#1 Absolute Best Way To Stop Sugar Cravings

Hello Health Champions. Today we're going to  talk about the number one absolute best way to  

stop sugar cravings and if you have difficulty  controlling your sugar Cravings it's probably  

because you don't realize that there are three  separate problems and you have to address all  

three and the first problem is that sugar is a  carbohydrate and carbohydrates in general tend  

to create a dependency the more carbs you eat  the more you rely on carbs the more dependent  

you become and some people say well that's because  you need carbs for energy that's because carbs are  

the preferred fuel it's used up first and it is  not the preferred fuel but it is used up first  

because it has to be used up first it must be used  first and here's how that works that your blood  

sugar is a very very tightly controlled variable a  fasting blood sugar should be around 80 and after  

you eat it's going to get a little bit higher  but it's important to still keep it roughly in  

that same range so 80 to 100 is ideal even when  you're eating unless you're eating a bunch of  

carbs but if you eat carbs and sugar and processed  foods and you become a little insulin resistant so  

the insulin doesn't work quite as fast and as  as well anymore now your blood sugar is going  

to go way way outside that range and already  at around 180 to 200 milligrams per deciliter  

your body has a safety valve the kidneys start  releasing sugar where normally sugar is filtered  

out but it's reabsorbed into the body well above  that level it's not being reabsorbed or not all  

of it is being reabsorbed anymore so as your  blood sugar jumps it's very important to bring  

it back down into a safe level quickly because  again high blood sugar is toxic to the brain you  

can lose Consciousness you can get into a coma  so blood sugar quickly gets back down but then  

we're told hey you have to eat carbohydrates you  have to get your blood sugar back up again so on  

and on and on we go with this roller coaster and  because the carbohydrates have to be used first  

that becomes the primary fuel that we're burning  at the expense of other fuel sources and the other  

fuel of course primarily being fat even though  we can use protein for energy that's not the  

main purpose protein is primarily for replacing  tissues we have two fuels the primary one is  

fat that's why the body stores fat so we can use  fat from the reserves carbohydrate is more of an  

emergency fuel it's to be made to store quickly  and it has to be used up first when blood sugar  

is high and that's why high carb diets tend to  create a dependency and sugar is part of that  

high carb diet typically so now what happens  as you try to cut back on the sugar your body  

says Hey where's my energy I don't know how to get  energy from that fat anymore I've shut down those  

Pathways I've down regulated I've withdrawn  those receptors and those enzymes and those  

Pathways so now you don't have any energy and now  you start getting symptoms anytime you cut back  

that's problem number one so now you get fatigue  you get lethargy you get irritability you get  

headaches and what's the first thing that people  tell you when you experience these your fatigue  

your irritability your lethargy headache they say  your blood sugar must be low you better replenish  

your blood sugar you got to eat something sugary  so you get your blood sugar up it is so common  

it's part of our language as soon as we feel  down it has to be blood sugar right well all  

that's going to do it's going to perpetuate this  cycle of carbohydrate dependency so the solution  

to problem number one of course is to reverse that  carb dependency and to do what's called restoring  

metabolic flexibility to teach your body to  use other sources of fuel that are more even  

and more stable and long lasting and the best way  to do that is to reduce your carbohydrate intake  

overall now some people like to do cold turkey  they just like to cut it all out but what I would  

recommend if you don't like pain and suffering  is that if you are whatever level you are say  

300 grams a day like a lot of people are then you  can safely jump down to 150 120 that's not really  

going to create any symptoms that's still enough  carbs to make your body feel like it's used to  

and then from there you gradually cut back you  go down 10 or 20% every few days or every week  

and mostly it's about finding other things to eat  it's not all that difficult and then you do that  

until you're down to about 50 grams of carbs per  day and at this point now you have mostly restored  

your metabolic flexibility you are fat adapted  because you don't eat so many carbs your body  

has learned to use fat for energy so at the same  time that you cut back on the carbs you don't want  

to deprive yourself you want to increase something  else and that's something else is to increase fat  

but don't increase fat if you're not going to  decrease the carbohydrates dramatically at the  

same time because then you just end up eating more  and that's not a good thing and the fat that you  

