Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
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Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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As much as the sugar sounds interesting, after you eat it - sometimes you just feel sick. Also, I’ve noticed that I might want something sweet, but if I’m gonna eat anything sweet, it’s gonna be something worth my while. I’m not wasting my sugar fix on a pop, tart or something cringe. I want chocolate mousse are crème brûlée. Something worthwhile.
I'm with you on that. Give me chocolate anything if I'm going to indulge occasionally. Maybe I'll get to that one day. Right now I have to give it all up. I believe I have either a sugar addiction or emotional eating disorder, maybe both.
Sugar addiction is real. Big time. Are used to eat multiple candy bars and garbage food every day. That’s where my depression was super bad. Now I can’t even buy a candy bar from Circle K. They all taste so disgusting. During Halloween I had some Halloween candy and both my mother and I thought it was so disgusting. We ended up throwing it away. I highly recommend eliminating as much sugar and carbs from your life as possible. You will feel so much better.
Even over this holiday season, I’ve had a few desserts - expensive ones. But I haven’t been able to finish them. I’ve had to throw them out. I try and eat half one day and half another day. But because they are real, and fresh desserts, they don’t last that long.
I’ll be praying for your success.
How did you get over your addiction?
My mom and I both started to eat low carb about two Christmases ago. There was one entire Christmas. We barely ate any sweets because we were just tired of everything.
Cutting back on carbs was a lot easier than I thought. Once I became mindful of what carbs I wanted to put in my body, I made better choices for myself. For instance… I used to eat pop tarts. There’s 38 g of carbs in a pop tart. I haven’t eaten one since. If I’m having 38 carbs, I’m going to make it worth my while. Something hearty and fulfilling, or some thing like chocolate mousse.
We don’t eat bread at all really. Every morning I eat 1/2 of a English muffin, low carb by Thomases. I eat it with bacon and berries. The same thing every day! With coffee. But you can actually get creamer that doesn’t have sugar in it. It’s not the best, but it really helps to start cutting back in all areas.
Any sandwich that you want to eat, you can eat with a low carb tortilla wrap. This really helps cut the carbs out of your diet. You’d be amazed how well any sandwich taste in a wrap it’s fantastic.
The thing that bothers me, the most was not having the sweets, so we started to purchase the Atkins sweets. You just have to experiment to find the ones you like, and also try and find them on sale because they are expensive. The cheapest place I found them is on Amazon.
Another thing is cheese and crackers. You can find crackers that are lower in carbs, and you don’t have to eat 20 of them just 8 maybe. With deli meat and what we call crunchies cut up vegetables it’s delicious. Also black olives you can eat all day long on a low carb diet.
I also do not drink soda pop at all! Maybe once in a while if I have pizza, I’ll have a Coke with it, but we don’t purchase it and we don’t keep it in the house. Just quitting drinking soda pop I lost 10 pounds but that’s another story.
I think, also becoming closer to the Lord, and being in alignment with his will is keeping me from needing to binge on anything - I don’t know how to explain it.
This Christmas has been a little different for me because I am pet sitting, and I have a little bit more free time on my hands. I’ve done a lot of baking and sent cookies to my daughter and my boss and my mom, and also made caramel corn tonight. Somebody on GAW left a recipe. Anyway, it’s delicious. I’ve never had homemade caramel corn - and wow.
When I do want something sweet, I’ll make it myself. It’s healthier that way, and I get to give away lots of sweets so I don’t eat them all.
I hope you find a niche!
I’ve never gone ful keto because I knew I couldn’t keep those numbers. However, the low carb has helped a lot and I don’t feel so bloated or overly full.
That's for prayers for success. I'm going into this with an open mind and lots of research. If it doesn't work for me I'll readjust and figure out what's best. My goals are weight loss and relief from multiple chronic pain conditions, whatever that is hopefully I'll figure it out.
Yes, agree about store bought candy. I believe most chocolate sold in USA is made in china. Hershey doesn't taste the same. Peanut butter has a strange taste and makes me feel awful. Unless I get natural peanut butter and that's so expensive and it's runny. Even natural can have added sugar or syrups and bad oils. I did love Lindt sea salt dark chocolate bars but now they have very little salt. Nothing is as it was a decade ago.
I usually make desserts from scratch because store bought is just crap. King Arthur brand flour has a good gluten free line of cake mix and cookies. I'm not gluten intolerant. I buy because it doesn't have the artificial ingredients that other cake mix brands have. I'll keep all that in case I have to take a dessert somewhere. It's not tempting because I'm not going to start eating cake mix at midnight. Now if it was mixed up I'd put a hurtin on it.
