Nashville Personal Trainer | Ultimate Guide to Kicking Sugar Cravings

Ever since the BC era, the world's taste buds have been tantalized by this “sweet salt” called sugar.

Overtime, as sugar has become more readily available and inexpensive, it's over-consumption has become a

problem.

Our main sugar overloads these days comes in the form of beverages- espresso drinks, soda, store-bought juices, coffee, wine, margaritas, and milk.

Other sources are from office candy, breakfast bars, cereal, sauces, and pastries.

But let's be clear, sugar is not the single, worst enemy to our health. At one point it was fat, then trans-fat, and then carbs.

A narration is always created that makes you feel like if you eat it, you'll drop dead almost instantly.

All sugar is is a source for calories (energy). The problem is that with our constant thristiness for more flavor, we tend to over do it on sugar to the point where some of us become lightweight addicts.

Addiction is any behavior associated with craving or temporary relief, and long-term negative consequences, and loss of control.

The constant the craving and consumption of sweets leads to long-term, negative consequences.

Especially when you're working on getting lean but your diet is constantly derailed by your weakness for cookies and frappucinos.

Let's look a few solutions you can adopt ASAP to cut your cravings and a long-term solution to deal with a more serious problem.

1. Fast. Fasting is a great exercise for several health benefits, but in this context particularly, it's for self-control. If you can go without food in itself, you can conquer a craving for sugar. Try it for 16 hours to start with and work your way up to 24 hours. Consume nothing but water and tea.
2. Stevia. Stevia is a great sweetener alternative. It's 200 times sweeter than sugar, minus the negative side effects. Stevia works best in beverages, as far as flavor goes.
3. Manuka Honey. I like introducing new things. Honey, despite what hippies say, is not much different than high-fructose corn syrup. It's still sugar.
   Manuka Honey is the Rolls Royce of all honeys. It's great because it's raw, loaded with enzymes and prebiotics. Make sure the bioactivity rate is over 12.
4. Gynema Sylvestre. Gynema Sylvestre is an herb that literally means “destroyer of sugar.” Basically, the molecules of the gynema plant block about 50% of the absorption of sugar in your body. It also decreases the unhealthy appetite for sugar. I think it's best in liquid form because it absorbs in the body quicker and more thoroughly.
5. Licorice Root. Just to be clear, the licorice candy you find in the store does not contain real licorice. Amongst all the benefits of it, licorice root is great at lowering blood sugar levels. Licorice has a nice, sweet flavor. You can get it in the form of an actual root which you can chew on like a toothpick, or in the form of tea or an extract.

So those are a few immediate treatments you can jump on for your sugar cravings.

If sugar consumption is big issue for you, you might want to take deeper look into why that is.

For instance, the African plant Tabernathe Iboga is the most powerful substance in ridding the addiction for every kind of drug.

However, even if you took the Iboga plant (which is banned in the US), you're still not getting to the root cause of the problem.

Cravings trigger natural opiates in our bodies called endorphins. Endorphins helps pain relief (like morphine), they give you a sense of reward, and a feeling of LOVE, comfort, pleasure, and joy.

The craving of things that have long-term negative consequences, stimulate endorphins while consuming them.

Sugar is not addictive in itself. If that was the case, then everyone who ever consumed it wouldn't be able to control their consumption of it. What actually becomes addictive is a specific feeling that you get while eating it.

So when you're mindlessly munching on those cookies or guzzling down that soda, ask yourself, “What does this do for me? What am I feeling when I'm consuming these things?”

Your answer will most likely be a feeling. After that, the key question is what was/is lacking in your life to the the point where you had to find that through over-consumption?

When that question is answered, the cured is found.

Cheers,

-Rickey