want to increase you want to make sure that it's  a healthy fat and what we're talking about here is  

monounsaturated fatty acids those are basically  olive oil and avocado you want to also eat  

saturated fat acids for energy and those are the  animal fats primarily coconut oil is the exception  

of a plant that has mostly saturated fats but  all of those are good animal fats coconut and  

monounsaturated fats and you can let this take as  long as it needs to but if you're consistent and  

you have a goal and you move forward you should  be able to definitely complete this in about two  

weeks time and have restored your metabolic  flexibility so it's pretty simple to handle  

that part of the problem and the second problem is  that Sugar changes how you feel and we're not just  

talking about like the blood sugar aspect of it  where you were your blood sugar was a little bit  

low and now you brought it back up so you feel a  little better this goes way beyond that because  

sugar is what's called psychotropic what does  that mean it means that it affects your mental  

state it's a drug sugar will fit into opiate  receptors drug receptors that we have in the  

brain that create intense pleasure now this varies  with different people but it can be very very  

rewarding and what's important to understand here  is Everyone likes sugar because there's a natural  

attraction if you've been eating woolly mammoth  for six weeks straight and you come across some  

honey it's a very natural attraction it tastes  really good humans are drawn to that flavor the  

problem is our ancestors and again we're talking  thousands and tens of thousands of years ago they  

had no processed sugar other than the occasional  honey there was nothing so when we are attracted  

to the sweet taste that means we're attracted  to things like potato and fruit and things we  

can find naturally in the wild that might have a  tiny tiny little bit of sugar and sweet taste but  

nothing like the stuff we're exposed to today and  then we learned how to refine it we learned how to  

extract these sweet crystals out of the food and  leave the rest of the food behind the same thing  

happens with opium the poppy seed isn't all that  bad but once we concentrate it and extract the  

Active Components we can turn it into opium and  heroin and they're intensely addictive and the  

same thing happens with sugar once we get the  sugar out of its natural environment out of the  

products that naturally contain a little bit of  sugar now everything changes and we increase that  

addiction many many times and I know I'm going  to read some comments about people saying that  

hey it's not a big deal I have a little sugar it  doesn't happen like that to me and that's fine  

for you But realize that everyone is different  and for some people it's an intense addiction  

and those people you have to know what's going on  with you if you can handle a little sugar great  

for you if you can't then you need to realize  what it does to you and we'll talk a little bit  

more later about that so the solution to any  intensely addictive drug is to Simply cut it  

out it's as simple as that but you want to be  fat adapt Ed first because otherwise you will  

double the pain now a little sugar is like a  little alcohol to some people even though we  

have accepted that people eat sugar we understand  that an alcoholic can't have a little alcohol so  

if you're a hardcore sugar addict then a little  bit might just set you off so some people need  

to cut it out completely some people can handle  a little bit but you need to understand where  

you are so the question is how do you respond  to different forms of sugar and I'll just give  

you a couple of examples of myself I am a sugar  addict in certain regards so if I have a really  

really good ice cream and I buy a pint and I'll  take a nice big bowl which is like half the Pint  

and I finish that then I cannot stop from going  back for that second second half of the Pint so  

ice cream is one of those things that set me off  where I can't control myself on the other hand if  

I have a cappuccino which 99% of the time I'll  just have my coffee black or just with milk but  

occasionally I'd like to do those like authentic  Little Italian cappuccinos that are tiny tiny cups  

with just a tiny bit of milk and then I have half  or 3/4 teaspoon of sugar in that tiny little thing  

and that does not set me off that tastes really  really wonderful and I don't do that often at all  

but that is something that does not set me off so  if you know that you have some things that throw  

you off the deep end like ice cream does for me  then that's something that you can't keep around  

and problem number three of sugar addiction is  that the physiology that we just talked about  

what Chang in the wiring of the body the carb  dependency and the drug effects that's only  

part of it and that's the easy part to fix because  if you cut it out your body adapts very very fast  

in about three days time you will have overcome  that need for carbohydrates at the physiological  

level now the rest of it is emotional it's in your  nervous system in your wiring because we all have  

different different habits and there are different  types of habits we have social habits humans are  

social creatures we like to interact around food  when we meet people then we expect to have certain  

things going on we have cultural habits we have  holidays we have Easter we have Halloween and  

