Sweet cravings

I am trying to lose some weight but I have a weakness for sweet,
sugary snacks. Any suggestions as to what I could eat to combat my
craving for sugar?

I'm new to this but I'm finding that fruit is a good-enough
replacement for deserts for me. I've been trying new fruits (to me)
and vegetables that I never cared to try before.
Be strong and good luck!

sucralose, cyclamates, saccharine

(but not aspartame)

<plb_2007@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1189803370.482241.202030@r34g2000hsd.googlegr oups.com...
>I am trying to lose some weight but I have a weakness for sweet,
> sugary snacks. Any suggestions as to what I could eat to combat my
> craving for sugar?
>

On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:05:46 -0700, eddieescobar@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm new to this but I'm finding that fruit is a good-enough
> replacement for deserts for me. I've been trying new fruits (to me)
> and vegetables that I never cared to try before.
> Be strong and good luck!

I eat primarily vegetables and fruits for my carbs, with occasional
servings of beans, legumes and whole grains after workouts.

That, by itself, eliminating a lot of the starchy, sugary and less
nutritious carbs, helps with the sweet cravings a lot, but, hey, I'm
human, sometimes I get them anyway. Mostly I will try to satisfy them
with a piece of fresh fruit. If that doesn't quite cut it, sometimes a
serving of dried fruit will.

The funny thing, is after you do this a while, you'll really start to
notice the sweet taste of vegetables!

I'm eating 5-6 small meals a day and allowing myself 4 cheat meals a
week... so if I'm truly desperate, I might add a dessert to a cheat
meal. But I'm usually more interested in having something like pizza
or going out for Thai, LOL!

Another thing that I use sometimes, at night before bed, for just that
hint of sweet, is one or two Altoid mints. Now, I find the peppermint
and cinnamon to be somewhat addictive, i.e. it's harder to limit
myself to one or two on those, so the flavors I like to buy are
Licorice and Ginger. The Licorice in particular gives a big hit of
sweet for very minimal sugar or calories. They are strong, it's rare I
will want more than one single piece. Literally, two tins has lasted
me nearly a year so far... still working on the second tin now.

--
Cynthia
262/227/152

plb_2...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
> Any suggestions as to what I could eat to combat my
> craving for sugar?

Have you ever learned to tell physical cravings driven by
hormone feedback loops from psychological desire
driven by habit? Starve a craving feed a desire, but how
to tell?

Physical cravings for sweets are driven by insulin and
other hormones. Low carbing is tough to start but the
physical cravings disappear entirely after about a week.
Having a banana or similar will make them better for
an hour or two but in the end make them worse. The
only way out is through.

Psychological desires are driven by habits and
preferences. These can be dealt with by tapering off
your usage of sweets over time and/or switching to
better types like fresh fruits. The cold turkey approach
tends to be more work than needed for these.

Two opposite approaches without a good way to tell in
advance which will work better.

On Sep 14, 2:05 pm, eddieesco...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm new to this but I'm finding that fruit is a good-enough
> replacement for deserts for me. I've been trying new fruits (to me)
> and vegetables that I never cared to try before.
> Be strong and good luck!

You can make some wonderful and very sweet meringues (using egg whites
only) plus Splenda. I really sweeten my whole grain cereal like
oatmeal with Splenda or Equal as well. Smuckers makes a very low cal
sugar-free syrup at 20 cal per quarter cup.

It is fairly easy to get around sugar. Fat is harder to avoid unless
you really work at it, and fat is where the concentrated calories are.
dkw

<plb_2007@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1189803370.482241.202030@r34g2000hsd.googlegr oups.com...
>I am trying to lose some weight but I have a weakness for sweet,
> sugary snacks. Any suggestions as to what I could eat to combat my
> craving for sugar?

I have the same problem. What I have found is that if you go without sweets
for awhile, the cravings for them become much less. And a by-product of not
eating as much sweets, things start to taste much sweeter when you do eat
them, and it's sort of gross.

I still eat sweets. I try to 'budget' a hundred calories or so a day for my
sweet tooth - a couple pieces of chocolate or something. And once a week, I
allow myself a 'splurge' meal, where I eat some indulgent stuff. Knowing
that I have that once a week usually gives me the willpower to stay on
track.

There are several low-sugar options that satisfy my sweet tooth. Sugar free
hot cocoa, low sugar Nesquick, and sugar free pudding are all pretty good.

On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:56:10 -0700, plb_2007@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> I am trying to lose some weight but I have a weakness for sweet,
> sugary snacks. Any suggestions as to what I could eat to combat my
> craving for sugar?

Sugar free Jell-O and sugar free Jell-O pudding are also useful. Use
something like Hood's Calorie Countdown to cut milk sugars down in the
latter, and one can usually add a half scoop whey protein powder
without badly affecting the jelling.

Cottage cheese and protein powder can also be a useful snack. Likewise
for plain yogurt and whey protein. I often send hubby to work with one
of the above, usually with some flax meal added and blueberries and a
tablespoon of a Splenda syrup for his sweet tooth. Sometimes I add
some unsalted nuts instead of the flax meal.


--
Cynthia
262/227/152