A Balanced Approach to Wellness!

Posts tagged ‘cravings’

Progress on my contract for overcoming cravings

shout

On the 18th of March, I signed an Exemplary Life contract to help me overcome my cravings for sugar. I wrote about the contract in this blog post.

Four weeks have passed and I am happy to report that I have kept the contract (with one month and a week to go).  I still feel the sugar pull, but the contract is keeping me focused. My body still craves sweetness so I have been eating dates to satisfy the sugar monster.

If any of you are determined to bring change to your life, I highly recommend using an Exemplary Life contract. The contracts bring focus, clarity, and insight together with support when the goals seem difficult.

The book Contracts for an Exemplary Life: Using Contracts to Achieve Your Goals is available through amazon.com:

Cover-Contracts for an exemplary life

It’s never too late to change!

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EGC books and articles

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Tangy Banana Ice Cream (dairy-free, sugar-free, vegan, raw, and gluten-free)

Tangy banana ice cream

Giving up sugar doesn’t mean giving up sweet treats.

A couple days ago, I signed a contract to overcome cravings by giving up sugar (see the post “My Contract for Overcoming Cravings“). I still eat fruit and use sweeteners such as unprocessed honey, agave, and maple syrup.

Here is a recipe for a mock ice cream that doesn’t feed the sugar beast, and satisfies the desire for sweetness. It’s on my Yumtritious Eating! blog.

About one and a half cups, for 3-4 small servings

Ingredients

2 large frozen bananas

juice from 1 or 2 tangerines or clementines to make 1/3 cup juice

1  1/2 Tbsp carob powder

Steps

  1. Juice the tangerines or clementines and measure out 1/3 cup juice. Pour into a food processor with the S blade.
    Clementine oranges
  2. Add the carob powder to the food processor.
  3. Preferably, the bananas were cut into chunks before they were put into the freezer. If not, cut the frozen bananas into medium-size pieces. Add the banana pieces to the food processor.
  4. Process the ingredients until smooth. Process the mixture quickly so that it doesn’t melt. You might need to stir by hand to mix in all the juice and carob powder.
  5. Spoon into dishes and serve immediately!  Yumtritious!

I’m going to make a sweet treat with strawberries this afternoon. If it turns out yummy (because for sure it will be nutritious), I’ll post it on Yumtritious Eating!

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Food & drink

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My Contract for Overcoming Cravings

shoutRecently, most of my blog posts have been about the problems with sugar and sugar substitutes. Spiritual Presence shared the facts about sugar and sugar substitutes, and although I am the one receiving this important information, I was ignoring it. As a matter of fact, I found myself eating more of the things I was learning are so destructive–and craving them more then ever!

After yesterday’s blog post “A World without Cravings” I finally realized that I have to cleanse myself of sugar because it keeps calling to me to eat more and more. I understand that my cravings started early through all the sugared products I was fed as an infant and child (see “Child Abuse with a Spoonful of Sugar“), and those cravings never let up. I had worked to overcome them, with moderate success every now and then, but I hadn’t realized just how destructive sugar is until Spiritual Presence shared the information.

Using the Me-With-Myself contract form in the book Contracts for an Exemplary Life, I have written a contract to help me overcome my cravings. My goals are not only to avoid sugar and to be happy without sugar, but also to understand the importance of my choices on myself and on others around me.

I’m giving myself two months to overcome my addiction to sugar, and then I will see how it feels to be sugar free. During this time, I will eat fruit and sweets that are unprocessed based on the information in the blog post “The Facts: Sweeteners from natural to laboratory-made, Best & Worst“. I will check ingredients in prepared foods for sugar and sugar substitutes. And each time I see sweets that I used to eat, I will feel strong that I can resist them!

It’s never too late to change!

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Focused living

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A World without Cravings

sweet too much

Before sugar was refined, cravings existed but they did not rule existence. Yes, there were other addictions but they had different influence because of the body’s processing.

Refined sugar overrides the body’s ability to digest properly. Digestion when sugar is present becomes crippled. The sugar speeds some processes and halts others. The body absorbs the nutrients it can while defending itself from the onslaught of altered secretions and excretions that are different from their natural states because of the sugar.

Artificial sweeteners alter the digestive processes’ ability to absorb nutrients naturally. Besides speeding some processes and halting others, they create changes in digestive processes for foods that are proper for the body. Artificial sweeteners cause less cravings but more havoc.

To satisfy cravings for sweets

There are ways to satisfy cravings, because cravings for sweetness are part of modern-day life. Here are five ways to satisfy sweet cravings:

  1. Keep hunger at bay when you are around sweets. The less hungry you are, the less tempted you will be.
  2. Reduce hidden-sugar foods (processed foods that contain sugar or other sweeteners) so that your body feels sweetness with less. In other words, the less sweet foods you eat, the more easily you will notice sweetness.
  3. Minimize the sweet things in your home and choose to buy sweeteners from the Best list to keep at home.
  4. You can counter sweet cravings by eating foods with “good” fats. Choose whole fat foods rather than low-fat or no-fat. Whole fat foods satisfy hunger and lower cravings.
  5. Avoid advertisements for sweet treats, and when shopping, remember that the store owners are trying to manipulate you by placing sweet things along your buying path. Say “no” to this manipulation.

Is a world without cravings possible? Yes—in places where the sweet desire is satisfied by fruits and unprocessed sweeteners. Elsewhere, probably not. People who can abstain from all processed sweeteners and lactose-modified foods are least affected by cravings.

A worthwhile goal can bring benefits beyond belief—living without cravings!

Note: This information is spiritually supplied.

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Health afflictions

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