Disclaimer: This advice worked for me. You may be different. However, I strongly suspect that if you have the same obssesive/addictive reaction to carb-ey foods (pasta! bread! pizza dough!) and sweets (chocolate! cake! ice cream!) as I do, these tips may work for you as they worked for me.
No. 1: As I was first getting started dumping sweets, I made up a points system for myself. I gave myself 5 points for every time I did not eat something I knew I should not eat.
Initially, I had planned to reward myself with something when I reached 200 points. But by the time I reached 150 points, it was easy enough to refuse sweets that I started to forget to tally up my points. That means it took me about 30 "no, thanks" for it to become automatic. If five points/200 points is too large a number, you could try simply counting 30 times.
It is also important that you do not cheat. Sugar, for some of us, is as addictive as alcohol. Saying that you're going to give up your 5 points this once and have that ice cream erases your self-control strength gained and you're starting over again re-learning how to say no. The goal here is to get the taste of super-sweet out of your life. If you cheat, start the counter over. Yes, that's right. Be hard on yourself. The reward is worth it, and so is feeling better.
I rewarded myself with these:
It is critically important that you do not reward yourself with the type of food you are trying to not eat!
No. 2: Every time you say no, it gets a tiny bit easier to say no the next time. I imagined it was like getting +1 strength points in a role-playing game.
No. 3: Get your grieving over with. Go ahead and cry. I did. Do not tell yourself that this is only for a time, and someday you're going to be able to eat cake again. That's a lie. (The cake is a lie!) If you're serious about this, you will likely never be able to eat a huge bowl of ice cream and a slice of cake again. You can't eat just one, can't have half a piece of pie or just one cookie. If you crack open the sugar doors, sugar will run you down. I sound harsh here, but I was harsh with myself, too. For those of us whose bodies are this way, there is no halfway. It sucks. A lot. So cry about it, hit something (not someone). Grieve about it. If you need to comfort-eat, go out for a steak, buy some gourmet cheese, or go to your local greasy spoon and order a five-egg everything omlet (and give yourself 5 points for not touching the panckakes, the toast, or the Rhode Island-sized muffin!)
No. 4: Don't look. Stupid little trick, but it helps. Don't stand there staring at the rack of chocolate bars in the checkout line. The longer you stare at them, the more time your brain has to convince you that you really need one. Move your eyes away immediately. Look over the the tops of the racks, people-watch the people who have checked out and are leaving the store, look at the tabloids, text someone on your phone, make a call, turn your back and stare at the Diet Coke cooler instead.
No. 5: Leave. When the pie comes out after the big family dinner, go outside. You can go for a little walk, you can sit on the porch, you can go look at the flower beds, you can go top up the car with gas, you can go for a drive. If you can't leave politely, find something else to do with your hands and mouth. Have coffee, make tea, order a drink (and not a strawberry daquiri, thankyouverymuch!) or another diet Coke. Crunch your ice cubes. Grab a pen and doodle on a napkin, build a castle with the Sweet and Lo packets, offer to take the baby in the other room so her mommy can eat her dessert in peace.
No. 6: Find things you can eat, and use to them to remind yourself that the world does not, in fact, revolve around sweets. Avocados, tomatoes, steak, pork loin, ham, sausage, eggs, omelets, tuna, cheeses of all kinds, roasted red peppers, leftover turkey, whole cream, shrimp, salmon, etc. Also, you've been raised to think fat is bad for you, which isn't true, so remember that there is a world of wholesome, filling food out there that you might have previously shunned because it's "bad" while you were at the same time sucking down piles of high-sugar (but low fat) desserts.
In closing, remember these few things:
1. It will get easier, and you will get stronger, both in your body and in your "willpower".
2. You'll be less hungry, which will also make it easier. Hunger in a body eating in a low-carb way is entirely different from a hunger in a body that is eating the government recommended 300g of carbohydrate a day.
3. It's worth it, because you'll feel better. You think you neeeeeed that sugar hit, but it's actually making you feel worse. Once you're "off" of it, you'll see what I mean. And that'll take more than 1 day, but not as long as you think.
4. And for a little more motivation, and if you'd like to go beyond just getting rid of desserts, read this .
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