How to Stop Sugar Bingeing

November 30, 2009 ↓ Comments (1)

I am no doctor and so I am offering my opinion from experience. I have managed to stop bingeing on sugar, but I still binge now and again (on sugar free foods).

Bingeing is a result of something. If you weren’t bingeing on sugar, you’d be doing it with something else. Gambling, gaming, sex, drugs, alcohol, knitting, etc. Obviously some things are better to binge on than others. However, knitting doesn’t have a chemical physical effect on your body the way ingesting sugar does. So yes, sugar can call out to you. It can wake you up in the middle of the night. It can sneak into your car with you on your way to work. It will sit in your pocket while you visit the dentist. And sugar will always be there waiting for you if you chose to abandon it. Sugar is everywhere and it’s calling your name. The trick is to figure out what is making you want to hear the call.

There are a thousand other things calling out to you right this minute—other industries and products that desperately want your time and money. Why is it that you can ignore them and you choose sugar?

Ask yourself:

1. What is it that makes you want to binge?

Next time you binge, write down everything that happened just prior to your binge. Are you celebrating? Beating yourself up? Bored? Take time and really examine why you are bingeing. Chances are—if you allow yourself to face facts—you know exactly why.

2. What is is that attracts you to sugar as opposed to any other substance or activity?

When you binge, why do you choose sugar? Is it because you’re sober and sugar is acceptable? Is it because you learned how to eat sweets when you were a kid? Why not go running instead? Binge-run ten miles! Take a walk. Binge-walk around the block twenty times. Binge-bike ride. Binge-knit a few sweaters. Does bingeing have to be something you do to your own body?

It’s not easy to change your ways but it’s also not impossible. If you want to stop bingeing you have to start examining. You’re not a bad person. Sugar isn’t bad. What is bad (for you) is the result of bingeing on sugar. If you manage to remove the sugar from bingeing but never figure out the origins of your binges, then you will transfer your binge. This may not be so bad if you manage to transfer your bingeing behavior to earning millions in stock market binges. But, chances are you’ll end up eating, smoking, drinking, playing video games or doing something worse.

Examine yourself and answer the questions above. And whatever you do, don’t forget that bingeing is your choice and you have control over it. Bring the issues back into your body, deal with them, and put the sugar outside of yourself. Good luck!