🍭 Why You Keep Failing to Quit Sugar (Therapist Explains)

#sugarfree #eatingpsychology #mentalhealth
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Disclaimer: This video is for information purposes only and my content should not be used as a substitute for seeking treatment from a healthcare provider. My content is not going to be suitable for everyone, so please use your self discernment before applying any video content in your own life.

[@nadjat3705]

This is what I´m doing with all my food nowadays: No food is forbidden, but I consume it in a state of awareness, so no television, computer or whatever, while I´m eating. It works very well for me.

[@NorthernNessa]

I found it even more helpful to not only be aware but also tell myself I can have as much as I need. Like showing compassion to myself. I tried it with these cookie dough bars that I always want to scarf. The first time I did it, I ate four, keeping the attitude of care for myself even after. Like “wow you felt you needed that! That’s ok!” Then the next time I went to do it, I only felt like eating 2.5. Now thinking about it I don’t know that I even feel like having one, which is crazy. Idk- this is new territory but I’m trying things out. Sarah is great.

[@nadjat3705]

@@NorthernNessa Yes, this method is really helpful. Wish you all the best for your journey!

[@hollyday2313]

Regarding the „last supper“-moment: I would go one step further - at least that's my personal experience: The moment I am completely loaded with sugar, I not only swear to myself to be good again the next day, I am 100% convinced that I CAN and most certainly WILL do it - I can almost physically feel it. When I registered this at some point during such a sugar-laden "vow", the word "addiction" popped into my head... and I felt devastated and extremely ashamed. I am so glad to know that I am not alone… ❤

[@ullazitabinder2091]

It goes the other way around too....I've found, that if I try to watch a movie, and NOT eating chips/chocolate, I don't have the patience to watch the movie to the end.... so I think you hit the spot on with the combination of screen>

[@TheBingeEatingTherapist]

Yes! So relatable

[@bethrobinette8515]

I really appreciate your very balanced approach. It's so nice to hear someone suggest that there may be lots of different options, and you can offer some of them. It's so nice that you are simply asking people to be open to new ideas, not that you have ALL the answers. Yes, you do have some answers, some experience, and some study in this field. I appreciate your approach.

[@ellekay852]

Thank you so much for this Sarah. I truly didn’t start binging on sugar until I tried to stop eating it. I don’t know a single person (with or without an eating disorder or even diabetes for that matter) who has successfully done so long term. I devoted my life to healthy eating and cutting out processed foods, eliminating sugar etc. every bit of it backfired. Living a much more peaceful and balanced life now. Thank you ❤

[@victordum]

Good for you, keep doing what you are doing. Don't forget that not everyone is like you. Some people can't obtain peace until the inflammation goes down from one day of eating sugar. Your in the stage 1 category of addiction, your not in the stage 4 addiction category. So you are in the right place. God Bless you, continue your Peaceful living.

[@sandrag9451]

This is a quite remarkable observation! I have this pairing pattern too. As a side note: Marc David likes to call sugar a "powerful substance" but refrains from the term "sugar addiction" as well. This is less judgenental.

[@DaveBradshaw-k6d]

Can I just say thank you so much I have just watched your video and it makes complete sense 😊

[@nursejen1111]

I'm 54 and ive struggled with obesity, sugar addiction and honestly lived most of my feeling like it was my fault I could never get control it. I finally decided to try glp-1 medication and it has quite literally changed my life! For the first time the food noise is much quieter and doesn't consume my life. Im not sure why some people are judgemental about it, I look at it like any other medication you need to take like cholesterol meds etc..I personally have no intention of ever getting off of it just much lower dose for maintenance. Im down 25 lbs so far with 40 more to go.

[@debraraby4376]

Well done and good luck. You should be very proud of yourself for what you have achieved.

[@nursejen1111]

@debraraby4376 thank you so much 💗

[@hannazarowska5407]

Thank you Sarah🤗 I can’t decide if sugar is my enemy or not. I had times when I didn’t eat sugar and felt great, but than it was a social event and I ate only small piece…🤦‍♀️ You look beautiful in this shade of green🥰

[@juliaappleton17]

🎉 you are so on target with this Thank you.

