DAY 1: Top 10 Ways To Break Your Sugar Addiction

1. Stop fluctuating and start balancing: Get your blood sugar levels steady first by eating breakfast within a half hour of waking and then eat smaller meals more often or make sure you have healthy snacks every couple of hours. Eating a balanced meal while sitting down calmly is very important.

2. Start combining: Eat simple carbohydrates with fat and protein at each meal and snack. When sugary foods are eaten on their own, it can quickly satisfy hunger and lift energy, but it leaves room for future cravings when energy begins to slump a few hours later.

3. Plan your day: Meal planning and grocery shopping might seem like an added stress, but it can be a lifesaver. This way you can control your sugar on a meal to meal, daily or weekly basis. If you have a packed lunch and snacks ready to go, it is a lot harder to fall off the wagon.

4. Make a list: Why do you want to quit sugar? Make a thorough list of why it is important to you and then refer back to it when a craving hits.

5. Address underlying health issues: When sugar addiction is out of control, it might be your body's cry for attention. Some issues that manifest as sugar cravings are stress/adrenal fatigue, yeast overgrowth, hypothyroid, unbalanced hormones or a slow thyroid. A lot of people also link sugar with both positive and negative emotions.

6. Take a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement: Sometimes it is not just a sugar craving but a craving for missing nutrients, like magnesium in chocolate or chromium in oatmeal cookies. B vitamins are especially critical.

7. Get a good night’s sleep: Your cravings for sugar might be a cycle of needing the instant pick-me-up that sugar can give. The cycle is set in motion by not getting enough quality sleep, requiring an artificial energy boost by mid-morning.

8. Avoid triggers: Just like a substance abuse problem, sugar addiction can be perpetuated by constantly following the same patterns, like going to the same coffee shop or watching late night TV.

9. Do something else: Take your mind off sugar by finding a new activity to pursue – knitting, walking, reading, yoga, board games – the sky’s the limit.

10. Get support: When things get tough call up a friend to talk things out. Better yet, get a friend, colleague or loved one to do the challenge with you!