How To Break Your Sugar Addiction In Four Not So Easy But Effective Steps
I like sweets. The end! And I didn’t have a problem with that in my twenties. But after my 30th birthday, my metabolism took unpaid leave. It seems like every teaspoon of Nutella has been sticking to my tummy and butt ever since, I mean the gluteus maximus.
In the beginning, I needed to admit that I had hooked on sugar. A difficult decision. Primarily because I’ve lost the comparative advantage of talking to others to quit smoking, for example, and it’s perfect to have that ace up your sleeve.
The scale was ruthless. To make myself clear, I can’t say my few kilos more could be considered as obesity. This article is not an article about how I’ve changed my life. No before and after pictures here to show you. It is the story of one little thing in our lives. I was only ten kilos overweight. Not so awful now. But, middle-aged people do not gain weight overnight. It is enough to get one kilogram each year, and in ten years you will be ten kilos overweight.
The decision is passed. Since Monday, I stop eating sweets. Oh, Monday! We don’t love it so much, but it is the only day that gives us hope that the next week we will make our lives better. Justice for Monday!
The first step I took was to get the candy out of my sight.
The hidden place in a storeroom where I kept the sweets had to disappear. A bowl of candy in the living room, too.
The second step was more difficult in psychological terms. Philosophical even. I had to make eating sweets unattractive to me. And why do I eat sweets at all? Well, because I feel better as the chocolate melts in my mouth. The bottom line is that I feel better. Feeling happy is the reason for my sugar addiction.
So, I need to focus on how to be happy, not how to pick an M&M peanut bag, striving how peanuts are healthy food. It is essential to break that automatism to go after sweets when I get tired and simply want to relax and have a good time. Yes, I’m a conformist. Shame on me!
The third step. I had to make it harder for myself. To make sweets not easily accessible. When I get something sweet as a gift, I put it in the cupboard. Out of sight, out of mind. When a colleague brings some candy in the office, I move the bowl to the other end of the office. The hardest part was when I’m in the market. I didn’t even enter the section where the candies are. But waiting at the cash register was a real challenge.
The fourth step was the most challenging but very simple.
As the first ten days of avoiding sugar had gone through somehow, I decided to make things more radical. I told everyone about my new diet. And so I created pressure. I can’t say I don’t eat sweets to the people in the morning to see me eating ice cream in the afternoon. The fact I told other people I don’t eat sweets anymore affected me. I felt more responsible. It was not only a threat to the image I have of me but also the image that others have of me. Yes, of course, no one cares what other people think of them. Yeah, I don’t believe you either.
However, that was not enough. It must hurt! Behavior only changes if the punishment is painful and will undoubtedly be enforced. So, I decide to punish myself if I eat something sweet. It only meant one thing. I told myself that next time I broke the rule, I would take 1000 dinars and give it to my niece. But I realized that’s not a proper thing to do.
Such a punishment would mean that someone would benefit from my mistake. And I don’t have to be wrong to give my niece anything. It just didn’t seem right to me to give money when I’m wrong. I decided something else. When I eat sweets, I’ll rip a 1000 dinars banknote. I wrote it down on a yellow sticker. That’s about $10. You can buy five espresso coffees or six burgers at McDonald’s for that money.
And the day arrived. I was coming back from a business trip and bought jaffa cakes. At the time, I didn’t even remember the punishment I had imposed on myself. When I got home, I saw a yellow sticker on my desk with the text 1000 dinars. I remembered the sentence. Well, I could simply say: I don’t give a f*ck. It’s fashionable to say those words now.
I took a 1000 dinars bill, and I remembered one thing. When we were young, we had, due to the world’s highest hyperinflation, many old banknotes that were worth nothing. And what we did with them. We took them and ripped them by pulling the banknote security thread out of them. These notes were worth nothing. This one’s worth it. Not that much money. But that’s more than you would give a beggar on the street, and that money means to him, doesn’t it? Well, goodbye, one thousand dinars.
And the most important thing.
How did I know I would manage not to eat more sweet. By knowing that decision would not last forever. If I started all this with the thought that I will never eat sweets again in my life, I would probably give up early in the process. However, now I do eat candies. But, significantly less than before. Saturday is my junk food day. And I usually try to make something sweet. During the workweek, I prepare what I will make for the weekend. Then I buy things, so I make a cake. I eat it on Saturday. And you know what? I also eat what is left on Sunday. And that is that.
I started this diet by eating sweets after breakfast, after lunch, and instead of dinner every day and ended by eating sweets on weekends.
Sometimes when I’m not in the mood to make some cake, I buy my favorite sweets. And I eat’em all. Yum. Yum. And I’m happy.
