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When the sugar cravings are strong in your weight loss · SAY GRACE | Weight Loss + Health for Overwhelmed Women- Stress, Busy, Consistency, Realistic, Motivation, Starting Over, No Restrictions

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Okay, y'all, sugar cravings can feel impossible to beat. And as someone who
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grew up having dessert every night and still having sugar at least once a day, I know this firsthand.
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Now, let's add on the fact that I'm in my third trimester and y'all,
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the sugar cravings are absolutely out of this world right now.
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So today, I'm going to share my top five ways to approach sugar when you love it, right?
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But you still have weight loss goals. Let's go.
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Okay, so I've got my top five ways, and y'all, these are, again,
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these are not like something chat may give you or something,
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you know, your Instagram, your Instagram.
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That really rigid nutrition guru may give you.
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But these are things that I know to work, number one, because they work in my
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own life, but also because they work for the thousands of women that I have helped. Okay.
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And so this is where I stand.
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This is, you know, things that I think are really, really beneficial and valuable,
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but also stay within the context around here, which is what?
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It's, you know, realistic, everything in moderation, all foods fit,
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you know, to support a healthy, not only a healthy body, but a healthy mindset around food, right?
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That is the core of what I do here is obviously offer healthy body tips and
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accountability and support.
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But also, I want to make sure your mind is just as healthy.
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And so some of these rigid, hardcore diet tips out there do not support a healthy mind.
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And so it's just something that I can't get behind. So these are five things
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that will support your body and your mind. Okay.
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So the first one, and I know if y'all have listened for, you know,
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a little while, you know, you already know what my first tip is going to be.
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And that is don't vow to cut it out.
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Okay. I see this time and time again.
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I mean, time and time and time and time again, right?
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Where people say, oh I gotta lose about 10 pounds or oh I just feel kind of
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gross I'm gonna cut out sugar.
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And while it may work for a little while, right, like you can you can do it
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and be super proud of yourself, right?
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And it does feel like an accomplishment. And I'm not saying that it's not right
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to set a goal and then stick to it for a little while.
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It is an accomplishment, right? You may even reach your goal.
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Like you may even say like lose the 10 pounds or, you know, start to feel better.
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But if you are any sort of
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a human being who has had sugar or whatever it is you're vowing to
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cut out for majority of your life you eventually
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something happens whether it's stressors a vacation a holiday like whatever
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and it doesn't it's not like at one month it may be at eight months at 12 months
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I mean who knows but something happens and you get out of your rhythm okay or
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you get tired of it and you go back to those old ways.
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Sugars start slowly creeping in again. You know, you say, oh, just a little bit here.
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I'll get back on it Monday, blah, blah, blah. And then it turns into a cycle, a spiral, right?
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Because then you're thinking to yourself, well, I got to get back to it.
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I'll get back to it next month.
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And then I'll get back to it the next month, right? And like,
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that is not what I want for you.
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I don't want you on again, off again, right? Like that is a short term fix.
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Even if you lasted 12 months without sugar or whatever, it's still a short term fix.
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I want a lifestyle that you can integrate day to day where yes,
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like today's Monday, Easter was yesterday, where yes, you know,
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banana pudding and carrot cake and chocolate cake and all the things were available to you.
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But you can say, I'm gonna have this today. But tomorrow, I know that I'm gonna
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try to get back to my normal eating, right, which is may still have like a dessert,
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but not three desserts like me, you know? So...
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By doing this on again, off again, you are not promoting a lifestyle, right?
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You are not promoting that long-term, something you can stick to.
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And I just want to, this is a side note, but I want to go a little deeper on this.
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Not only is it like physically not great, you know, where you cut out sugar,
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you lose 10 pounds and then, oh, you let sugar back in and guess what happens?
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You regain the 10 pounds and then, oh, you cut it out again.
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Like physically, that's not great for us, right? But also mentally,
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because what happens is,
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is we don't mentally feel good about ourselves, except when we are doing the
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thing that feels very restrictive, which is cutting out the sugar.
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So you almost feel mentally like I've got to make this choice.
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Am I going to physically feel good?
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Or am I going to be like, you know, obsessing over grams of sugar?
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Like, well, you know, like which one, you know, which one is it going to be?
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And so I want you to be able to just happily live, you know,
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day to day without feeling like you have to be obsessive over a certain food group.
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Plus, you know, this is this is a side note, too, but science proves that when
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you tell yourself you can't have something, this is mindset alone.
