How I managed to stop craving sweets in 3 weeks
For me at least, it is possible to eliminate/drastically reduce my sugar cravings.
Typically I feel cravings for something sweet whenever I’m hungry, bored, have just finished a meal, am feeling sad, or am feeling happy. In short, I eat a lot of sweets and also spend a lot of time and effort trying to resist them.
LAST TIME
A few years ago I managed to cold-turkey sweets while I was following a Keto diet. I noticed that in week 3 of keto, my cravings had vanished. No longer did the desire to finish a meal with a bowl of ice cream plague me. For about 6 weeks total, if memory serves, I managed to eat no desserts or sweets at all. Everything was going great. Then I went to a birthday party, and my hubris let me astray. “I’m doing so well! I don’t need it, but I can just have a slice of chocolate cake, and it’s no big deal!”
Alas, the very next day, my cravings were back, I fell off the wagon, and the experiment was over.
I tried several times over the years to quit cold turkey again, but I never managed to keep at it for long, and I more or less gave up and decided to just make peace with the yearly expansion of my waistline.
THIS TIME
Near the end of June, I managed to have a few really busy days in a row, and for whatever reason, I realized suddenly, I hadn’t had any sweets for the last 3 days. Noticing that I had a little bit of a “head start” on getting through the 3 week sugar withdrawal, I decided to give it another go.
I’m not sure where I got the idea, but I decided to modify my strategy. It was in the prime of the summer fruit season in the Bay Area, and nectarines, plums, pluots, peaches, and mangos were all at their ripest and sweetest. Instead of going cold turkey, I would try to eat a piece of fruit anytime I had a craving for sugar. I don’t think this would have worked if the fruit hadn’t been extremely good and satisfying. Another thing that I did was I didn’t try to limit or moderate how much fruit I consumed. If I had one after lunch, and then another after dinner, and I still wanted more, I was allowed to eat more.
(The idea being that eating fruit was at least better than eating milkshakes.)
Just as with last time, midway through my third week of no sweets (other than fruit) I realized that my cravings had disappeared.
NOW
It’s been 8 weeks since the start of what I think of as “The Stone Fruit Experiment.” After the first 3 weeks, I’ve been following an stricter low-carb Keto diet. The fear of god and falling off the wagon has also been a very motivating factor, and I haven’t indulged in sweets even once since June. Happy to answer questions about this or my keto diet if anyone is curious. Ultimately however, I’m just happy to report that for the time being, my cravings are finally under control.
Yes absolutely. Its been happening to me ever since high school.