Serious Dessert Addictions

[TrekDedicated]

Hey everyone,

I'm a very serious cyclist now. I train all the time, and am seeing amazing results. I've been trying to follow a good nutrition plan, however, I have one weakness.

Desserts.

I cannot stop eating them. I am always craving them. After lunch or dinner, I am 'starving' for cookies/brownies in the cafeteria. I really cannot stop myself. I'm keeping my weight in check (solely because I ride so much), but I need to lose 8 lbs still for the season.

I know part of the problem is because my school's cafeteria is buffet style, so there are plethoras of desserts. I have written myself motivation notes, but can't do it. Am I just on a sugar addiction and just need to focus on weening myself off or what?

I need some advice because it is really bothering me and most likely my performance.

 

[janiejones]

I guess you have to decide whether you want the taste of sweet desserts or be a better and lighter cyclist - think what you really want.


I know what you mean though, I have recently banned myself from biscuits, because I couldn't stop at one. It was easier to stop completely than just cut down.

Try to replace your desserts with something else - fruit and yoghurt maybe. I found replacing biscuits was fine, because I didn't feel the need to have more...

Give yourself a treat (non-food) when you have gone a week without dessert. Buy a new Cycling mag or something - something that will encourage your riding and not your sweet tooth.

 

[discobean7]

As a lifelong junk-food connoisseur and carb-addict, I feel your pain. In a cafeteria setting it can be incredibly difficult to eat the right things and not eat too much so kudos for only having a dessert problem. Replacing dessert with fruit is an excellent suggestion. Once you retrain your taste-buds and mind you'll be surprised how satisfying a good piece of fruit can be (not to mention the health benefits). I have also done well with the diet for 6 days and "rest" on the 7th day approach. Treating yourself one day per week goes a long way toward maintaining your sanity while dieting.

 

[Nasgul]

Eat more fiber and you won't feel the need for dessert. Fiber digest slow, makes you feel full a lot longer. I no longer feel the need for a cookie nor dougnuts, I eat a banana or apple but I do eat more fiber now and so far it's working, but I also eat lots of chicken and turkey.

 

[djk202020]

I have read many diet books and take what I feel works for me from each. The south beach diet.. I think it was the south beach.. suggests that by eating foods high in sugar it makes us need to eat foods high in sugar .. by playing with the insulin levels in our bodies. It claims that if you can break the cycle eventually the body will regain a normal level of insulin .. you wont have high peaks and low valleys that cause you to crave sugar and wont need desserts. Now the diet calls to cut all sugars out....including fruit of course I think this is overboard as most diet books are but see if you can find some results on Google for insulin and weight loss or sugar addiction and insulin. high fiber and high protein diets are two good ways to help out...they both digest slowly in the body and help stabilize insulin levels.. helping to break the addiction to sugar .. good luck ..

 

[Ratiocinator]

[font=&quot]Satiating the desire for desserts does not have to be unhealthy, on the contrary, in fact.

The typical Western diet is filled with poisons; even health giving foods, such as cacao, have been perverted; their benefits removed to be replaced with toxins.

When cacao is mixed with milk its antioxidant properties are removed, and it becomes poison. But raw cacao is a superfood full of nutrition and goodness. It can be combined with other healthful foods to form raw recipes that satisfy even the most rampant lust for sugary foods but without the sugar, empty calories or toxic effect on the body.

Instead of sugar agave syrup can be used, or fruit juices, dates, blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, etc.

Take a look at this site: http://www.detoxyourworld.com/acatalog/naked_chocolate.html[/font]

 

[dw_moto]

I use the quality vs. quantity method for cutting my sweets. I wont eat every dessert that come my way, just the great ones. They are much more satisfying.

 

[beth63111]

I totally hear you on the desserts/sweets needs.

I will agree that it seems that when I eat a lot of sugar, I seem to need even more. My sister, an RN, says this is common and that when you take sugar out of your diet, you will find you feel like you need it less.

I also subscribe to the "eat it only if I really love it" behavior; admittedly, I constantly have to police myself to keep me from falling back into my old habits of eating every sweet thing that comes in sight. When I see something that looks tempting, I say to myself, "is the taste of that item really worth the calories I will consume?" I use this all the time to talk myself out of things that I would like, but not love.

I also try to fill the rest of my diet with relatively healthy choices -- whole grains, protein, and keeping the fats down.

My main downfall is things like little candies, such as M&Ms or Starburst. To help with the Starburst craving, #1, of course, I don't buy them. #2, I keep some very good quality sugar-free fruit flavored hard candies in my cube at work to help me with that craving.

A lot of times, I'll find I am really looking for something to do that occupies my mouth, so to speak, so I chew sugar-free gum.

 

[KenSky]

I am right there with you. . .I love sweets. I am a certified chocolate addict, and a grazer, too. Something that has helped me are the new Altoids Dark Chocolate Dipped Mints. It gives you the sweetness of chocolate with little calories. I keep them by my desk at work and when I crave something sweet. I reach for them. Plus you kill the bad breath in you mouth.