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Like psychology science proves that when you tell yourself you can't have something,
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your brain thinks about it even more. Right.
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Because our brain wants to help. like it thinks it's helping even if sometimes it's not right,
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And so it's like, oh, we said we were cutting out sugar. Well,
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there's some sugar. There's some sugar. I'm going to see some sugar on the way
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home. And what about sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, you know?
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And so science says that when we restrict anything in our lives,
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we think about it that much more, okay?
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Which makes it, I mean, obviously, nearly impossible to avoid for life,
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right? If your brain's constantly thinking about it.
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So we're not vowing to cut it out. That's my number one top tip, okay?
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But so, okay, but we're not valid to cut it out, but we do feel like sugar has
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a hold on us, right? Like that is a real thing, okay, for some of us.
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And so what are we gonna do? How are we gonna, you know.
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Get to a point where we feel like sugar doesn't have a hold on us,
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but we can have a healthy relationship with it.
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Okay, so one thing that really helps me and has helped a lot of my clients is
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to challenge yourself to just walk away from it or make a switch.
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Okay, so this is, again, this is more of a long term, like we got to keep it front of mind.
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We got to really set ourselves up for success here.
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But if you can tell yourself, right, I see that cake in the break room.
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You know, I see that so-and-so brought the donuts. I see, you know, whatever.
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Can I come back in 10 minutes and decide if I want it?
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Right? Like just asking yourself that question and actually following through
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on it can make such a difference. Okay.
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And especially y'all, I've had a lot of conversations with people who are either
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working at home like I am or they're stay-at-home moms.
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And this is a, just here lately, and this is a huge thing for us.
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I'm one of those people, right? I work from home.
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And so if I can, if I can just say to myself, yes, I see that cake on the counter
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that we brought home, you know, but can I go put a load of laundry in,
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move the laundry that's in the wash over to the dryer.
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You know, clean up the kitchen real quick, and then decide if I really want
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whatever that is on the counter.
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It makes all the difference in the world. It gives you a minute.
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It's just, and we talk, we call it in the program, we call it take a beat, okay?
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It just gives you a minute to say, like, do I really want that right now?
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Or was I just gravitating towards it because it was there, right?
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And what's really important about this focus is you don't, you're not telling yourself,
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no, I don't need that. I'm walking away from that cake on the counter or whatever
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it is. You're not telling yourself you have to walk away forever, right?
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You're just saying for just this moment, for just this moment, can I walk away, right?
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And then decide in a better headspace, maybe when I'm not as stressed or maybe
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when I'm not as impulsive or whatever, then I can decide if I want to come back. Okay.
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And so I think what's really cool about this is you prove over time that you can walk away.
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Are you going to, are you going to come back the 10 minutes later sometimes? Yeah. Do I?
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Yes. You know, but there will be sometimes that you will either get distracted
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by your chores or something else you're doing, right?
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Or you will decide like, actually, I don't need that.
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It's still there. And if I want that cake after dinner tonight,
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you know, as a dessert, I will cut me a small slice and sit down and eat it
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and enjoy every bit of it, but I'm not going to stand over it in between nap time and, you know.
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When I have to go pick up my toddler or whatever.
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I'm not going to stand over it and shove it in my mouth, right?
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I'm going to actually be intentional about it.
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And so it's really cool because you prove to yourself that you can do it.
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And when you do that, it's like flexing a muscle, right?
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When you do bicep curls, you are building that muscle over time.
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So when you are able to, even if it's once out of a whole week worth,
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right, it was at least once that you were able to walk away.
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When you're able to walk away, even for five minutes or come back,
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you know, even, you know, later, whatever that, whatever that looks like for
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you, you're still flexing that muscle and you're building it mentally to tell
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yourself like, oh, wait,
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I can do this. Sugar actually doesn't have a hold on me because I said,
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watch this chocolate cake on Tuesday.
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Instead of eating it, I walked away from it, right?
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Even though I may have came back
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and had it after dinner, it was still an intentional eat after dinner.
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I was intentional about getting that cake after dinner instead of standing over
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it with a fork and hurrying it up to, you know, move on to the next thing.
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And so I love, like, I love to do this with myself and I love to do it with
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clients too, because it just makes you feel so empowered.
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And it doesn't make you feel so helpless to the food, right?
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Also, I want you to ask yourself, like, is this a habit? Like,
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or do I actually want this?
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Because again, for those of us who are home a lot or who are walking past things
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a lot, sometimes it is a habit.
