Last week I ran a poll in my stories asking you what’s the biggest food or fitness challenge you struggle with. Can you guess what the most popular answer was?
Drum roll please…Sugar. Did you answer correctly?
Look, I get it. In today’s food, buyer beware. If you eat the SAD (Standard American Diet) then most likely most of your foods include sugar. And the trick is to look at that food’s product label: On a product label, the ingredients are listed in order of predominance, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts. So if sugar is the near top, then yep, that food has mainly sugar.
And don’t get me wrong, sugar makes food taste real good, which is why I can see how many of you struggle with sugar consumption.
Over my years of working with women, they tell me things like:
-“I eat a lot of sugar, I mean I eat a lot of sugar.”
-“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t stop eating sugar.”
-“Sugar is dangerous for me, once I start, I can’t stop.”
I am definitely NOT an addiction specialist.
I definitely DO believe that for some sugar can be a real addiction.
But, what I have also seen time and again in my coaching business is that my clients sugar problems always always stem from extreme deprivation of sugar.
The cycle goes like this – they go on a 30 day sugar detox where they give up ALL sugar, including eliminating fruit from their diet. And after 30 days they feel amazing and they push forward (believing that giving up sugar is THE ANSWER). But then eventually, their stress level increases or their hormones shift, and soon they eat some sugar. And that little tastes leads into a full on sugar binge putting them right back where they started – with a “sugar addiction.”
What if you allowed yourself a little sugar every day?
What if you used a little bit of sugar as your strategy to keep yourself satisfied and to keep your craving in check?
If you allowed yourself a little sugar every day, do you think you would eat as much sugar as you would after having ZERO sugar for an entire month? I’ll bet you $20 that wouldn’t be the case – ha!
Look, this “strategy,” it works. And if you are curious about it, comment below with the #moderation365. I’ve got a few ladies on their 7th week of my nutrition coaching and I can tell you, there’s no sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads!