How to stay motivated... and beat those sugar cravings

As anyone who has tried to give up caffeine, smoking or any other addictive substance will know, the trick isn’t the stopping; it’s staying stopped. and in my experience, that’s also true for people who crave sugar and carbs.

Many of us can stick to a diet shortterm to lose a few pounds, but evidence shows that many people tend to regain this weight over time. In the low-carb world, we call this slippage ‘carb creep’.

People often do well in the early days with a low carbohydrate diet. They start enthusiastically, lose weight, come off medications and feel better physically and mentally.

Then little by little, they have ‘just one’ biscuit or ‘a few potatoes’ and are soon a few kilos heavier and feel they have ‘failed’. It’s important not to see it as failure, rather as a lesson to be learned.

While some people can get away with the odd high-carb meal then go back to eating low carb, anyone with an addictive relationship to sugar will soon end up having a high-carb week, or a highcarb month.

one Christmas, I went off track until the following april, putting on more than two stone in weight. It can take a few of these ‘excursions’ to learn that we feel better on low carb and finally stick to it.

as my husband Dr David Unwin explained on the front of this pullout, the reason we experience cravings for sugar and carbs is due to the way they cause our brains to release the reward and motivation brain chemical, dopamine.

It needs quite a lot of determination and social skill to be low carb in our high carb, grab-and-go food culture, continually surrounded as we are by sugary ‘treats’, particularly if you’re someone who finds it hard to say no to carbs.

I sometimes think it’s amazing that anyone maintains a normal weight. Which office hasn’t got a cake baker?

and meals out, holidays and travelling all present challenges to the low carber, but can be managed with planning. While it’s been vital to tackle the terrible toll of the pandemic, separately lockdown has been a blessing and a curse for healthy lifestyles. In many ways, we have the opportunity to be healthier and control our eating patterns because we have time to cook at home and to exercise.

But the anxiety, isolation and ready access to the fridge has meant that some people have turned to food and alcohol for comfort. yet it’s important to remember that our mental and physical health — particularly our immunity — are vastly improved by carrying less weight, especially if we add in a little exercise and fresh air. and if you plan ahead, using some of the advice I’ve included here, you’re much more likely to succeed.