I know for a fact my sugar addiction probably started in my teens. My dad was an alcoholic my entire life and it got really bad during high school. My senior year he went to rehab and hasn't had a drink since 1985 but stopping alcohol didn't remove his behavior. Instead it's called dry drunk, whatever! If you are narcissistic SOB doesn't matter if you are on the sauce or dry it's still there. He's much better now but it's still around. I also believe my surger addiction is because addiction is in my DNA. Everyone in my dad's family, mostly men is a recovering alcoholic or a dead alcoholic. Also chocolate is very big on his side. Every family reunion deserts were always chocolate. My maternal grandma was a master southern cook and baker. Her cakes were the best! Being at her house was an escape and food was always around because she cooked seven days a week and twice on Sunday. My heirloom family recipes are mainly chocolate themed. My high school years I basically did what I wanted on the weekends and by the time I was a senior I was out most nights a week partying. I have no doubt I was an alcoholic for four years. I also got into weed for about 18 months. Couple years later after a very bad breakup I was a major pot head. Got back together a year later and he said weed had to go. I loved him so much I stopped cold turkey. Still together today. Now I know I replaced one substance for another. I won't lie I believe I've handled the lies of plandemic and decades of lies well but deep down I know I haven't. I think I've become a recluse to avoid the stupid people because it just upsets me and pisses me off. My chronic pain is at all time high, have barely cooked in three years so food has become my source of comfort. I know it sounds like I'm not loved but I am and my relationship is awesome. We can be masters at hiding feelings. You mentioned depression. My entire adult life up till mid forties I was off and on antidepressants. Was suggested by some doctors but mostly requested by me. I've always lived next door to family and still do. I still have emotional issues with my dad. However I handle it 90% better than I did in the past. When my grandma died ten years ago I was in a major depression state for about six months. I got out of bed to eat and go to the bathroom that's it. Had a dog and took her out if needed she was with me every moment in bed & my cat. My husband isn't the type to nag you so he let me do my thing. My neighbor and best friend (my dads age) would come here and walk past my husband and daughter to my bedroom to check on me. For people that talk about racism I have never experienced it. She's black and I'm white. We have been on trips together, shopping, her in my pool in summer. She was a god send to my grand parents. I always gave her my leftovers. She's out of state with her daughter and I miss her so much. She's like my second mom and I was closer to her than my mom. She moved away in 2019 so that's another reason for emotional downhill. Lord I've told my life story! Clearly journaling might help.
Have you noticed bread doesn't mold? This year I've noticed that. You buy a new loaf at the store because you know the loaf at home is old. Open new loaf and forget to throw out two week old loaf. After a month no mold. I bought little tomatoes sometime last summer and left them on the counter. Somehow they got behind something on counter I found them three weeks later and no sign of decay. So I left them for two months and they were starting to go bad. Who knows what's in the food? Can't be anything good.
You and I have a lot of parallel experiences. I’m grateful you have a good husband who loves you, and that you’re on the right track to work through this pain that’s in your body.
I think the cutting out carbs and sugar is going to help immensely because both of those cause information.
Just keep your eyes on the Lord, and focus on your health and your diet in the year moving forward.
I think he watched my testimony on Ryan Slechta’s prayer garden on YouTube? That’s my life story, but it just scratched the surface. We all have one, thank you for sharing yours with me.
God bless and have a great night!
Well said sis. Sugar is something I am trying to break free from completely. Please keep me in your prayers. It's tough.
How was your Christmas?
Yeah, I only say that as I’m eating Sees candy. 🤣😂. Once the holiday is over with I’m gonna go back to my low carb.
I will say this, I can easily drop a few pounds when I go low carb. Cutting back on sugar and carbs. Just makes me feel better all the way around.
If you decide to go, low carb, I suggest checking out labels for a while in the grocery store. Did you know one pop tart has 38 carbs in it? Crazy, huh? So if I decide I want to have 38 carbs/sugars, I’m going to make it worth my while and have something like chocolate moose, or crème brûlée - which by the way, crème brûlée has almost half the carbs of a pop tart because it’s made out of cream.
If you plan on cutting down your sugar, just be very thoughtful in what you choose to eat that has sugar and carbs in it. You will find that eating is more enjoyable, and also the taste of the treats that you have will be enhanced. Just remember it’s not just a sugar in it, it’s the carbs. That’s how I diabetic decides what they’re eating is the carbs because carbs turn into sugar.
Will be praying for that for you. I know you don’t need to lose weight though lol but sugar is just so bad for you. The is a a three hour long podcast with Andrew Huberman and this Doctor, and they discusses sugar. I only listened to half of it, but apparently refined sugar is one of the nutrients that are body does not even require to stay alive. Interesting.
God bless you have a great day.