Why Keeping Sweets In Your House Can Help You With Sugar Cravings
During one of my internet surfing episodes, I stumbled upon someone giving out weight loss tips. This one is nothing new and it goes something like this, ‘I never keep sugar in my house because if I do, I finish it all’.
Does this happen to you?
Don’t worry, I used to be in the ‘no sugar in your house’ camp too but guess what that does to your brain and body? It screws it up BIG TIME and here’s why.
Because when you give in to your cookie or ice cream cravings which every one of us eventually will, you will need to have it in absurd amounts because you truly will not be allowed to have it again (if you’re on a diet).
In fact, according to this article there are actually neurological changes that happen in the brain when you diet that make you more likely to notice food, especially tasty looking food. Now this would make sense then, that forbidden diet foods (i.e. sweets) are extra appealing to you.
From a brain chemistry perspective you actually don’t have that much control over your sugar cravings.
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Let me share something with you which might be a surprise to most people.
I’m passionate about health and wellness and I’ve been keeping all kinds of sweets in my house for years and I NEEEVER feel the need to finish a tub, or a package of something. In fact, sometimes treats in our house go stale because they’ve been sitting there for so long. It’s not that I don’t love sugar but a little bit of this or that usually does the trick and then I move on to the next pleasurable thing I’m craving like, connection, music or spending time in nature.
Polishing off boxes of sugar is just not how my brain is wired anymore but I wasn’t always this way.
Back when I was in to dieting for weight loss, I never kept anything sweet in my house for fear of eating it, if it was in plain eyesight. You’d think if you looked at my diet as a whole that I’d be eating a lot less sugar than I do now, but in fact I was eating way more. Every time I’d get those wild cravings for sugar that seriously only diets can induce in you, it didn’t matter what time of the day it was or where the hell I was (I’m even talking on airplanes) I had to fulfill all of them at once because that was the ONLY way I got satisfied.
What about you?
I’m trying to tell you that sugar free diets change the way you view sugar. And not in a good way! They make you want it like nothing else in your life even though the diet tells you you’re not supposed to have it.
We need to stop demonizing sugar. Go buy all the sugar in the world. Bring it home. Put it in the cabinets that you open the most and chose whatever you want of it every day. Sit down at a table. Pay attention to your body when you’re eating it. And tell yourself you can always have more tomorrow.
My basic mantra in life is, if you’re afraid of something, go as close to it as possible so it loses its power over you.
X,
Soshy