20 Tips for Breaking a Sugar Addiction

Breaking a sugar addiction wasn’t complicated, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

I very clearly remember the drive home from my doctor’s office on a sunny afternoon in November 2004. Dr. Dunlap had just lanced another boil on my right leg and had strongly encouraged me to stop eating carbohydrates. The physical procedure had hurt, yes, but I didn’t cry until he told me to give up cereal. Tough news to swallow, for sure.

On that ride home, I called to tell my dad that I was going on a “VERY low-carb diet,” which he said was worth trying, because it seems to work for a lot of people. (I always value my dad’s approval, so that moment still stands out to me nineteen years later.)

I remember feeling skeptical that eating mostly meat would help me to lose 100 pounds and to stop getting boils, but I also felt excited to either get results or to prove my doctor wrong.  Either one sounded like a win, so I decided to start right away. 

I was young and knew NOTHING about nutrition.  (As evidenced by the fact that I asked my dad that day if potatoes counted as carbohydrates. Sadly…they do. 😂 ) But after decades of living on Snackwells and Lean Cuisines while wondering how on EARTH I wasn’t skinny yet, I was ready to try most anything. 

I don’t remember what my first few meaty meals were that week, but I eventually settled into eating lots of rotisserie chicken, burger patties, hot dogs, pepperoni, deli meats, bacon, and even Duke’s mayonnaise.  It wasn’t a perfectly “clean” carnivore diet, but I did start to lose some weight, and I haven’t had one bit of fruit, pasta, or potato product since that day. 

But here’s what I really want to convey today:  My doctor’s advice wasn’t complicated or hard to understand, but, by George, it certainly wasn’t EASY. 

I remember being okay the first day or so.  Honestly, it felt exciting to have a game-plan and to eat some different foods than I was used to eating (read: NOT cereal or Snackwells).

And then the sugar-withdrawals set in.  I began to crave sugar, carbs, and starches with every fiber of my being.  My hands were shaky, and my brain was deliriously foggy with obsession over every sweet thing I saw, smelled, or even thought of.  I literally had “carbmares” at night, in which I would eat every sweet treat imaginable and would wake up in a panic that I had given in. I remember those first few weeks well, and I still have flashbacks when I’m working with my own group members who are going through the same struggles.

I didn’t have a support group or any real tips to survive those first weeks, but I just knew that I HAD to make a change.  Also, I was losing some weight, and I didn’t want another boil ever, so I kept eating my meat and continued teaching my elementary music classes as if I weren’t DYING INSIDE with food-obsession. But I was.

Long-story short: I made it through the hard part. Soon, I didn’t think about sugar or sweets at all.  My lifelong sweet-tooth is truly nonexistent now, and these days it takes zero willpower to be a happy, thriving Carnivore. 

Which brings us to this video–20 Tips for Breaking Sugar Addiction. I wanted to share tips that helped me back when I was first starting out as well as the tips I’ve learned over years of helping other people make it out of sugar-addiction.  Our inner voices of addiction and self-sabotage will often say that it’s too hard, or that we aren’t strong enough, or even that those awful cravings will last forever–and who can live that way?? 

But those are lies.

It WAS hard, but not TOO hard. And I really WAS strong enough–and so are you!!  And if we’re abstinent from our addictive substances (rather than helplessly trying to moderate them), the withdrawals and cravings will NOT last forever.  In fact, the more strictly that we abstain, the quicker we will make it through to the other side of the addiction to find peace and freedom. 

I hope these 20 tips are helpful.  And if you would like to work with me and join a group of people who are on a similar path to healing and freedom, you can learn more about my coaching groups here.