Ben & Jerry's addiction!

[MissLiz]

Any tips on how to stop the craving for something sweet?

It's not there during the day, I don't think about it till the evening, and then I really really crave sweets, and I always go over the top if I do get something, my biggest downfall is a whole tub of B&J's! I'll go out as late as 11pm for something, even if I'm about to go to bed.

We never buy sweet stuff in our weekly shop.

[Prin]

Why not allow yourself something each day?if you can move more or eat less you could say have a kit Kat at 107 calories

[fitterinfo]

Not buying it in the weekly shop is a start.

I think you might try a substitute of some kind - I found dates were better than the biscuits some people eat.

Without knowing what you eat its hard to know for sure but some food spikes the blood sugar leading to a worse crash and the body then needs a new fix.

Also if the foods eaten lack nutrients the body can crave the nutriemts.

Failing everything - ration your portions. Never eat from the tub "a la" American TV style or the tendency then is to eat the whole tub - been there done that too.

If you turn it into a proper meal ritual - serving it - them putting the ice cream away - that can slow the process down and give your mind and body more time to savour it and to feel full.

I suspect never having ice cream might also fuel a person's craving(s) more by making it a forbidden item. You have to engage logic and address the paradox "do I want to lose weight" vs "how much B&J's could I eat?" and try to negotiate an agreement.

[bunblebeaz]

I had to cut out ben and jerrys becauss it was tooooo nice. It was probably one of about 3/4 things that I totally cut out because the whole tub would be gone - ylu just cant serve it in a bowl! And I know what you mean about the 11pm thing- I have a 24hr asda 3 mins walk away!

If its the fruit option then get the fruit in and serve with cream or vanilla sugar. Or if you want xomething icy cold try a sorbet instead of full on ice cream.

If its the chocolate ones then you could fin an alternative. If you cant cut it out then cut down and but ice cream bars instead. The caloriez are much easier to track and the portion size is set for you. A good chocolate pudding is a chocolate mousee. Theres a fes out there thzt are around the 99 cals mark.

Hope this helps

[bispers]

I have found fruit bowl yogurt raisins at 133 calories a packet help with the sweet fix when needed. Sometimes, all I have is half the packet which amazes me - couldn't have done that with chocolate.

[MissLiz]

It is all mind over matter, I do want to loose weight!! but i do love B&J's. I think i might cut it out for a month, substituting it for something else such as a fruit salad, then after the month, i will limit myself to having a B&J's scoop at the cinema!

After that i need to cut out the substition to keep the calories down! Its hard to break habits you've had such a long time!

[Hidden]

Hi Miss Liz,

I guess it's a bit like giving up cigarettes. One of the reasons people pick up a cigarette, stick it in their mouth and light it is because that's what they're used to doing - in effect what they've trained themselves to do - in a number of given situations. It's just plain old habit.

If you didn't eat such ice creams, your body would adapt to that, your tastes would start to change and you wouldn't actually want to eat them nearly so much.

Honest.

I used to have a drawer-full of chocolate 'naughties' to have with my cups of tea in the office.

That is I used to have them until I took control of what I was eating.

Now, six months on, I've completely lost my taste for chocolate - which considering how much I used to put away is really amazing.

I'd suggest either going 'cold turkey' with it, weaning yourself off of it, substituting it with some other more nutritious treat, or using distraction to delay eating it, i.e. when you really fancy some B&J (or whatever it is), cause yourself to be really busy for a while and 'come back to the idea' say 30 minutes later - chances are the yearning for it will have decreased or ceased by then. Or divert yourself away from the 'triggers' in your routines that set off the desire, e.g. if it always happens at the end of Eastenders, then do something else with your evenings other than watching TV.

Different techniques will better suit different personalities and situations, but the more you practice these techniques, the easier you'll find them and the greater control you'll gain over what you eat.

Good luck with your weight-loss journey.

[Lingmell]

Hi MizLiz

I can sympathise with your craving for sweet things - I certainly share it. My suggestion is to limit the damage when you do indulge.

The way I deal with this is dont buy the sweet stuff and then only if desperate go out an buy one item - my favourite desperate solutions are a fudge - 115 calories or a Solero - 94 calories. DO NOT BUY MULTIPACKS!

I have tried buying cereal bars as alternatives but quite frankly a lot of them have more sugar and calories than a fudge and lets face it - they just dont fill the gap!

I think you have had loads of useful advice about finding alternatives and going cold turkey etc so only use my suggestions when its an emergency (and dont have an emergency every day !

I wish you every success in your weight loss journey .

[Tina28]

I've found green and red grapes work well after a meal, as they're so sweet, also medjool dates are like eating toffee, but only 1 or 2 as they're very high in calories, but also very nutritious. How about fruit sorbet, instead of ice cream