How To Finally Kick The Sugar Addiction (Without Losing Your Mind)

photo by Alan Cleaver

At the end of this post, you’ll find a way to win a $25 gift card to Amazon.

There’s also an incredible dessert recipe that’ll actually help in your efforts to stop cravings.

But first, let’s talk about sugar addictions.

A recent news item has reported that Oreos, my favorite factory-made cookie, are as addictive than cocaine.

The thing is, most of us who struggle with food already knew that.

Our bodies really are addicted to sugar. There are people that get paid very well, scientists with big, fancy degrees, to design food (yes, they design food) to become addictive. If they can make you addicted to a food, you’ll buy more, and the company will prosper.

(In their defense, there are also scientists that get paid very well that are trying to solve world hunger issues through food engineering too.)

The odds are stacked against us once we finally do make the decision to get healthy and eat right. One of the main reasons we start to feel like we’re starving is because our bodies are screaming for more sugar. We interpret that as being hungry and usually give up before we’ve given our body time to detox and adjust to our better eating habits. We’re doomed to fail before we even start.

Or are we?

What if you could get rid of your sugar addiction? What if you could do it in less than a month?

You can, and Diane Sanfilippo will help you do it.

Introducing the 21-Day Sugar Detox

Diane’s just come out with a new version of her original ebook called The 21-Day Sugar Detox: Bust Sugar & Carb Cravings Naturally. As she states in the book,

To detox your body from sugar means not only to rid your body of cravings for it, but also to rid your daily life of the structure built around being a slave to when you eat sugar, how much you eat, and the form in which you eat it.

The way she presents the detox is in one of three programs, depending on how your current sugar lifestyle is. Level 1 is for folks who are just coming off of a “standard American diet”, which not only includes junk food but also large amounts of whole grains (i.e., the “healthy” grains) and dairy. Level 3 is for folks who already eat pretty clean, maybe someone who considers herself “mostly Paleo” and wants to finally kick the habit. Level 2 is somewhere in between.

It’s more than just not eating sugar

One of the things I appreciate most about this book is how it’s not simply one that tells you why sugar is bad and then gives you tips on how to deal with the withdrawal of not eating it.

It definitely does those things, but it also almost holds your hand (as much as a book can), as you do it. There are even checklists for 7 days before you start, 5 days before you start, all the way to the day before. They’re designed to help get you excited for it, prepare the way, and get emotionally ready.

Then as you go, you can follow her meal plan for you, which tells you exactly which foods are appropriate to eat for your level, or you can plan your own menus based on her “yes” and “no” food lists.

One of the critical steps, though, is getting rid of all of the items in your house with sugar in them. She discusses the importance of reading labels to find the hidden sugars as well, as the food manufacturers often use things not called “sugar” as sweeteners, and they’ll use several of them in the same food so it’s more sweet, and you don’t even realize it.

Then there are the recipes

In addition to the already-useful help and meal plans offered in the book, there are also a bunch of recipes (90, to be more precise) for foods that foster a healthy lifestyle. These aren’t “health food” recipes in the sense most people think (no tasteless rice cakes here), but delicious, satisfying foods.

Here’s a sugar-healthy dessert recipe you can try this week. It’s simple and super yummy.

Nutty Baked Apples

Ingredients:

• 4 green apples
• 1 cup coarsely ground nuts of your choice (one or more of the following: almonds, walnuts, pecans, shelled pistachios, macadamia nuts)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• a few pinches of sea salt
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter, ghee, or coconut oil, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Slice off roughly the tip 1/4 inch of each apple. Core the apples, leavng about 3/4 inch of the bottom of the apple intact. Place the apples in a 9″x9″ baking dish.
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine the ground nuts, cinnamon, salt, and butter, ghee, or coconut oil and mix until the nuts are evenly coated. Stuff each of the apples with the nut mixture, then bake until the skins of the apples just break open and the apples appear completely soft and slightly golden brown, approximately 30 minutes.

See?! You can eat really delicious food while training your body to get off of the super-palatable, sugary foods you grew up with!

Here’s the prize you can win

I want to help Diane’s book get on as many lists as it can. I know I don’t have a huge influence, but every little bit helps. People need to become aware of this book and how it can help break the addiction to sugar.

So here’s what I’m going to do: you can with an Amazon gift card.

The book launches on Tuesday, October 29, 2013. Everyone who buys the book via the link below, leaves an honest review of the book once you get it, and then tells me about it (so I know who you are) between now and November 30 (so you have time to do some of it) will be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card. And to help push the book to the best-seller lists during launch week, I’ll give you two entries for having purchased it before November 4.

Once again, here’s how you’ll get entered for the gift card:

1. Buy Diane’s book from the link below between now and November 30, and send me a copy of your receipt email.
2. Once the book arrives and you check it out, go to Amazon and leave an honest review of the book. Then send me an email so I can go read it (tell me which one you wrote).
3. For two entries into the drawing, buy the book before November 4.

I’ll do a drawing on December 3 and contact the winner then (I’ll also update this post with the winner’s name).

For now, answer this question in the comments: What’s the one thing you’d find it nearly impossible to give up? Mine is, funny enough, Oreos. What’s yours?

*Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book for review before it released, but only because I asked for it. I’d recommend it anyway, as I did (and gave away a copy of) her NYT Best-Selling book, Practical Paleo. I haven’t completed it myself as outlined in the book, but my wife and I are preparing to.

Small print: I promise not to do anything with any information you send me other than make a note of your name and email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. The original emails will be deleted.

How To Finally Kick The Sugar Addiction (Without Losing Your Mind) is a post from: Finding My Fitness