IF and avoiding flour and sugar

I am the same way - I try to satisfy the sweet tooth with healthier things, that still satisfy the cravings. My favorite go-tos are:
- put a bit of nut butter in a couple of medjool dates, dip those in a bit of melted chocolate, then freeze for 10 minutes - extremely satisfying and delicious
- eat a bowl of berries with a bit of whipped cream on top
- nice cream - put frozen bananas in a food processor or powerful blender until a smooth ice cream consistency - can add a spoon of nut butter or some toppings to this also

The thing that works best is not even keeping any other options in the house - if it's there, I will eat it :/

I added 5 min more of heavy duty/aerobic exercise to my workout. Gradually increasing it.

I doubt it burns all the calories /fat I indulge in with my sweet tooth, but it's something (better than nothing) and I feel more justified and less guilty.

Anonymous wrote:I had a terrible sweet tooth but giving up sugar cured it. I don’t care for it anymore at all. I permanently lost 10lbs because of it and I wasn’t big to begin with. (135lb down to 125lbs)

It is interesting to see people’s faces when sugary food comes out at parties, at work etc. I can see how addictive it is.

That’s great, but I don’t think any weight loss is permanent unless you amputate a body part.

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t sugar free drinks and food trigger more cravings??

No.

Make a homemade lemonade with monk fruit sweetener and drink it. It will help.

I had a terrible sweet tooth but giving up sugar cured it. I don’t care for it anymore at all. I permanently lost 10lbs because of it and I wasn’t big to begin with. (135lb down to 125lbs)

It is interesting to see people’s faces when sugary food comes out at parties, at work etc. I can see how addictive it is.

Doesn’t sugar free drinks and food trigger more cravings??

I have a terrible sweet tooth. I try to eat healthy for breakfast and lunch and then give in after dinner. Green tea throughout the day helps a lot.

I eat dry cereal - mini wheats, cheerios, honey bunches of oats.

8 have a huge sweet tooth and an emotional eater so after an exhausting or stressful day I plunk down on the couch, feet on the coffer table, and the box of cereal on my chest. I take pinches of cereal so it feels more satisfying, but I actually don't eat that much when I finally force myself to stop.

Like others suggest, I would find a smaller dessert to have after dinner at first (WFs has really good mini $2 fruit tarts which I love and are fairly low in cals, sugar, and sat fat). Then substitute with a non-fat greek yogurt then maybe fruit etc.

I cut out sugary drinks. I used to drink a ton of Diet Coke. I switched to full sugar coke, then flavored seltzer. At the same time, I switched from flavored creamer in my coffee.

It took a while but I now drink coffee with a splash of milk and seltzer with lemon. I still eat sugar but at least I’m not drinking it.

What are you eating for breakfast? When I eat plain yogurt (protein, plus some added berries which sweetens it when I use frozen ones) I don’t crave sweets as much the rest of the day, and am able to lose weight in a healthy way.

The only thing that works for me is cold turkey. It's like I'm detoxing off drugs the first couple of weeks, but then it goes away. Also, by then, I tend to drop a couple of pounds, which serves as a motivator to continue.

Eat sugar-free sweets.