My sweet tooth has been the downfall of every diet I’ve ever been on. When I was doing the low-fat thing, or Weight Watchers, eating sweet was allowed as long as it was low-fat sweet and there were plenty of options there! LF chocolate pudding comes to mind (and who couldn’t eat about 4 of those little cups?), 100-calorie packs of cookies, Snackwell’s cookies, and even low-fat brownies. All of these were “allowed” foods on a low-fat plan but for me, they sent me on a death-spiral into Sugarville each and every time – so that all of my calories were spent on sugar and I would feel like crap. Crap with no energy, to be more specific. Crap in a sugar-coma!So now I’m on the low-carb road and am finding that I still crave sweet stuff. Having been on every side of low-carb in the 7 months that I’ve been on this plan, I now find myself unsure of which way to go. For a while I did Paleo (October, 2010) where there was no dairy, and the sweetest thing I got to eat was sweet potato & peppers. And that’s not sweet enough, in my book! I have eaten Atkin’s bars, artificially sweetened cheese-cake-like desserts, sweetened vanilla ricotta, and Breyer’s Low-Carb ice cream and bars. I start every morning with a diet Coke and sometimes add some heavy cream into a diet root beer for dessert. I eat Chocoperfection bars daily, and when I don’t have those, I search out very low-carb, very dark chocolate.
What I struggle with is the question of purity. Is it better to be low-carb at all costs, artificial sweeteners & all – or is it better to avoid sweets at all costs, stick to “real” food? And is the diet Coke helping or hurting? I went off it for 7 days and then went back. That stuff is like a drug to me. Sugar is like a drug to me.
I’ll continue to ponder this question for a while, I’m sure. Stay tuned.
Time for a root beer “float”.
This sounds all too familiar!!! Personally, I think chemicals suck, real food rocks. I stopped eating protein bars before/after workouts because the amount of artificial ingredients concerned me. Now I just have a banana - the fructose and carbs are used by my muscles during the workout. The other thing I've been onto lately is Greek yoghurt with a spoon of honey and raspberries. On it's own, Greek yoghurt is quite tart but it only takes a smidge of honey to sweeten it up. It's also very low carb as far as yoghurts go (4.5gm per 100ml). Kick the Coke - diet or not, it's all just nasty!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you Mindy. I"m starting a new book, The Pleasure Trap, and I'm positive it's going to discuss why we have these addictions and what to do about it! I'll let you know what I find out.
ReplyDeleteAnd the diet coke, I'm drinking my last case, and I told my husband I'm not buying it anymore! I'll miss it though.
Thanks for checking in, Sarina! Yes, the diet Coke has to go!
ReplyDeleteSugar is my biggest enemy! When I did the primal diet, Id buy a huge dark chocolate bar 65% dark or more, it was meant to last me for at least a week but Id eat 1/2 of it in one day. I had to give up my beloved Crystal light because it was stalling me. Im glad I did though that aspartame is awful stuff. Good luck to you on your low carb journey!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by, Leah. Yeah, the chocolate is a killer. The only way I don't over do it is to get 85% cacao which is quite bitter but it does give you that "hit" of chocolate, and most are quite low-carb.
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