[@helen9663]

Totally relate to this, I am right in that place now

[@tashenkas]

Thank you for this. It's very tangible and helpful. And your energy is so regulating, you're non-judgemental, warm and approachable. It's nice to have you around :) I've recently been able to reach the emotion buried deep down that I avoid by going to food and screen compulsively. It happened in therapy when we slowed down the moment and movement of taking a bit of food to my mouth. What came out is, I don't want this sandwich, Mom, I want you to love me. So expected and common, but for me it was unattainable for years - the defenses were that strong. I was a high-functioning bulimic (if there's even another kind) for most of my 50yo life. Now every little or big improvement is a bonus gift on top of my already good enough life. Your approach is one of the most helpful ones I've seen in all these years of searching for help.

[@oliviab8914]

Thank you for this! Btw that green sweater makes your eyes pop! 💚

[@nishasankaran]

Thousands. Thousands of times, I have tried. Since I’m under 10 years old.. I’m almost 50! It’s just been… a long journey. But I do believe I have made personal progress which I think is key… keeping a sense of my ‘progress’ as it were, internal! Not external, not asking others for validation etc❤✨Nisha

[@janetravis1994]

Thank you Sarah, you are so knowledgeable about all this

[@katestephens4258]

When you have type two diabetes it feels impossible to have a moderate relationship with sugar. 😩

[@nadjat3705]

I´m doing better today around foods high in sugar, when I eat my sweets after vegetables, and/or foods high in protein as a desert, having some applecider-vinegar with water before my meal, using certain bloodsugar regulating spices like cinnamon, or foods like sweetpotatoe and never eating sugar alone. There are a lot of things like that you could try and see how your body reacts to that. Good luck!

[@Helen-r5k]

I relate 100%.

[@alexlindstrom555]

Yep!!!!! It’s the pairing for me. I’m reminded that it’s now what food I eat, but more when and how. I work at a desk job from my home and it’s VERY difficult to not have something to nibble on. It’s usually semi-sweet chocolate chips, and thinking of eating those without doing anything else….it’s not that tasty. But I’m SUPER resistant to giving up this coupling! Grrrrr…

[@MarolvJ]

Are you using a new camera? The quality of this video is astonishing😮

[@TheBingeEatingTherapist]

@MarolvJ nope! Just my iPhone on the cinematic setting!

[@adaumus]

Best video. This is me.

[@paulawhittaker3538]

I can see how I could implement a few things to try but with 2 of my particular foods that I seem to binge or overeat on (even though I also eat them normally daily). I think my main take away from you is that if you keep basically doing the same actions and nothing changes then maybe those actions arent serving you. Changing my whole mind set & being ok that the out come might include weight gain has always been a major stumbling block. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get over the weight issues because until I do I'm pretty much stuck where I am which is pretty depressing after nearly 35 years of yo-yo dieting.

[@DemureDelight8055]

Wish I would've seen this in 2013 when I went to OA!

[@sarahsunshine78]

OA ultimately made my food addictive behaviors worse and I couldn’t figure out why. I felt like such a failure. After awhile it felt very cult like to me and I just couldn’t do it anymore. Not saying it’s that way for everyone but I had a really rough time on it.

[@nickibanks5185]

Can so relate to all your experience/ thinking. So much so that its like your telling my exact story😮 I have ADHD and assumed all my monkey chatter & self gaslighting about certain foods and frustration as to why nothing that supposedly works doesnt on me, was the adhd mind. Do you have it?

