SUGAR ADDICTION | food for thought

Hello my friends, it's Dani and today I want to chat about sugar addiction. So I was recently working with a client and she was convinced that she was addicted to sugar and she really believed that in order to reach her health and weight loss goals, she needed to conquer and beat this addiction to sugar. Now the very first thing I want to point out, I think it's really important to take note of, is that any time you are trying to beat or conquer a habit with food, you're automatically putting yourself into a stress response, right? Because you are pushing against what is there. When you think that the work to do is to beat something, you're coming at it energetically with a state of resistance. I can't do this. I shouldn't eat this. I'm not supposed to do this. I really need to do this, right? Whenever we are pushing against an unwanted habit, there's a level of resistance that is taking place. And just like the old saying goes, whatever we resist persists. You can't change what you don't know and or what you don't understand, right? Therefore, before we try to shift and change an unwanted habit with food, we first have to allow it to be there so that we can really understand it and so that we know what we're working with. So that's what we're going to chat about a little bit here. But I first also wanted to let you know, for those of you who have been patiently waiting, the doors to The Don't Diet are officially open. They are open today. Class starts on October 1st. The Don't Diet is my digital six-week mind-body weight loss course where we take a kind, sustainable, diet-free approach to permanent weight loss. So I'm super excited for the new group. If it's something you are interested in, you can find the link down in the description box below. And I'll chat a little bit more about that at the end of the video. Okay, so back to sugar and sugar addiction. Personally, I think the word addiction is a very strong term to use when it comes to any type of unwanted eating pattern or behavior, including having cravings for sugar. Do I believe that we can have very strong desires for sugar? Yes, and we're going to talk about that throughout this video. But do I think that labeling somebody a sugar addict or having a sugar addiction is helpful? I really don't. I just don't see how it serves any purpose. I also noticed that when we label ourselves a sugar addict, it also becomes very easy to overlook the underlying causes that are creating that initial desire in the first place. That is my humble opinion. I am always curious to hear yours. So please feel free to share your thoughts and your experiences down in the comment section below. We have to remember that we are brilliant creatures, us humans, right? And every single thing we do, we do for good reason. We may not be aware of it, but anytime the body is creating a desire for something, there is a reason. So the very first thing you want to explore for yourself is what is this sugar serving for me right now? What problem is the sugar solving for? Because if you're having a strong desire for sugar, there is a reason. Now, there can be many different reasons why we have sugar cravings. And I've talked about that in more detail in this video over here, sugar cravings and how to stop them naturally. I'll also link it down in the description box below. If you haven't watched that video, it is worth checking out. But what I don't see touched upon enough when it comes to sugar is our emotional desire for sugar and the role that sugar can play in helping us to ease and regulate our emotions. So that's what I want to chat about a little bit more in today's video. Now, as I said before, our bodies are extremely wise. And your body knows that to keep you out of dis-ease, it needs to find balance, right? Our bodies crave homeostasis and the body is constantly working to try to keep us in this balanced place, right? Not too far over here, not too far over here, not too tight, not too loose, but just somewhere right in the middle. That, the body knows, is the playing field for health. Whenever you're feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or if you're living a really busy go-go life, or if you're just having any type of emotional challenge in your life, if you're just going through something hard, or if you have that internal bully that lives inside your head who's always giving you a hard time about everything, right? All of these scenarios create contraction in the body. They create stress in the body. I mean, just think about what does it feel like if you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed. The body tightens up, right? Those emotions kind of contract us and they make us feel tight. So if you're not taking the time to acknowledge and process those emotions, and or if you don't have the tools or the strategies to help you de-stress, it is very common to have strong cravings for sugar. And why would that be? That is because sugar, along with alcohol and highly processed carbohydrates, are the most expansive foods you can eat energetically. They open the body up. So if you're feeling stressed or you're feeling overwhelmed and you eat a little bit of sugar, it helps the body relax a little bit, right? Isn't that the experience that we all have? We get that little bit of dopamine released in our brain. We get a little bit of pleasure, a little bit of ease. This little bit of sugar in this moment is actually working in your favor because it's helping the body to stay in balance and to stay out of dis-ease. But stay with me because this is where it gets a little bit tricky, right? If you believe that you are a sugar addict and that you have to conquer and overcome sugar, then when you have that little bit of sugar, right, you're going to have a lot of negative thinking. You're going to create a lot of emotions like guilt and shame and failure. And from this space, two things