My Sugar Addiction Subsided When I Let Myself Eat Lots of Sugar
My nutritionist made me eat brownies as much as I wanted, then I lost interest
I was the sugar queen. I could eat so much sugar at once and remain a certain size because the next day or a few days after, I went back to my strict dieting habits.
We have all been there, right? We have those moments when we feel like we can’t keep sugar in the house because we may overindulge. I did this because I thought it was effective. However, it just led to more sugar binge fests.
I struggled with this for years, but at some point, I got tired — tired of the sugar binges, so I went to Shanti Nutrition in Boston to get some help on my ‘sugar problem’ and my bloating concerns. I was hoping that she would teach me how to lose weight and stop this sugar addiction that I had. I came to her for weight loss advice, but I left with something better.
After I discussed my concerns and my love for brownies, she told me something I didn’t expect:
She said to eat as much brownies as I want.
Huh? Did I hear her right? In my mind, that seemed like the complete opposite of what I was supposed to do, but I did just that.
Let me just say that the following week was filled with brownies: Lots and lots of brownies. I am pretty sure I ate more brownies than real food that week. I continued to indulge in all other sugars that I liked from candy to more and more brownies. Then, when I went back home, I ate the good ‘ole sugary cereal almost every day. I was in a sugar wonderland but slowly, I began to lose interest in my extreme bursts of sugar.
I stopped eating cereal every day and went back to my tasty oatmeal, banana, almond butter, and flaxseed breakfast. Now, I rarely eat cereal. I also have at least one dessert every day and when I do, it is not that much because my body just doesn’t crave loads of sugar anymore. I know that if I go to an event, I won’t see a need in eating most of the desert delicacies and I no longer feel this panging feeling to eat all the sweets in my cabinets or freezer.
The most surprising thing is that this mindset has translated into other parts of my life and other foods that I eat. I used to buy huge bags of popcorn, which I could indulge in a day or two days maximum. I could even eat a whole Trader Joe’s bag of cashews in one day. I would try to control myself but this happened so many times that it was difficult for me to keep cashews in the house.
Now, I can have my cashews in the house for days and my cheerios cereal is in my cabinet right now. In fact, I try to make sure I always have sugar in the house. Sometimes I don’t have any because I haven’t gone to the store, but I try not to stretch out those days for too long because I love to eat my Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice cream.
I am about 7 months into this journey and I am never going back to a restrictive no sugar diet again. I don’t want to binge so much sugar and go to bed with aches of pain because I didn’t allow myself to eat sugar before.
Through my own journey, I have learned that my nutritionist was correct. In order to stop all this intense sugar binging, I had to stop restricting myself. I still have days where I sometimes binge but not as much as I used to at all. It is much less and in a few months I am sure that I probably won’t be binging at all and if so, maybe only a few times in the year.
If you also try to do this, beware that you will most likely eat a lot of sugar at the beginning. For some people, it may last a week, but for others, it may take months. It has taken me months, but I 100% feel like I eat a much more balanced diet than I have ever eaten. It feels so freeing and I want you to feel free like that.
Instead of leaving my nutritionist with a desire to lose weight, I left with a desire to feed my body in a way that makes it feel good. That could mean eating that ice cream when I desired to or eating that brown rice that I liked. I don’t want people to struggle the way I did for years going from one no-sugar season to the next.
Sugar no longer controls my life and it doesn’t have to control yours either. I thought it was always going to, but once you give yourself unconditional permission to eat, you will be surprised at the results like I was too.
