help satisfy a sweet tooth without sugar!
2. Exercise:
Or just get up and do something! I do this all the time. When I’m craving a cookie or a slice of pie, a lot of the time, it’s because I’m bored. So I’ll go for a walk, do a workout video (I really like PiYo), stretch, fold some laundry, do something to distract yourself and relieve boredom. And exercise is a great way to do that!
3. Add Up Sugar You Eat in a Day:
I used to do this all the time. If I was craving something sweet, I’d think about what I’d normally eat in a day or what I’d already eaten, add up all the sugar, and the number alone would deter me from eating a sugary treat. Think about it, one cookie has roughly 10 grams of sugar (depending on the kind of cookie, recipe, etc.) If you have 2 cookies and a glass of orange juice, you’re already at about 40 grams of sugar! The American Heart Association recommends 25 grams of sugar for women and 36 grams for men, per day! Those 2 cookies and glass of orange juice has far exceeded that number.
4. Eat a Piece of Fruit:
Yes fruit has natural sugar in it, but it also is full of fiber! Fiber helps the fruit digest slower so the sugar doesn’t hit your bloodstream all at once and spike your blood sugar. Also, since the sugar in fruit is natural (not refined), it’s not stripped of its nutrients and bleached. (The difference in eating fruit and drinking 100% fruit juice is the fiber. Juice doesn’t have fiber unless it’s added back in, but the more natural thing to do is eat the fruit.)
5.Organic Dark Chocolate:
I’m talking 85-90% dark! It’s very low in sugar and it’s bitter! It pretty much tricks me into thinking I’m eating something sweet. It still has the chocolatey flavor which makes me think it’s sweet, but the bitterness of it helps me eat just a little bit. Anything lower than 85% actually does have a sweeter taste (in my opinion) and it has more sugar, so don’t eat it!
The less sugar in your system, the less you will crave it. Once you completely rid your system of sugar, you won’t crave it…it’s just getting to that point that is so difficult (especially for those of us with a terrible sweet tooth.)
If you have any fun tips to stop craving sugar, leave me a comment!
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