[@TheBingeEatingTherapist]

I don't meet the threshold for an ADHD diagnosis, but I do relate to some of the symptoms

[@blueskythinking8312]

That is if we can considered food sugar. I think we need to look at it as poison. Yes, it's been consumed for centuries but it was never available in massive quantities and so cheaply

[@OliviaOzcelik]

It's crazy how your cardigan matches your eyes exactly

[@StephKinzer]

You gave me so many ah-ha moments, thank you so much

[@magdalenadabrowska6620]

I eat nuts when I'm nervous. I know I have to eat something hard or crunchy to calm down somehow but 20 nuts is not enough for me, I can eat 2-3 packages. Please someone help me

[@densedecisions4568]

2:20 *pauses video* *thinks about family* *resumes video and sugar*

[@evadebruijn]

✌️

[@victordum]

You should be good enough to over deliver the success of a healthy life style, not trying to sale an illusion that is praying on desperate people who need real help. Now, let's see if you can go a whole year with out eating sugar, and report back. If you can do it, then that is the approach you should be teaching. Who cares if you are a moderate sugar eater. We don't want sugar anywhere near a diabetic or someone with a food disorder. That is the Gold standard for being healthy, not suggesting you can have your cake and eat it too.

[@TheBingeEatingTherapist]

See response to your other message

[@terrie6738]

Omg, stop trolling.

[@victordum]

@@terrie6738 ok

[@victordum]

Why are you people pushing moderate sugar eating. Why is that so important to you. I'll tell you why, because you are still in denial. You don't need sugar to live, just like the alcoholic doesn't need alcohol to survive and they don't tell him to moderately drink to cure your addiction. At beast, you might find 10% of the sugar addicts, and yes they are addicts, anybody that binges on something is an addict by definition, will succeed because they only have one symptom of the 3 kinds of addictions. What about the other levels of addiction. Go ahead you be moderate and see how you do as you become friendly and friendly with Sugar. You should be a good enough counselor to heal their ways with out eating sugar, weather it's possible or not. Good luck to all those that believe, and try this Hogwash.

[@TheBingeEatingTherapist]

Yes, I don't need sugar to live and I am in recovery from an eating disorder (bulimia and binge eating disorder). I found the abstinence approach made the eating disorder worse. The current best practice evidence-based guidelines for eating disorder treatment (at least here in the UK) is to incorporate all foods, including sugar. This is based on treatment programmes that have been shown in published research to work. Many people I work with have an eating disorder, but believe they are addicted to sugar, which is making their ED worse. Moving away from dichotomous thinking around food is a perfectly legitimate recovery path. You ask why it is so important to me; it is because this path got me out of the daily hell I was in with my eating. The paradox was my eating became 'healthier' and my weight stabilised when I made peace with sugar and worked on my psychology and my emotions instead of just trying (and failing) to stop eating it. Of course my approach isn't going to be suitable for everyone. I'm simply offering some nuance to those who might benefit from it.

[@victordum]

@@TheBingeEatingTherapist I hear you, and I actually think you are the best example for Binge eaters to see the truth. You give both sides of the story. And I guess from your perspective, I can see that the bigger piece of the pie, are people who want to still eat sugar or those who can still eat sugar. But it really does paint a blind spot to those of us who don't want to eat sugar at all, because there is a next day debilitating affect on our life. You see I can agree with your assessment and I can understand the psychological affects on the mind that only sees restriction. But instead of you and many others, who never acknowledge that you heard me. You just double down, you never say, your right, the focus is to get you off sugar, but lets start only allowing 1 to 2 tbsp. of peanut butter a day (or what ever) so your brain doesn't think you are restricting, and then we will progress from there, until we get you to a place where the mind and body are happy with your choice. Why can't you work on your emotions while working on behavior change. I don't know, maybe that is what you are saying, but it doesn't sound like. I Want counselors to focus on true health not just stabilizing your weight. I maybe out of bounds, because this may not be your niche. I get it. I don't think you are wrong, I just think your method is wrong for the chronic disease people who need some one to say, I can get you off sugar, but just not right away. I know It's that important.

[@terrie6738]

@@victordumshe isn’t helping people just get off sugar. She is helping people with BED, aka stop BINGE eating, those are two totally different things. You are clearly watching the wrong channel if you are looking to just quit sugar. There is a lot more that goes on with people that have eating disorders. She just happens to be talking about sugar in this video.

[@victordum]

@@terrie6738 Ok good luck to ya.