Sweet eater/not chocolate

[Ansywansy]

How can I lose 6 kilos and stop eating sweets? I eat healthily and do a lot of walking but just cannot seem to shift these few kilos. I am approaching my 59th birthday and would like to lose the weight and maintain/increase my fitness. Any ideas?

[Hidden]

the main thing that I have heard about this is to substitute sweets with fruit like strawberries, because they are quite sweet. i'm more of a chocolate eater so not really had to replace any sweets, so don't know much more than that, sorry, hope it helps a bit though. maybe try google? - I've used them for things like substituting takeaways and stuff and found it helpful

[Ansywansy in reply to Hidden]

Hi sjanet, typically, I only like the sweet fruit, e.g. melon, grapes, bananas etc. but I have heard that these also contain a high sugar content

[Hidden in reply to Ansywansy]

yeah true, they do. but then again, they are natural sugars in fruit. I guess its all about finding the right balance. I do think its hard sometimes, in terms of discovering what the right amount of something good is, because too much of something that is classed as good, may actually be bad too.

[Hidden in reply to Ansywansy]

p.s. hope you have a good birthday!

[OlsBean]

Sadly there are not healthy substitutes for sweets. It's probably not what you want to hear as I'm sure they are of great comfort to you, just like cigarettes or chocolate are to others, but if you are to have any success at weight-loss you are going to have to ditch them, go cold turkey, sure it will be hard at first but eventually if you follow some of the healthy eating guidelines posted by Concerned and listed in other resource available on the site your pallette should adjust and the cravings/habit will subside. Perhaps a little hard to believe now but give it a try!

Good Luck.

[Penel]

It took me a few goes to beat my sugar addiction. Cut down gradually or go "cold turkey", make a plan and stick to it. Your cravings will subside. I used to keep the treats for the weekend, but eventually I found I was forgetting they were there. Perhaps keep your fruit to just 2 or 3 portions a day. If you eat any processed foods check the ingredients labels, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is being added as a sweetener more and more, I've seen it recently in low fat yoghurt. This needs to be avoided like the plague.

There are various sites/books offering advice on quitting. Good luck.

[Candystripe]

All good advice. You could also try planning four or five sweets into your calorie allowance each day so that you know you can have them and not feel guilty and see how you go from there. If you say "I can't have them" you are probably doomed to fail but saying you can have them if you want will be encouraging for you to continue. Good luck.

[margrete]

You're too young to remember it, but there was a time in living memory when sweets were rationed. The recent commemoration of the D-day landings brings this to mind. We had 4 ounces of sweets a week allowed and at one stage it went down to 3 ounces. So, sweets are something we can live without. They're a luxury, a treat. If you want to stop eating them, maybe bear this in mind. They're not foodstuffs, they do nothing for you at all.