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Replacing sweets.
noir_blood
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So mainly because my brother is Kyougu and I refuse to be the "fat twin", Im really trying to focus on losing weight once more. Something I have always had trouble with is sweets. I'm a big soda drinker, and a meal doesn't seem right unless I have something sweet at the end. So I come here looking for your recommendations. What have you guys replaced chocolate and soda with? I know fruit is going to be thrown around, but is there anything else? A good chocolate replacement?
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if I'm craving ice cream, I usually just eat frozen mixed berries. It ends up being more satisfying and not nearly as unhealthy
Also consider getting fruit juices and things like lemonade instead of pop to go with food (lemonade is easy to make, just make sure you don't oversweeten it. Don't use the powdered crap, just mix water, lemon juice [which you can buy a bottle of] and a little bit of sugar. Can also do this with lime juice and make limeade, mmmmm)
Try to just do sweets once a week, but get something high quality, so you really look forward to it.
I'll third the fruit idea. Though if you're going the frozen route, be careful and check out the stuff you buy, because a lot of the frozen fruit options will have a sugar syrup added to them before they're frozen, so you're not really much better off (same goes for canned, get stuff in it's own juice if at all possible instead of light or heavy syrup). Personally fresh fruit is where it's at.
You could also try switching to a diet soda. I could never really stand diet sodas, but the Pepsi One that's sweetened with Splenda is a pretty good substitute for Pepsi (can't speak for the coke/splenda version since I don't drink coke). This could easily be an intermediate step if you instantly cut down to diet sodas, then work on phasing out the soda completely in favor of healthier options.
I also find a nice piece of crystallized ginger can top off a meal nicely.
But if you're trying to find something that tastes as good as the fat and sugar in chocolate, you're gonna be pretty disappointed.
If you are interested in making your own sweets/baked goods, Honey is a good substitute for sugar, and in most recipes, sugar can be replaced with honey.
I also find that black Tea with a splash of milk and a teaspoon of honey is a great finish to a meal, and a satisfying desert.
The key with chocolate is to try and avoid overly sweetened chocolate. Chocolate by itself is not terrible for you, and can actually be a good additive in your diet. It may require you to find a confectioner who makes specific desserts/candy of this type.
Also, moderation.
Nothing replaces chocolate
But I managed to change soda for milk as my first step, and then after a month of that just stopped having chocolate on anything other than the weekends.
Squeeze fresh lemon into the water. You'd be amazed how much difference it makes.
Fruit smoothies are also great for sweet cravings - blend about 1/4 cup orange juice, a handful of frozen strawberries, and a banana. Yummy, sweet, and healthy.
Also, try freezing your own grapes, blueberries, bananas (peel them first!), or pineapple chunks. Seriously, nothing is as delicious as a handful of frozen grapes when you've been outside on a hot day.
Someone mentioned super dark chocolate, and thats a good sub for chocolate cravings - the chem in chocolate people crave (and it might even be good for you) is in the cocoa, not the sugar.
The soda switch off is brutal. Soda water and fruit juice isn't bad, or diet 7 with juice. I can't stand aspartame drinks by themselvs, but combos work out sometimes. Lemon water is a good twist, as is water water. The cravings go away in a couple weeks if you're switching up from your fave soda addiction.
Seriously, two weeks ago I had been out climbing all day and had finished all my water (about two litres of it) and passed a little sausage sizzle fundraising thing that was selling cans of coke as well (unfotunately no water).
I had one sip and nearly spat the damm thing out it was just too goddam sweet.
Like tube said, willpower through the damm thing.
Satans..... hints.....
For me, I knew I needed to drop my soda consumption, but I also knew that if I just said "Oh, no more sodas ever!", I'd last about 3 days. I also knew that basically, if I had soda around, I'd drink it. So the way that worked for me was saying "No buying soda at the grocery store for home." Want to buy a soda when you're out to eat? Sure. Want to bring home a soda with your takeout? That's fine. Want to bring sodas to work instead of having to pay the vending machine? All right. Basically, it allowed me to say "I can go get a coke if I really want one" while playing off of the fact that I am lazy. Once you've broken the mental habit of "I am thirsty"->go get a soda, you can start cutting down on your soda consumption in other places.
Similarly for the chocolate, my husband has the same thing as you about the meal not being over until he's had something sweet (preferably chocolate). So when he was dieting, he'd finish off his meal with chocolate. A chocolate. (Or a small handful of M&Ms.) He kind of hated it (which was why by the end he'd also often have yogurt or something as part of "dessert"), but it kept the cravings at bay.
You should counsel heroine addicts.
I only have a soda once or twice a week now, and my husband lost 30 pounds on his diet (obviously the chocolate cut-down wasn't the only thing he did, but allowing himself to have that small amount kept him from completely abandoning the diet after a week like had happened in the past).
~28 almonds is one serving which is ~180 calories and only 3g sugar. The (healthy) fat from the almonds will keep you satiated and the flavor is still enough to think you're eating something sweet.
If you really want chocolate, buy a single bar of the good stuff. You know, the $3 Swiss bars or whatever. Place it in the fridge and after dinner when you're craving something sweet, allow yourself 1 or 2 squares. No more. Make the bar last between 1 and 2 weeks. This takes some willpower, but if you just suck on it instead of chewing it up it should just about do the trick (willpower takes the rest).
Really though, get away from sodas. Juices and gatorade are still full of sugar, but they aren't thinning your bones out like soda. Drink Coke-zero or Sprite-zero if you need to ween yourself off them. But even then you're still sucking calcium out of your bones to adjust for the pH imbalance.
I still drink a soda here and there, but I've replaced them for the most part with caffeinated drink mixes. Crystal Light has a couple good ones. I'm also somewhat addicted to Morning Spark, although that one's hard to find in some areas. If you can find it, though, it's pretty awesome. One packet is equivalent to two cups of coffee. Whatever you choose, stay far, far away from sucralose (Splenda). It went on the market without thorough safety testing thanks to a loophole in FDA regulations. Besides, it tastes horrible.
Fruit is great, but sometimes you want something a little more filling. Yogurt is great for that. I also fall back on oatmeal a lot, flavored oatmeal or oatmeal cookies. You can also stock up on those 100 calorie bags of popcorn. They come in butter flavor and kettle corn. I think kettle corn is gross, but for other people with an incurable sweet tooth, it might be a lifesaver.