Stuck on the sugar rollercoaster?
The thing with sugar is the more you have, the more you tend to keep wanting it due to the way that it affects both your blood sugar balance and your neurotransmitters.
Sugar is highly addictive both on a physical and an emotion level. Many people self medicate with sugar during times of stress or emotional upheaval or pre-menstrually.
Along with being highly addictive, sugar is also inflammatory and can lead to headaches, joint aches, skin inflammation and hormonal disruptions. Because it affects brain chemistry and blood sugar balance, it often also contributes to mood swings and anxiety.
It's also a source of extra empty calories which trigger your body to produce insulin to help remove the sugar from your blood stream and into your cells. Insulin is also a fat storing hormone so excess sugar encourages excess fat gain, especially around the belly or middle, which in itself then often leads to further blood sugar dysregulation.
What to do?
The first step is to become aware of where and when you're consuming sugar.
Reading labels is important as it's often found in packaged foods in higher than expected amounts.
It's also important to identify WHY you're consuming sugar-
-is it due to being sleep deprived or tired?
- is it habitual eg, in the evening or after a meal
-are you using it as a 'reward' after a challenging day
-do you always seek out sugar when you're feeling flat/anxious/sad/lonely/bad about yourself?
-is there a hormonal link eg. mid cycle/before or during your period?
Not getting the balance right of your carbs, protein, fats and fibre when you eat can also lead to sugar cravings due to blood sugar ups and downs as can mineral deficiencies.
Need support to get off the sugar roller coaster?
My approach to breaking the sugar addiction or the reliance on sugar for whatever reason, involves looking at the whole picture from both a physical (your diet, your eating patterns and habits, mineral or vitamin deficiencies or candida overgrowth) as well as the mental and emotional components (eg. the emotional reasons why you're seeking sugar and finding other ways to address these that don't involve sugar or food and the thoughts or beliefs that you might have about yourself in relation to sugar or anything less obvious that is contributing).
There are ways to support your body physically to make it much easier to wean off your reliance on sugar whilst we also factor in the mental, emotional elements so that it become easier to sustain.
Cutting out sugar doesn't mean you can't ever have any ever again, it's more about not feeling controlled by it or feeling reliant on it.
If you would like some support to get off sugar and enjoy more balanced energy and moods, less anxiety, less achey joints or headaches and an easier PMS period appointments can be booked online here:
For current or returning clients: https://blossomwellbeing.as.me/?appointmentType=2667879
For new clients: https://blossomwellbeing.as.me/initial-consultation
My self paced online mindful eating program can also help you to create a healthier relationship with food and create more mindfulness about your habits, beliefs and emotional patterns around food and eating.
Once you've signed up you receive immediate access to the program which you can go through at your own pace.
It can be best to begin with one area of focus per week for the first few weeks, allowing you to build healthier habits once step at a time. Includes a workbook/journal plus audios/transcripts (each audio is about 15-20min long) plus guided meditations and processes to work through.
Online Mindful Eating Program - $47. Read more about it or sign up here:
https://blossomwellbeing.com.au/mindful-eating-program-start/