happen. Number one, we completely miss the boat and do not receive the initial bit of ease, joy, and pleasure that that little bit of sugar was offering to us at a time when the body was needing it, right? So in this contracted state, have a little bit of sweet. The body relaxes. You acknowledge that. You enjoy that. You move on, right? But that doesn't happen because we are in such an internal push and we're already telling ourselves we shouldn't be doing it. So we're not receiving what that sugar is offering us in the first place. And then number two, we will end up craving more sugar because the body is trying to get away from the mind. And what I mean by that is that your mind is in such a state of judgment and criticism. It's creating even more negative emotion in the body, even more contraction, even more stress that you are trying to find relief and the sugar offers that. And that becomes a little bit of a cycle, right? You're tense, you're tight, and then you have this cookie here and you eat it and it feels really good for like two seconds, 10 seconds until you swallow it and then you do it again, right? And then we do that until we are like so full, so uncomfortable and now we are numbed out from our emotions in the first place. And we have developed this thought process that we have a sugar addiction. And what I'm saying is, I don't know that that's a sugar addiction. You know, I think that there is a bigger story to look at underneath. So while I do understand why people might say that they have an addiction to sugar, like I understand the thought process, I just don't think that it is accurate. I think it's an oversimplification and it doesn't really help us change anything in the long run. So what are you supposed to do if you're finding yourself having very strong cravings for sugar? Well, you probably won't be surprised to hear me say that the very first two practices are awareness and allowing, right? First, you're aware. You're like, okay, this sugar craving is here. I'm wanting to eat those cookies again. I'm wanting to eat that ice cream again. But then the allowing is I think what gets really tricky for people, which is giving yourself permission to be there, giving yourself permission to want the sugar, right? Without attaching a story to it that you can't have sugar, that you're gonna eat too much sugar, that you're a sugar addict, but more looking at it with curiosity, right? Like, I am having this craving for sugar. I'm going to allow myself to have it. Think about what I might want to eat right now and then do it with conscious awareness so that you can observe and see what's happening for yourself. I want you to take the time to notice. How are you feeling? Are you in any type of emotional contraction, right? Do you need to explore other ways to relax and de-stress, which is a whole video in and of itself. But those are tools that you perhaps want to begin to explore. The other thing that you can do is simply give yourself permission to have a little bit of sweet, to have a little bit of sugar. But the practice there is to do that in a way where you are actually receiving the pleasure and the ease that the sugar is offering in that moment, right? That you're not judging yourself for having it, that you're not saying that you shouldn't be doing this, but that you're acknowledging, hey, I'm having this emotional discomfort. The sugar is helping me to take the edge off. I'm gonna give myself a little bit permission right now to have this thing, this cookie, this ice cream, this piece of cake, right? And I'm gonna do that in a way where I actually enjoy it and allow it to give me that relief that I'm looking for. And am I saying that that should always be your answer? Not necessarily, but I will tell you as a 47-year-old woman who has been practicing these tools for a lifetime, sometimes I choose the ice cream. I do it consciously and I do it with awareness, right? It's one tool in my tool belt. I have tons of other tools. And I recommend that you do the same. We don't want food and or sweets to be our only coping mechanism, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have its place. Because what I know that I have found for myself on my journey with food and sugar and eating is that when I do things from a place of allowance and curiosity and compassion and I take the judgment out of it, that urge to really overeat, right? When the one cookie becomes 12, when the one piece of cake becomes the whole cake, that urge just disappears, right? When I allow myself to fulfill the initial desire, the rest just falls away. So that is just a little bit of food for thought. I want you to remember that our journey with food, our relationship with food, it's just that. It's a relationship. It ebbs and it flows and it changes and it moves with our emotions and with our thoughts. And so sometimes we have to zoom out and take a bigger look to really understand what's going on. And again, for those of you who are interested in taking this work a little bit deeper, who are interested in exploring more of a mind-body approach to your health and or weight goals, I invite you to join me in my six-week class, The Don't Diet. The doors are open for enrollment. Our class begins on October 1st. So I have a link for you down in the description box below. Please feel free to check that out if it speaks to you. In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts about sugar and sugar addiction and everything we just chatted about in the video. I am by no means suggesting that my thoughts and ideas are the only way, but I have found them helpful for myself and I often see these theories very helpful when I'm working with clients. But I'm constantly learning from you as well. So come on down to the comment section below and let's chat it out. As always, thank you so much for watching. I'm Dani Spies, and I will see you back here next time with some more food for thought. Cheers.