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Like we see things and we're like, oh, let me get a bite of that.
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But then if you were to check in with yourself, you'd be like,
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was I even thinking about having a snack before I won't buy this?
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You know, was I even thinking about having a like craven chocolate before I
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saw this cake or whatever it may be?
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So you're interrupting that natural cycle by asking yourself that,
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like, do I really want this or is this the habit.
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You're interrupting it, which means you are creating new ways,
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new paths for yourself when you are at home around those foods, right?
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And then another thing just on this same point is if you are used to having
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a sweet snack at night or, you know, even in the afternoon like that,
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like if I do, again, I've been working with a lot of stay-at-home mamas lately and, you know, they're.
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Their kind of relaxation time is nap time or, you know, whatever.
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And so it's really hard for them to not want to grab a snack and sit down and
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maybe watch one of their shows while their kids are napping because it's their
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only time they get to themselves.
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Or same for almost all of us moms who work full time or whatever,
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like you are serving everybody else all day long.
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And so it's really, really really really hard to say
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I am not gonna have my
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evening snack while in bed while I'm watching my show you know like that y'all
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that is is that ideal for our health to lay up in the bed at nine o'clock and
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eat a bowl of ice cream no it ain't ideal right like we know that it is not
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ideal for our health it's not ideal for our circadian rhythm it's not ideal
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for our metabolism it is our sleep.
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Like it is not ideal for any of it. Right.
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But it can be the hardest habit to break. I've talked about here all the time about my cereal in bed.
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You know, it can be the hardest habit to break. And so like,
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why would we start there?
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There are so many other habits we can break before we start at our like cherished,
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beloved time by ourselves with our trash TV.
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You know, like that is not the time. And so, so how can you still enjoy the time, but maybe not.
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Keep this this same routine of having like the ice cream every single night
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like could you still say to yourself
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okay every night I'm going to take a minute and I'm going to assess,
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do I really want the ice cream tonight and again sometimes the
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answer will be yes yes I really do but you could also say
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I know I just kind of want a snack while I'm
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watching my show tonight could I get something else like some
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fruit or make one of those little Greek yogurt
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parfaits or you know they have so many of those great ones now
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on the on the shelves that you know
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they're flips or whatever you can put any kind of
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little toppings over in them or even just finding yourself
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a frozen lower calorie option right
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but something that you that when you are laid up in that bed turning on your
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show you still feel fully fulfilled it doesn't feel like well I'm eating my
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diet dessert because I'm having to lose weight and this sucks while I'm watching
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my show like You still want to feel like this is your treat time, you know,
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and so can you make a swap?
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Something that doesn't feel like total deprivation, but also feels like a better
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choice, even if it's one day out of the week, you know, you still have your
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ice cream the other six days or whatever.
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Like, again, it's that it's that challenge to just kind of start yourself with
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a new habit and a new routine and see how it builds. Okay, so my third tip is,
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and this is a really good one.
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If you do have the sugar, pair it with a protein. So I actually did this this
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morning. So I thought it's Easter. I mean, Easter was yesterday.
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We brought home so many desserts. It's insane.
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And usually I would not even bring them home. But right now,
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y'all, I'm telling you, these sugar cravings for me are out of this freaking world.
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And so my mom makes the best coffee cake.
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It is my obsession. and she had made a bunch and she sent us home with some yesterday. And.
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I'm not going to not have it. Like, I'm just not. I'm pregnant or not.
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I would not avoid this coffee cake.
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And so this morning I woke up thinking about it.
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And so I paired my mom's coffee cake with a boiled egg.
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Okay. And so, because my mom's coffee cake is pretty much sugar,
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sugar, sugar on sugar. Right.
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And so we know that sugar doesn't leave us feeling the best.
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Like, and physically it, I mean, there's, there's, you know,
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reasoning behind it, right?
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Like it spikes our blood sugar and then you crash out quickly.
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Right. And so then if you crash out quickly, you're like super tired or you're craving more sugar.
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Like it doesn't leave us feeling fabulous. You know what I mean?
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But when you pair the sugar with a protein, it helps prevent such a heavy crash
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because it slows your digestion down and allows your body to absorb the sugar at a more steady pace.
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It's not so like quickly absorbed because there's protein in the mix as well,
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right, through the digestion process.
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And so it prevents that crash and that extra hunger and all that.
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Plus, protein physically leaves you more satisfied, right?
