How I Stopped Eating Desserts
If you have a sweet-tooth problem, I may be able to help. I grew up on Little Debbie snacks, cookies, candy, ice cream, cake, and Kool-Aid. At one point, I would go to Wal-Mart and Target the day after Halloween to load up on 50% off bags of candy. I narrowed down my soda of choice by what tasted best at room temperature because I would keep a bottle next to my desk on the floor (Dr. Pepper). I once ate an entire 10 ounce bag of Cadbury mini-eggs before lunch at work. I don’t know how I don’t have diabetes, but I’m glad I was given the opportunity to do something before these poisons destroy me. Needless to say, I have now gone 2 months without dessert. How?
STEP ONE: I stopped buying candy and lunch at work.
Before I stopped anything, I first needed to do one small baby-step, which was to stop buying candy bars and Wendy’s while I was at work. I had developed several bad habits of eating candy every break and buying lunch if I had even the slightest aversion to whatever leftovers I brought.
I told myself I would freely eat whatever candy was around, or at home, but I would stop buying it. I already knew I couldn’t moderate candy. I couldn’t say something like, “I’ll just buy one candy bar a week.” I couldn’t eat only a few candies at a time. When you have a well-developed sweet-tooth, you are in an all-or-nothing position. Since I already don’t like to spend money wastefully, I convinced myself spending money on junk food and candy at work was burning a pretty big hole in my bank account.
Before long, I was no longer buying any candy or Wendy’s, although I still ate candy whenever it showed up in the breakroom (and for a few weeks Butterfingers were available; but when they disappeared and weren’t replaced, I stopped eating them, refusing to buy anything).
STEP TWO: Make your desserts.
I had to replace candy with something. I decided I would allow myself to eat whatever I wanted, so long as I made it. It saved money to make cookies and cakes. Was it healthy? No, but the point was if I was going to indulge, I needed to make it so I could further my habit of not buying pre-made junk.
Pretty soon I was eating cake and cookies everyday. Like, every day. But, at least I was making them, and not buying pre-made stuff. This went on for a few weeks before I got tired of making them. Like every other dessert, I would overeat them until they were gone. Pretty bad, right? It still did the trick, because once I stopped making them, I didn’t buy anything to replace them with.
Then I was on to my last dessert, the one I knew I needed to kick before I could rid myself of my affliction. Ice cream.
STEP THREE: I stopped buying ice cream.
Up until then, I was allowing myself to buy ice cream. I had ice cream for dessert every night. I was trained to eat something sweet after dinner. I knew in my heart of hearts that I really didn’t want to need dessert every night. I wanted to be someone who could get pleasure out of other things in life. I envied fictional characters who could bury themselves in their work, or enjoy time with friends, all without stuffing their faces (how different our favorite TV shows would be if the main characters were a few pounds overweight and constantly snacking and eating desserts, and then suffering the tiredness and sloth as a result!).
With a heavy heart I decided it was now the time when I could no longer buy ice cream. I could still make cookies and cake at home if I wanted (or any other dessert one makes), but I was now used to not making those things. So, with ice cream out of the picture, I had nothing left to snack on at home. I stopped eating dessert after dinner altogether (I should note here that salty foods have never been that big of a deal to me, so it hasn’t been difficult to cut out chips).
CONCLUSION
Sweets have always been my Achille’s heel. I have not had a lot of trouble cutting out other foods deemed bad for one’s health, it has time, and time again, been sweets. I knew I was going to be fighting the biggest enemy of my diet-life, and I figured the only way I was going to be able to do it was one small step at a time.
If I had gone cold-turkey with everything at once, I would have failed. Telling myself I would NOT BUY something has been the most effective tactic I’ve ever tried. Eventually the junk in your house clears out, and if you are adamant about not buying, you won’t replace it. Figure out a path of what to stop buying first. Allow yourself a few cheats you will get to weeks down the road. Once you have thoroughly mastered not buying one thing, it’s time to move onto not buying the next. It was helpful to allow myself to make desserts. That way I never had it in my mind that I could never have sugar again, but if I wanted it, I needed to earn it. My natural laziness kicked in in time to prevent me from continually making desserts at home.
Now I can eat dessert like a normal functioning adult: on special occasions and holidays. Even then, I will naturally moderate myself much better. Case in point, on my birthday I made a cake, decorated it, it was great, and then I realized I was going to eat the whole thing in a couple of days. Before I went too far, I threw the rest of it in the garbage. It was easier to do that because A) I made it, so it was only a dollar I was throwing away, and B) my mental muscles of “you don’t need dessert every night” are much stronger now, and it was easy to convince myself of the need to destroy the dessert. For this Easter, I have told myself I don’t need anything. I don’t need chocolate eggs, I don’t need Cadbury creme eggs, Jellybeans, chocolate rabbits, or anything else. I’ve spent more than enough time enjoying candy. It’s not like I will never have it again, but I am now ready to derive pleasure out of other things in life than dessert.
I don’t even need to mention how awful and sick all of this dessert made me feel. The days I lost due to illness, gut problems, tiredness, all of it. Many times in my life I have not gone out, not had a good time when going out, and spoiled rotten my abilities to concentrate and focus because my body was dealing with all the sugar. Being able to function with more energy is more worth it than losing my belly, although that has been good too. Knowing I have defeated (so far) my enemy, and maintained discipline; and knowing I created a solid method and memory of how to win, has been empowering and reassuring I can stay this way.
I believe my method can work for you too.