Christmas and birthdays and parties and at all of  those events we have certain cultural expectations  

patience and then we have emotional habits we're  in different emotional states when we wake up in  

the morning when we sit in traffic when we come  home to work when we feel down when we feel like  

we need a reward when we feel we've accomplished  something and we deserve something now again we  

have all these different habits and associations  that become triggers and sometimes before we even  

realize what's happening we had good intentions  we say oh I'm not going to do that this week  

and before we even notice it we're sitting there  with that donut or the candy or the ice cream or  

whatever in our hand and this might be the most  difficult part of this to handle so first of all  

we just have to get a little firm with ourselves  and I'll give you some suggestions here but the  

very first thing is do we want to decide or do  we want to try I think you've all heard what  

happens when you try to do something I think you  have experiences where people say oh I'll try to  

be there and that means under no circumstances  will I ever be there that's what try means it  

means I will put up a façade but I plan to fail  the very word decide means to cut off that means  

to cut yourself off from the possibility if you  cut yourself off there is no possibility at all  

that you would ever cross that line and one of my  favorite examples is from the movie The Lord of  

the Rings where they're being chased through  some caves and there's this big monster and  

Gandalf is stopping it's is holding the fort he's  uh blocking the way to this monster that's like  

a thousand times his size and he has this magic  wand and he slams it into the ground and he says  

You shall not pass and the determination there's  just absolutely he put his life on the line there  

and he says You shall not pass that's the kind of  determination that you need to have but in order  

to set that kind of level of goal that intensity  then it's also required that you must want to  

change something right if you don't really want to  change then not much is going to happen and that's  

the biggest problem for a lot of people they kind  of sort of would like to and someone has told them  

that sugar is bad or they feel a little bad when  they eat a ton of sugar but then again when they  

eat the sugar they feel good so they're they're  all over the place but at some level they don't  

really want to change and that's the first thing  you have to handle so in order to fix this to  

set yourself up for Success so that you can meet  these challenges you can get into these triggering  

situations without succumbing you need to set some  powerful goals and a powerful goal is something  

that moves you something that is really really  important to you and there are many different ways  

of setting goals but I'm going to break it down  to three simple steps so first you have to decide  

what is it that you want do you want to reverse  a disease have you've been diagnosed with heart  

disease or diabetes or arthritis and you don't  want it do you just want to lose weight to look  

better are you sick and tired of feeling the way  you do as you move your body around so you have  

to get crystal clear and write down hundred things  that you'd like to be different that's fine what  

are you trying to accomplish do you like walking  do you like hiking do you like running do you like  

tumbling around with your grandkids would you like  to be able to ski or sail or play golf whatever it  

is that you'd like to do then that is the what but  that's not enough because we all have those kind  

of loosely stated goals now you have to get clear  on why you want it what is it that that thing  

is going to do for you being able to be in that  place how are you going to feel that is the key  

because we basically never do anything for any  other reason that that we think we're going to  

feel better if we get that or accomplish that and  this is the key to any goal if you want to set a  

powerful goal then you have to feel strongly about  it and if you can't feel strongly about it if you  

just say hey I want that but it doesn't move you  then you haven't found your goal yet you have to  

keep working on that until you feel something very  very strong you visualize it you emotionalize it  

and you keep working on it until you feel it very  strongly and then you start talking to yourself  

about why you deserve it and this is not because  you work harder than anybody else or you're not  

trying to justify it you're saying that this is  how I want to feel and I deserve it because I'm  

me and I am willing to learn I'm willing to make  some changes and it doesn't have to happen all  

right away but as I start moving I am ready and  willing to get better and better until I have  

that and if you start working through these three  steps then these goals will become real and you  

have more ammunition to withstand any Temptation  and the most most important thing about goals is  

that it's not something that you set and then come  back and look at it next year a goal is something  

that you revisit daily and you need to experience  the goal you need to feel those same feelings that  

you would have if you reach the goal because that  is what's going to give you the driving power to  

move forward if you enjoyed this video you're  going to love that one and if you really want  

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