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Like, so when you have protein, your body is like, okay, we're not hangry anymore, right?
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And so putting the two together often allows for you to.
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If you pay attention, you recognize like, okay, I don't go back for seconds
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as often, or, you know, I don't want to, I'm not ravenous over the sugar.
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You know how sometimes you can feel like uncontrolled around,
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around something with sugar.
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Like I think if I had not had the boiled egg this morning, I would have gone
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back and kept cutting off more like small pieces of my mom's coffee cake instead
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of just eating what I had plus my, my egg.
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You know, I would have kept saying like, Oh wait, I want a little bit more.
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I want a little bit more. I want a little bit more, but having that protein
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to, to satisfy as well was able to kind of shut my brain off to thinking about
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going back for more, okay?
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And so thinking about, okay, well, yes, so-and-so brought...
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Donuts to the break room this morning. But what can I, what do I have?
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What is available that I can pair with it that may have some protein in it that
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I can say, yes, I'm going to have the donut because I really want it.
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I waited 10 minutes like Constance said, and it still sounds good.
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But what can I pair with it to keep me full? You know, also making sure that
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in general that you're eating enough and having that balanced meal throughout the day. Okay.
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Inconsistent meals or meals that don't have all the macronutrients,
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which are the carbs, fat, or protein, can leave us unsatisfied and more likely to grab quick snacks.
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And y'all, what are the usual quick snacks? It's gonna be sugar, right?
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Like break rooms aren't typically stocking with mixed nuts and boiled eggs and beef sticks.
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If yours is, I'm so proud of you. You know what I mean?
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But like most of the time, If you've had catered things brought in at work,
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or if somebody's bringing you something as like a little happy to your house,
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it's not going to be a beef stick.
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You know, it's going to be a cookie. It's going to be a donut.
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It's going to be this homemade pound cake.
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It's, you know, whatever it is. And so making sure that you are actually eating
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these balanced meals consistently is going
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to help prevent you from wanting to just go by and grab and grab and grab because
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we're unsatisfied, you know?
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I think also where I see this a good bit is my ladies who have like really demanding
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jobs or they're just really busy during the day.
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And so they go, go, go, go, go all day. And they don't make a whole lot of time to eat.
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Like if they do eat, it's like a little protein bar or like I said,
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like a handful of nuts or just something they can eat while they're on the go.
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They're just really trying to like get to the next task.
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They're not sitting down and eating a full meal while they're at work or whatnot.
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And so it's crazy because you can feel really proud of that.
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You can be like, oh yeah, I did so great today, blah, blah, blah.
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But what happens a lot of the time is so many of our ladies,
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it's like on that drive from the office to the house,
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your body, you're winding down from the day. Like it's a whole process physically, right?
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You're mentally winding down and your body's like finally taking a rest in the car.
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You know, you're forced to sit down in that drive.
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And, you know, everything's kind of unwinding for the day.
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And so in those moments is when your body decides you haven't fed me,
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you know, like I'm starving, feed me, you know what I mean?
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So then you get home and you are eating while you're cooking dinner,
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you're overeating dinner, you can't, you cannot get satisfied at dinner.
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You want to get, you definitely get your dessert after dinner.
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Like, and so then you're like, well, I blew it.
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You know what I mean? Or a lot of our ladies are like, but I didn't eat hardly at all during the day.
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So I couldn't have blown it. I don't know why I'm not losing weight.
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And the truth is, you did.
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You went over your calories in the evening and you didn't even realize it because
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you were just kind of almost blacked out, like shoving food in because your
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body was so hungry. You know what I mean?
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So really, like even y'all just taking two minutes to check in with your body
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and check in with yourself.
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And taking five minutes to prepare for that before you leave for the workday
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by packing a balanced somewhat snack meal, whatever.
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Even, I mean, there are so many prepackaged, like nuts and fruit and,
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you know, meat combinations you can buy at the grocery store.
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You can buy the pre-made salads.
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You can, you know, put together, my gosh, an Uncrustable and a Bag of Bake Glaze
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didn't ever kill nobody. You know what I mean?
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So just something that you feel like is going to help hold you over and prevent that ravenous,
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eating when you get home. I do have several of our PFM Plus ladies who actually
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keep a snack in their car for the drive home because they've recognized this about themselves.
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And they know if they wait till they get home, they're going to be eating their kids snacks.
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They're going to be eating the stuff they're cooking. They're going to be grabbing
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chips at the pantry, you know, that kind of thing. And so they take care of it before they get home.
