Weaning Sugar Wednesday #15: Sugar At Night Is Still Challenging

 

We're almost at 4 months now since I started this going sugar little adventure. My goal was to go from consuming 80g of sugar/day down to about 25g/day. I'm happy to say that I'm solidly at about half way at about 40g/day. Of course, there are days where I will eat more sugar or less sugar, but consistently, I'm at about 40g average. *throwing confetti*

Cutting down the sugar in drinks

Where I have cut down significantly are in drinks with added sugar. I didn't realize that almost more than half of my daily sugar consumption was coming from drinks alone. I no longer buy many of the same drinks I used to simply because they have too much sugar in them.

Also, when I go to a cafe to work, my usual drink is now an unsweetened rice milk latte or a plain iced coffee. I'll add either one packet of raw sugar, a couple tsps of agave, or go without anything which is ideal but I'm honestly not there yet. 

Carrying snacks with me

 

I also bring some snacks with me to help avoid the temptation of getting a pasty, biscotti, or donut when I start getting hungry. Some snacks I'll bring include cucumber or avocado sushi rolls from the Whole Foods deli, wild jungle peanuts, or a raw food bar.

One day, if I were to open a cafe, I would have a section of the food menu that was non-sugary eats. When you go out, and try to find food without or with very little sugar, you quickly discover just how much we are bombarded with the sweet stuff. It's eye opening in a scary way.

Night time is still challenging

So, I'm very thrilled that I've cut down on the sugar in the drinks and that my palate has changed so that the taste buds can't tolerate as much sugar, and that I'm also craving greens for breakfast when I wake up in the morning.

The area that still needs work is noshing on sweets at night time. I am very conscious now that the emotional reasons driving my sweet cravings at night are tied to when I start feeling lonely...particularly missing having a relationship. I'd much rather have the sweetness of cuddling with my sweetie but in lieu of that I've been cuddling with a pint of coconut milk dark chocolate ice cream. I may not have a man but I can always rely on getting love from ice cream.

I've been reading Geneen Roth's Women Food and God , and honestly it's taking me a long time to read it because the book strikes many emotional chords with me, and admittedly, even as much as I've grown in awareness, I still have hard times dealing with how I use food to help me deal with my emotions. Reading Geneen's book tends to poke some of those tender spots, so I have to read the book in doses.

Sometimes, I do wonder if I can get to a point where I can deal with my feelings without food at all. I am very proud of myself though for the progress I have made over the years when food used to control me. Indeed, I have come a long way baby, so I'll focus on that success.

Since I'm a bit of lost place with this relationship thing, I'll ask you guys. What have you done or tried to not use food as a way to help ease the loneliness of not having a relationship? What did you find that worked? Thank you for your insight!