Halloween just ended, and social media is already full of the same (bad) advice. Get all of the sweets out of your house. Do this workout to burn off what you ate. Follow the one bite rule.
If you’ve ever said you’re addicted to sugar or can’t stop at one piece, here’s what I’d tell you instead:
Eat it more often.
Why Cutting Sweets Out Backfires When you keep telling yourself you can’t have something, you usually don’t stop wanting it - you just think about it more. You hold out for a few days or a few weeks, and then one stressful night, you eat half the bag. Then you feel guilty, promise to be better on Monday, and cut it out again. Each round makes the food feel more powerful, and that’s often what people mean when they say they have no self-control around sugar. The problem usually isn’t willpower; it’s the cycle of restricting and overeating.
Make It Boring One of the best ways to break that cycle is to stop treating sweets like a rare event. If you’ve been craving it, have a small portion every day.
You might look forward to it a lot at first. You might even want more. But when you know you can have another one tomorrow, there’s less urgency to finish the bag tonight. Over time, it stops being such a big deal. For a lot of people, it just becomes a nice thing they ate after lunch.
How To Do It Without Gaining Weight Let's take one of the favourite's: the Reese's cup. A few squares of Cadbury's Dairy Milk is around 40 calories, which is easy to fit into most diets. Here’s how to coach it:
Pick the sweet you actually want. If you love Cadbury's or Galaxy, don’t settle for a sugar-free substitute you don’t enjoy.
Set your portion before you open anything. Start with one or two pieces. Take them out, then put the bag back in a cabinet.
Give it a set time. For the next two weeks, choose a time to have your sweets each day, like after lunch or dinner. Before a workout is a great option too, since sweets are a fast source of carbs. Try a few gummy bears or Wine Gums about 30 minutes before you train. Whenever you have it, sit down and enjoy it so you aren’t eating it at the counter while you scroll on your phone.
Track it. Log your sweets before you eat it. When you have to take the time to log everything, you’re much less likely to go back for a few extra pieces you’d have to add later.
Get back to your routine if you eat more. Skip the extra cardio and don’t cut your next meal. Have your usual portion tomorrow.
Give it two weeks and pay attention to how much less you think about the bag in the press/cupboard.
Next, you can see how to apply this to the holidays, when there’s a lot more than sweets on the table 😋.