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And so really just kind of paying attention to that for yourself and thinking
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about how you can kind of get more well-rounded meals before you do get home
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and that binge eating hits.
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Tip number four is to check in with yourself. And again, this is kind of like
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rollover from what I just said, right?
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Like if you are noticing a sugar craving more often, right?
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And you're like, what is going on with me? I mean, yes, you could be about to
22:15
start your period, you know, but that's two. You have to take a minute and think about that, y'all.
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You'd be so surprised at so many women who are like, well, I started today and
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I didn't even realize it was time.
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You know, this explains why I'm emotional, why I've been eating so much,
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why I've been feeling so bad about myself, whatever.
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So you check, take a moment to check in with yourself, right? Where am I in my cycle?
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Have I been drinking enough water, you know, or have I gotten out of that habit?
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Because when we're dehydrated, we crave things more intensely.
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Okay, so you could be thinking you need some sugar when in reality,
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y'all tell needs some water, right?
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Have you gotten enough sleep? Have you been on the go a lot lately?
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You know, and it's like a nasty cycle. If you're eating sugar all the time,
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you may not be getting as deep of sleep because your body's so full of sugar,
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you know, and so it's like a cycle that feeds itself.
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So checking in, what's my sleep been like? Have I been more stressed lately?
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Right? Like all these things can lead to more sugar intake.
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Oftentimes it's not the sugar that's the problem. You need to like peel back
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a layer and say like, okay, why could I be wanting more sugar lately?
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And get to the root of that, right?
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And take those actions that helps your body feel more regulated. Drink the water.
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Try to go to bed early, you know, work on your stress level.
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And then it's like the sugar problem goes away with it all, you know.
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And so then my very last tip is one that I just really believe in for mindset
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purposes more than anything, is to remove it from your site.
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Y'all, it is, I don't care who you are.
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You cannot walk by, I mean, I cannot walk by a box of like my favorite kind
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of donuts and just look at it over and over again without eventually going and grabbing it.
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Like that is its own form of torture, you know.
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So all this Easter candy your kids just got, get it out of there. Get it off the counter.
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Make them clean it out. Put it in Ziploc bags, whatever, and then put it behind a door, okay?
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Get it out of there. Anything that you brought home from Easter.
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Like desserts like myself, you know, remove it from your site.
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Remove it from an area of the kitchen that you have to walk by every single
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time you walk in the kitchen, right?
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Put it somewhere that is not easily visible for you to help you hopefully forget
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that it's there. You know what I mean?
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And then after a few days, it's time for it to go. Put it in the trash can.
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And I have said this for 10 years and I'll say it till the day I die.
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Like three days of a chocolate cake sitting on your counter, girl.
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Day four of a chocolate cake that's been sitting out on the counter ain't good. It is not worth it.
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I mean, it is, it is save those calories and make yourself a fresh chocolate
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cake on Sunday or something, but do not sit there and waste your,
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your willpower and your intake on crusty stale chocolate cake to get it in the garbage,
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right? So what it's going to be Tuesday when you listen to this.
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So tomorrow it needs to go, you know, so removing it from your site when you
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can, like your kids candy and whatnot, but then these desserts or other temptations
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that you have just hanging out,
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put it behind a counter or behind a door at first, but then get it in the garbage.
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Don't let it linger, okay? Do not let, that's when we feel the worst about ourselves,
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is when we come back and eat like the day-old donut.
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I think I could be okay with the warm, fresh, like hot out the oven, whatever donut, right?
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But the day old crusty donut, I'm so disappointed in myself,
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you know? And so get rid of it.
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And that you don't have to, some people have to pour water on it and then put
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it in the trash so that they won't go get it back out and go ahead, you know?
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So anyway, that is my spiel on sugar today.
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And again, none of us are perfect. I surely am not perfect, y'all, especially right now.
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But I think any effort, like I said, is like flexing that muscle in the right
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direction. And it does make you feel empowered.
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It reminds you that you can do this. You know, it shows you that, okay,
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I'm not going to avoid sugar every single time, but I do have the mental power
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to overcome it if I just take that minute to actually let myself instead of
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convince myself that sugar's sugar's got a hold on me, you know?
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So anyways, I hope this one was beneficial for y'all, especially after coming
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off of all this Easter candy.
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And as always, y'all remember to say great.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Say Grace Podcast.
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If you enjoyed it, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five-star
27:07
review. Also, make sure to follow the.