10 tips to break sugar addiction

10 tips to break sugar addiction

scroll to bottom for cookie recipe

After several weeks of indulging over Christmas, it can be challenging to return to our usual, healthy way of eating. This is not just due to a lack of willpower. Physiologically, your body and brain are now programmed to want more sugar, making the cravings almost impossible to ignore. 

The brain demands sugar

Sugar fuels every cell in the brain. Your brain also sees sugar as a reward, making you want more of it. You reinforce that reward system every time you eat sugar, making it a tough habit to break.

And the body wants it’s share as well

As if that wasn’t enough, now your body also demands that you give it another hit. As insulin moves glucose out of the bloodstream and into your cells for energy, this rapid drop in blood sugar leaves you feeling wiped out and shaky, searching for more sweets to regain that sugar “high.”

Starch equals sugar

Think you don’t have a sweet tooth, but crave bagels, chips, crackers, or french fries? Highly refined starches are complex carbs that the body breaks down into simple sugars. When eaten without protein, fat, or fibre, starches can make blood sugar levels surge and crash, similar to a simple sugar bonk. 

So how do we break this cycle?

  1. Start Slow

January is notorious for making massive commitments to change our lives and diet, only to fail by February and give up.

Instead of going cold turkey on quitting sugar, do it gradually. Try cutting out one sweet food from your diet each week. For example, pass on dessert after dinner or eat one cookie instead of two.

2. Retrain your taste buds

Over time, you can train your taste buds to enjoy things that aren’t as sweet. Start by putting less sugar in your coffee, oatmeal, and baked goods. Over time your taste buds will change, and you will experience the same pleasure or “high” with less.

3. Change up your sugar choices 

Include more fruits and vegetables containing natural sugars, fibre, antioxidants, and essential vitamins. 

4. Educate yourself 

Check food labels. Watch out for items that list any form of sugar in the first few ingredients, or have more than 4 total grams of sugar per serving.

The word “sugar” sometimes goes by another name, like these:

  • Agave nectar
  • Brown rice syrup
  • High-fructose corn syrup
  • Dextrose
  • Evaporated cane juice
  • Glucose
  • Lactose
  • Malt syrup
  • Molasses
  • Sucrose
  • Honey

5. Add more protein and fibre

High-protein and fibre foods digest more slowly, keeping you feeling full for longer. They also don’t make your blood sugar spike the way refined carbs and sugars do. Good protein sources are chicken, yogurt, eggs, nuts, or beans. Good fibre sources are soaked chia seeds, oats, beans, lentils, berries.

Food combining (eating a high protein or fibre along with a high sugar food) will slow the release of insulin and help prevent a sugar crash. But the brain will remain in the same “sugar = reward” feedback loop.

6. Do NOT substitute with artificial sweeteners

Some studies suggest artificial sweeteners may leave you craving more sugar, which doesn’t help break your taste for sweets. Pay attention to your body. Are sweeteners making you crave even more sugar? 

7. Get enough sleep and rest

Many times we crave sugar because we are tired and looking for energy. In addition, if we are well rested, we can make better decisions and, therefore, better food choices.

8. Snack on exercise

It is usually around 2 or 3pm when our blood sugar drops and we start to crave something sweet. Instead of reaching for a cookie, get up and complete a short but vigorous form of exercise. Run up and down the stairs or whip off 10 fast push-ups or do burpees in your office. The quick adrenaline rush will boost your energy levels and curb the craving.

9. When baking, cut the sugar by half

Unless the recipe was designed for weight loss or a low-sugar diet, EVERY recipe I have found uses way too much sugar. As a general rule, I cut the sugar by half. If it is just for myself and my husband, I will continue to cut the sugar until I find how low I can go before he notices. 

10. Make it easy

Have tasty snacks and food available and easy to access, for when your next sugar craving hits. Some snack ideas are: celery sticks with peanut butter, yogurt and blueberries, hummus and any vegetable, apple and almond butter, raisins and almonds. Eat foods that you enjoy so you don’t feel deprived.

Here is my favourite healthy cookie recipe courtesy of Dr. Leslie Wicholas. Leslie is a psychiatrist and an avid cyclist who rides with Kits Energy. She also designed the food as Medicine program to treat depressive mood disorders and fibromyalgia at the Mood Disorders Association of BC.  I love these cookies so much that I double the recipe, so I always have a few in my freezer.

Chocolate Spice Cookies (gluten and dairy free)

by Leslie Wicholas, MD

2/3 cup baked cooked garnet yam. Remove the skin from the yam before using. (You can bake yams ahead of time and freeze them to use later)

1 egg

4 Tbsp mild flavoured olive oil

3 Tbsp dark maple syrup

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup oat flour

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

3 Tbsp dark chocolate chips

Bake yam at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until really soft. Fully cool in refrigerator before using.

  1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix the wet ingredients well.
  3. Combine dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Mix well. Batter will be sticky with a cake like batter consistency. It will firm up after baking.
  4. Grease cookie sheet with coconut oil. Scoop a spoon full of batter onto the sheet. Gently shape into cookies
  5. Bake for 20 minutes. Cookies should be firm, with a little “spring” when you touch it.

Makes 15 cookies

Keeps well in fridge for 3-4 days. Freezes well.

soak your oats

soak your oats

We all love our yogurt and granola, and nothing says comfort food better than a steaming bowl of oatmeal before a long ski day. But when was the last time you tried soaking your oats?

