How bad is a little sugar?

[QUOTE=LauraSB;979681]If you went to the frig to get an egg and dropped it on the floor would you say,"Oh, F it they're all ruined" and drop the rest of the eggs in the carton on the floor too? How crazy would you have to be to actually think you had to do that? "I had a bad cookie and now I have to eat the whole bag" is no different. Culturally, it's more acceptable, but it's no less psycho.[/QUOTE]

It's not a mental disorder because its rational, ok? People who are suffering from eating disorders/depression/OCD do thing that would seem crazy to an average person but makes perfect sense to a disordered mind. She is trying to recover here. Have some sympathy.

[QUOTE]If you went to the frig to get an egg and dropped it on the floor would you say,"Oh, F it they're all ruined" and drop the rest of the eggs in the carton on the floor too? How crazy would you have to be to actually think you had to do that? "I had a bad cookie and now I have to eat the whole bag" is no different. Culturally, it's more acceptable, but it's no less psycho.

I don't think the Primal BP (or any other eating plan) can address the twisted, emotional relationship with food that leads to that kind of thinking. I don't think it would have worked for me anyway. I had to figure out how to stop punishing myself with food before I could really be satisfied with a primal diet. [/QUOTE]

Ummm.... sugar addiction is neither crazy nor psycho. I have done exactly that, bag of candy, cookies, half a cake.... rinse repeat. It can actually be a choice caused by those chemicals and if you eliminate them you can actually prevent that activity. The reason I stay away from cookies is that the one-two punch of wheat/sugar makes me binge. It isn't psycho- just the same situation as a smoker or a crack addict.

In my situation Primal Eating nearly eliminated that process and doing a Whole 30 put a complete stop to it. No amount of soul searching, counseling or anythingwould have fixed my issue if I had not gotten the drug out of my diet.

[QUOTE=ar0e;979748]Oh I know it's crazy behavior, but it's hard for me to admit that I have a disordered relationship with food. I've been performing and thinking these crazy thoughts for the past 10 years, but I didn't realize it was abnormal until a literally a few weeks ago. My therapist told me that I met all of the criteria for an eating disorder and it kinda blew my mind. I have a hard time accepting that I have a problem that I can not control, I'm a perfectionist, which apparently goes hand in hand with eating disorders. I was hoping I could just decide stop thinking this way and it would work. But it hasn't and it's really frustrating :/[/QUOTE]
Yeah, using food like a drug is so common, especially for women, that it's easy to avoid seeing it for what it is. A therapist that specializes is eating disorders and other addictive behaviors can probably be very helpful. I found just the time we spent with a family therapist while DS was a teenager to be helpful and we never even directly addressed my issues with food.

If your therapist is giving you tools to redirect your thinking, don't worry if it doesn't seem like they're working. I didn't find it to be a gradual process. It was more like, at some point, someone flipped a switch in my head and I was a completely different person in there. Then I spent months wondering why I couldn't have been that person for the last 40 years.

I'd also be careful reading in the forums here, because I think, emotionally, it's possible to have the same twisted relationship with foods that are "good" for you as it is with foods that are "bad" for you. Physically, you'd be healthier, but emotionally, you'd be just as sick. In AA they call that phenomenon the dry drunk, someone who has just transferred their addiction to something else without really facing it. I especially try to stay away from threads that talk about "rules", because I do worry that that "bad girl, you broke the rules" thinking will pop up again if I do anything to nourish it. And enjoy that doubleshot if you're not using it to punish yourself. After some months of a primal diet, you will probably find it has an unpleasant chemical sweetness that you never noticed before.

Adding to the encouragement to make some good coffee at home and try out different milks and sweeteners. I currently use a ceramic pour-over device (illustrated in this article) [url=http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/ristretto-pour-over-coffee-drips-into-new-york/]Ristretto | Pour-Over Coffee Drips Into New York - NYTimes.com[/url] which is my current favorite brewing method. I use just a bit of stevia and heavy whipping cream and it is a wonderful start to my day. This is the only time I add sugar, at all, to anything - and of course it isn't really sugar. I would use real sugar or honey before I used any other substitute.

I also have to be careful with fructose - it just starts cravings up for me so I try to get most of my carbs from veggies and just have a few berries during the week. If I am much too low on carbs, which does happen, then I will grab a small apple, banana or something else but only then.

[QUOTE=Chaohinon;978705]I don't think anything below 50 grams is all that harmful. But if you're me, 50 becomes 60 becomes 150 and then you wake up a month later covered in haagen dazs and nutella with no recollection of what happened.[/QUOTE]

THis is so true of me, having gone from LC to 50, 60 etc. to the point where I have gained weight. Not a pretty sight!

[QUOTE=Chaohinon;978705]I don't think anything below 50 grams is all that harmful. But if you're me, 50 becomes 60 becomes 150 and then you wake up a month later covered in haagen dazs and nutella with no recollection of what happened.[/QUOTE]

LOL - Yes, that, EXACTLY. For me, the "slippery slope" of sugar consumption is in reality an abrupt and painful 50-story vertical drop.

I don't understand those people who can take like one bite of a desert and then be like "that's enough for me!"

Personally, I would LOVE to have that skill. But in my experience, even just one bite of sugar can open the flood gates on my desire for that stuff. It really DOES have the ability to make one "relapse."

[QUOTE=Chaohinon;978705]I don't think anything below 50 grams is all that harmful. But if you're me, 50 becomes 60 becomes 150 and then you wake up a month later covered in haagen dazs and nutella with no recollection of what happened.[/QUOTE]

haha, love this. I am so the same way!

<<I don't consume any other sugar all day, is this going to impede my weight loss efforts? >>

Every body is different, so nobody other than you can answer this question.

You can find the answer for yourself by having plain coffee or with cream for a week or more to see if you like the way your body looks and feels without the sugar.

Enjoy the ride!
sg

[QUOTE=Drumroll;980204]I don't understand those people who can take like one bite of a desert and then be like "that's enough for me!"

Personally, I would LOVE to have that skill. But in my experience, even just one bite of sugar can open the flood gates on my desire for that stuff. It really DOES have the ability to make one "relapse."[/QUOTE]

Oh I know. I am so crazy jealous of people who have self-limiters on sugar, something is too sweet for them or they're satisfied with one square of dark chocolate.