Ways to Overcome a Sweet Tooth

Many people struggle with many kinds of food and drink addictions. Perhaps you have to drink several cups of coffee a day to be able to function properly or else you will feel moody and irritable. Or like me, you have a weakness for sweet things such as cakes and chocolate. You do well in other areas, but you are finding it a struggle to limit the amount of sugary food you eat. Do not give up. There are ways to control and even overcome your addiction.

First of all, learn to understand the signals your body is giving out and how you in turn cope with these. When do you normally crave sweet foods? Is it around mid morning or in the afternoon? How about when you have had a stressful day at work or school? A good way to start is to take a close look at what you normally eat on a day to day basis. Consider keeping a food diary and make a note of when you ate any sugary food. How were you feeling at the time? This is important, as you can then refer back to this later on and see whether there is a pattern in your eating habits. Then start at the beginning of each day with breakfast. Skip the sugary donut and give your body the proper fuel it needs. The donut will instantly satisfy your hunger, but it will not be much good to you two hours later. It is the same for muffins too. These are not suitable breakfast items, so remove them from your home and menu. Instead, fill up on items such as a bowl of oatmeal, with no added sugar, a glass of orange juice and a sliced up fruit over the oatmeal. Kiwi fruit or an orange are good options. The natural sweetness from the orange juice and sliced fruit will help you overcome your start of the day craving. Oatmeal is a great way to start your day, as it will help satisfy your hunger for most of the morning, so that you do not get an attack of the mid morning munchies later in the day.

What do you eat at lunchtime? Even if you have a busy schedule, you should try to make time for proper meals. Rather than eating a chocolate bar to tide you over until you get home from work, prepare a lunch from home. With some foresight, you can pack food that will nourish and sustain you into the afternoon. Take along a bowl of wholewheat pasta salad, sprinkled with peas, onions, carrots, sweet red peppers and some chopped up turkey. Follow that up with a yogurt for a little sweetness and a small can of fruit, in natural juice, rather than syrup. A nutritious lunch should help take the edge off your sweet tooth. Many of us crave sweet food items because we have allowed ourselves to get too hungry. Perhaps we were so busy trying to meet a deadline at work that we just forgot to take a break and eat. In response, our body tries to compensate for this by giving us a craving for an instant energy rush. That is the reason why chocolate often seems so appealing when we are hungry.

The evening meal is another opportunity to help beat your sweet tooth. Cook a wholesome, well balanced meal that fills you up and the craving you have for chocolate fudge cake will hopefully subside. If you must have a dessert, reserve it for after the main meal and keep it light. The reason for this is that once we have eaten our main meal our body's blood sugar levels have been neutralized, making us less likely to overindulge in sweet foods. Of course, you may still have a tendency to crave sweet food, especially in between meals. Keep alternative sweet foods on hand for such times. Dried fruit is an excellent alternative, as are yogurt covered raisins and no sugar added pots of apple sauce. Sometimes, yogurt covered raisins taste more like white chocolate, so that is nice too! A word of caution though: do not deprive yourself completely of what you like. Eating a small piece of chocolate sometimes will not harm you. Just do not eat two or three chocolate bars in one sitting and learn to share! It takes a lot of self discipline and patience to wean ourselves off sugary foods, but it can be done. Make it easier on yourself too by not buying these items on a regular basis. When you go shopping, keep a list of what you intend to buy and try to stick to it. Reserve sugary foods as a treat, so that when you do eat them, you will be able to appreciate them more.