Without using heat, soaking overnight slowly cooks the oats, while preserving much of the goodness. Adding an apple, yogurt, or a dash of apple cider or lemon juice ferments the oats which promotes the growth of beneficial gut bacteria in the digestive tract.

Whichever way you eat them, oats and oatmeal are among the most nutrient dense foods that you can eat.

Why are they so great?

Oats are rich in antioxidants and both soluble and non-soluble fibre that may help lower blood pressure levels, reduce blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol, boost heart health, reduce constipation, and aid in weight loss.

1/2 cup of dry oats contains 151 calories, 25 grams of carbs, 6.5 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fat, 4 grams of fibre, and are packed with the following vitamins and minerals:

  • Manganese: 63.91% of the daily value (DV)
  • Phosphorus: 13.3% of the DV
  • Magnesium: 13.3% of the DV
  • Copper: 17.6% of the DV
  • Iron: 9.4% of the DV
  • Zinc: 13.4% of the DV
  • Folate: 3.24% of the DV
  • Vitamin B1 (thiamin): 15.5% of the DV
  • Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 9.07% of the DV
  • smaller amounts of calcium, potassium, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), and vitamin B3 (niacin)

There are so many recipes you can choose from to keep your oats interesting, however, be careful that you aren’t adding too much extra sugar, to what should be a very healthy breakfast choice.

Here is my personal favourite recipe. Feel free to adapt based on your taste buds. As you can see there are lots of different ways you can adjust the recipe. You can add almost any combination of fruits, nuts, and seeds, even peanut butter! Just remember to keep the ratio of milk to dry ingredients 1:1 at a minimum.

Apple Cinnamon Soaked Oats

Makes 2 servings

1 cup whole rolled oats 

1/4 – 1/3 cup coarsely chopped raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, or a combination of a few of them (the more variety the better)

1 apple grated (skin on)

1 tbsp unsweetened coconut

1 tsp cinnamon (I use more because I love cinnamon and its anti-inflammatory properties)

1/8 tsp nutmeg (optional – can also use pumpkin spice)

dash of sea salt

1-2 tbsp raisins

1 1/2 – 2 cups milk or milk substitute of your choice (or half milk and half cold water)

Place everything in a bowl, together with the milk. Place in fridge overnight or for 10 – 24hrs.

Whole oats work the best but steel cut oats work as well, especially if you like a chewier recipe. Quick oats are not recommended.

If you have kids or a sweet tooth, you have to check out these super quick tasty recipes.

Don Prins

Don Prins

January 2023

After just a few sessions with Kristina I have found that my footwork, balance and power through my core has definitely improved my tennis game! This has been a great benefit from the workouts.

Deb Gooding

Deb Gooding

December 2022

Kristina is a gifted, experienced and skilled trainer. She recently developed an effective fitness program that not only supported but strengthened my unstable, weak knee. As a result, I am able to spend several hours skiing the bumps at Whistler.  

Thank you Kristina, you have inspired me to reach higher!

Become a “pro” and achieve your goals

Become a “pro” and achieve your goals

Want to achieve your goals this year? 

Stop acting like an amateur and start acting like a pro.

An amateur is a person who engages in a pursuit on an unpaid rather than a professional basis.

Think about your current mode of employment, or job that you must do because someone else’s life depends on it. 

You show up every day.

When it is cold, wet, and raining, you show up.

When you are tired and would rather watch Netflix, you show up.

When your best friend is in town for just one day, or it is your partner’s birthday, you may leave early, but you still show up.

Every morning you don’t wake up and contemplate whether or not you will decide to fulfill your responsibilities today. 

You just do it.

In addition, while working you don’t typically suffer from feelings of guilt, laziness, or think you are wasting time as often happens when an amateur attempts to take an hour away from “their job” to paint, run, cook, bike, write, or play their instrument.

So what do you think would happen if you applied that same philosophy to your next goal? 

With every goal comes massive resistance. Even if it is something that we desperately want, we will find every excuse to procrastinate, delay, or self-sabotage. By eliminating the choice of whether or not you will show up, you also remove the opportunity for that resistance (in whatever form of excuse it looks like) to stop you from doing the work required to achieve your goal.

Treat your goals as if your profession depended on achieving them.

Don’t think about whether you want to do it; just do it. 

BUT, there is one caveat that you need to consider.

Many people already have more jobs than they can handle. 

Think about which responsibilities in your life are non-negotiable. 

Beyond the employment that makes you money, your list of non-negotiable responsibilities, jobs, or goals may include:

  • raising children
  • attending to elderly parents
  • starting a new exercise program
  • volunteering in the community
  • serving as a board member
  • pursuing your love for music or art
  • learning a new skill 
  • engaging in a sport or several sports
  • playing on a team
  • learning to become the next Top Chef
  • losing weight
  • renovating your home
  • dealing with an illness or injury
  • traveling for work or pleasure

It is impossible to continue adding more jobs to the list without getting burnt out and ultimately failing at all of them. 

If you are someone who overextends themselves, you will need to review your current list and evaluate which responsibilities can be put on hold or delegated, while you work on achieving your new goal. 

Once you have narrowed down the list into something that is both manageable and realistic, add your new goal to the top of the list and the rest will fall into place.

If your “profession” is to become a 50+ road cyclist and finish a fondo before x amount of time, then you will need to do what a professional 50+ rider would do. You need to sleep, eat, rest, recover, and train like a cyclist. Every day you need to do something that gets you closer to your goal of becoming a professional 50+ fondo rider.

Remember, this is your job. It is non-negotiable. Now stop thinking about it and go and do it.

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