The idea of cutting out sugar from your diet can sound scary AF! No more Starbucks’ mochas, no more sneaking in a little dessert after dinner, no more grabbing that pastry for breakfast and certainly no more cake, ice cream, cookies and did you know there can even be processed sugar in some condiments and sauces? It is true. But let’s not focus on what we can’t have because that is certainly not going to set us up for success.
Weaning yourself off of processed sugar isn’t as hard as it sounds. We aren’t asking you to cut out all forms of sugar (that is for another blog). All this takes is a little bit of education and some planning. Ready to cut processed sugar out of your life? Then read on.
Find Alternatives
The easiest step to do first is to find alternatives. It isn’t easy to cut anything out of your diet, let alone something you are probably is going to crave so it is important to set yourself up for success.
For example, if you normally have sugar in your coffee look for natural alternatives like raw sugar, stevia, honey or monk fruit. If you have a sugar craving eat some fruit. Its nutritional value and its high fiber content doesn’t affect blood sugar levels the way processed sugar does.
Read Food Labels
Start read every food label thoroughly because like we said earlier sugar is hidden in items you would even least expect it to in. This also comes with educating yourself on the over 100 different names sugar can be listed as. Don’t let this part overwhelm you though. Typically if you don’t know what a word is and the word ends in ‘ose’ it is a sugar.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Questions
If you are going out to eat and unsure about what is in something or how the chef prepares it then go beyond the menu and ask your server. If they don’t know, then they can ask the chef. If the chef is unreachable for whatever reason then just ask your proteins to be grilled and your veggies to be steamed or sautéed. Skip on any of the sauces and dressings because chances are higher than not that there will be sugar in there.
Check In With Yourself
A lot of us are guilty of just being on the go constantly. This can lead to us getting home after a long day and just wanting something sugary to snack on. Instead, if you take very short small moments in your day to check in with yourself, you can easily wean yourself off of those sugary snacks.
Start by asking yourself in those moments of feeling run down or whenever you remember – “How am I feeling right now?” and “What do I need at this moment?” If you can catch your body feeling that way in each smaller moment, they won’t add up throughout the day and feel impactful by the time the end of the day rolls around and your body is crashing. It helps to slow down, assess where you are mentally and physically, and find the root of the problem early on instead of turning to processed sugar.
And be active!
