Weaning from sugar, the compassionate way

Hi lovelies,

Sugar has always had a special place in my life. Since childhood I loved sweet treats and was known for my tendency to indulge in it copiously. When dealing with strong emotions, good or bad, I would find some sort of refuge and comfort in sugary foods. I realised in my early twenties that it is not good for one's health at all as it compromises health in many ways. The internal organs, the body's hormonal balance, the skin and the teeth can suffer from high  sugar consumption and the symptoms which are not visible are not pleasant either : lack of vitality, brain fog, and the moodiness that goes with the sort of addiction it creates are real obstacles to enjoying one's life!

I may have tried a hundred times to give up sugar partially or completely, using various different approaches over the last ten years. The most successful one had me sticking to non sugary foods for a whole month, only to find myself going back on my old habits and left me feeling powerless. (I must say however that I managed to recover from the bulimia I suffered from a couple of years ago with the help of a book, and therefore I do no longer "binge") It is possible that I am very sensitive to that kind of addiction. However, I don't want to give up until I can fix this. I care about my health: I have a baby daughter and I want to be fit when she grows up and parents I want to be able to help later in life. Not to mention that I have a life I would like to live as well as I could for myself.  The behaviour which I would like to change here is the tendency to look forward to sweet treats every day, several time a day without felling that I have a choice to decide otherwise. I don't want to think about food all the time, I would like to be peaceful around food. I want to be able to decide when I want to have sugary food and when not. That is my number one goal. And avoid all the unnecessary health related issues, and why not get some beauty benefits too. Can you relate?

In order to solve this internal conflict, I decided that i would approach myself like a friend. What would you do if you were in the following situation : A very dear friend, who you love and care about very much, finds herself in a situation where she feels powerless, distressed an discouraged. On one hand she is resolved to not give in a destructive behaviour, on this other, she feels an urge to give in the same behaviour, to release that intense uncomfortable feeling she has. Would you blame or shame her? Would you shout at her while she is dealing with that mental pain? Of course not. Maybe you would say  something like : "I am so sorry at you are feeling like this. Or I wish I could help you to deal with this." Or "it will be ok, just try to hang in there, it gets easier., you'll see." Maybe the friend, out of her deep connection with you, would listen, would trust you, would try her best to deal with the conflict.

Now this sounds trivial, yet I am not sure that many of us can say that they treat themselves in such a compassionate way.  I want to try this approach for myself, I will let you know if it is fruitful. I feel hope. It makes sense to me to try to befriend one's own self in order to grow stronger and break free from destructive behaviour and gain peace. Good luck to you and please be welcome to share your experience in dealing with sugar cravings.

Sending you lots of love.

Myri