Question: Dear Luise: I wonder if I will ever find out how to beat sugar addiction. I am having a very tough time. I crave it all the time and it makes me feel awful when I eat it. I also have to stay away from wheat, salt and chocolate. Almost every event and celebration I attend has “treats” and I find it really miserable to not have them and to watch others scarfing them down. I have been conflicted about this…what I want vs. what I need…for the last 40 years. My weight goes up and down as I try one program after another and in my photograph albums I look like an accordion from picture to picture. Does anything work? Lisa
Answer: Dear Lisa: Wouldn’t it be love-er-ly if someone had the answer to your dilemma? Actually, fortunes are being made on a regular basis by people who insist they have the magic potion, food and/or exercise program or psychological/spiritual answer to the conflict that many of us have between indulgence and wise health practices.
There are people out there in the real world who have no problem with treats. They eat them in moderation and don’t know what all the fuss is about. The rest of us often pretend we are part of that group but the mirror says otherwise.
For every solution that is available, there are testimonies saying, “It worked for me!” Pictures that prove it accompany glowing reports of appetites disappearing permanently and weight staying off forever with no real effort having to be made. We pounce. “Ah, that’s it! Wow, I can look like her in 30 days and still eat anything I want to and get this…I don’t even have to exercise!” Been there? Done that?
The tough thing is that we crave sugar, in it’s many guises, for different reasons. Some are physical, some emotional and some even spiritual. Often it’s not clear-cut and is a combination of all three. Also, most of us want to fix the problem without having to face deprivation and having to say that awful word, “no”. As in “No, thanks, I don’t think I will go. No, I’ll pass on that. Nope…not hungry.”
I can only suggest that you don’t give in or give up. The latest thing I have tried is a program called Lighten Up by Carol Hansen, available at www.openheart.com. Yes, I’m a fellow sufferer who needs help with sugar and cravings. I do not want to carry dangerous excess weight and stress my heart, lungs and joints. And I still firmly believe that each one of us can and will beat The Sugar Addiction Demon. Blessings, Luise
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