I also heard one time, that the only part of the food that tastes the best is the first bite. After the the first bite you know what it tastes like, and then you are just eating it because it is there. I do this all the time in restaurants. I say before the food even comes out that I am not going to eat all of it or I will only eat half of it.

my 2 cents. . .

 

[j.r.hawkins]

Hey everyone,

I'm a very serious cyclist now. I train all the time, and am seeing amazing results. I've been trying to follow a good nutrition plan, however, I have one weakness.

Desserts.

I cannot stop eating them. I am always craving them. After lunch or dinner, I am 'starving' for cookies/brownies in the cafeteria. I really cannot stop myself. I'm keeping my weight in check (solely because I ride so much), but I need to lose 8 lbs still for the season.

FWIW, you might not be having enough protein in your diet to keep up with your training workload, or you might be on the verge of leaving the valley of overload and falling into the abyss of overtraining.

Sugar cravings are noted in Joe Friel's book The Cyclist's Training Bible as an indicator (among 5 or 6 others) for overtraining.

I'm not by any means an expert, having "read a book", but I'm just putting it up as a thought that I've also found true from my own (limited) experience.

 

[JohnHancock]

Hey everyone,

I'm a very serious cyclist now. I train all the time, and am seeing amazing results. I've been trying to follow a good nutrition plan, however, I have one weakness.

Desserts.

I cannot stop eating them. I am always craving them. After lunch or dinner, I am 'starving' for cookies/brownies in the cafeteria. I really cannot stop myself. I'm keeping my weight in check (solely because I ride so much), but I need to lose 8 lbs still for the season.

I know part of the problem is because my school's cafeteria is buffet style, so there are plethoras of desserts. I have written myself motivation notes, but can't do it. Am I just on a sugar addiction and just need to focus on weening myself off or what?

I need some advice because it is really bothering me and most likely my performance.

I had a simmilar problem when I entered my first year of college. Our dinning hall had the most delicous cookies, warm fresh out of the oven whenever you wanted. and let me assure you i wanted them all the time.
Well i kept eating like a madman though first semester and lucklily kept my weight steady through exercise and ultimate frisbee.
What happened to me was simply overdose. I just overdid it one day and had way to many sweets and realixed it was just sickening. After that i really no longer felt the urge to eat them.
Also, one thing that can help is to think about the crappy quality of school food. Don't eat any sweets for a week and promise yourself a good quality piece of cake or cookie from a nice coffe shop or something like that at the end of the week. It'll give you motivation and something to look forward to.

 

[victor55HFS]

What kind of deserts? Fats or sweets? If it's fats, you might be overtraining. If it's sweets, you might not be fueling enough on your hard and/or your long rides. Or, you could be just a plain ole sugar junkie. Doesn't matter in the end. If you can figure out what causing the craving you can work with it, not against it. LOL

Victor
Hotfoot Sports

 

[matagi]

Is there any reason that you can't leave the dining hall after you've eaten?

Because that is what I would suggest you do (if it is possible) - if you can't resist the temptation, then you need to remove yourself from it. That way you're not tempted to return to the buffet to keep eating.

Of course, as Victor55HFS suggests, you also need to work out the reasons behind your cravings.

What is a typical day for you, foodwise?

 

[existence]

A lot of times, I'll find I am really looking for something to do that occupies my mouth, so to speak

Keke.

Seriously though I think the OP is overthinking. Ride your bike a lot harder. I will beat my caravan at Bonnie Doon that you dont train anywhere near as hard as you could. The odd daily sugar fix isnt all that serious. If you had a serious weight problem then ok look at extreme measures but hell 8lbs? Cmon. If you had 20lbs to lose to get to some sort of acceptable p/wt then ok but 8lbs is pretty immaterial if you ask me.

Eat the god damn cookies I say. Enjoy your cycling and if you turn pro then you worry about the cookies

Having a balanced mental approach to your life and the sport you love is far more important and valuable to your 'optimum performance' than the 'devastation' of the odd cookie each day....

 

[victor55HFS]

True Keke. But maybe you can have a great mental state and still train or ride hard on a regular basis without really understanding the nature of fueling and/or recovery. Cycling, I think, should be fun and healthful at all levels. If it's causing a distress, I say correct the problem, don't ignore it.

Happy miles!

Victor
Hotfoot Sports

 

[n2t]

Imho deserts are fine in moderation. Eat healthy and you can get away with a few deserts every once in a while. When I was dieting and working out heavily I had one addiction I couldn't break. Coffee, Loved flavored coffies with heavy cream and coconut mmmmmmm. Two months of diet and exercise and I dropped 14lbs and was sitting comfortably at 140 (I'm 5'7) coffee and all. Don't rid yourself of stuff you enjoy just be moderate and keep to a good diet and exercise.