Cookies, I'm giving them up.

Yeah so I decided, because I feel like I am hopelessly addicted to sweets (there is no such as thing as having just 2 cookies for me), that I am going to try to give up sweets for a week starting today. I have realized that I can eat extremely sensibly if it's not for dessert items I can't have just 1 cookie, just a little bit of icecream, chocolate etc. 

I am not giving up sugar, just dessert items. There are a couple exceptions:

I can have a portion of cereal with soymilk (no eating cereal without milk or out of the box)

I can have yoghurt as long as it's not fruit on the bottom (preferably low fat). 

I can have peanut butter (I am a vegetarian, so peanut butter is one of my essentials)- It's ok I usually do not tend to overdose on it. 

and that's it! Wish me luck!

Good luck.  Suggest while you're doing this that you try to swap any other refined carbohydrates & starches in your diet e.g. white rice, pasta or bread for their wholegrain/wholemeal equivalent.  Reason being that they tend to trigger sugar cravings since starch turns to sugar in the bloodstream very quickly.    Also, go easy on yourself with your calorie allowance.  If you're aiming for 1500 but need 1700 to feel satisfied then go for it.  If you can avoid feeling hungry then you'll find it easier not to eat the sugary things.

Thanks Jane for your support and advice! :)

I'm down to my last 12-10 lbs. and I am struggling to get them off. I am exercising on a daily basis, so I truly believe sugar is the main culprit! What I am aiming for is that at the end of the week it doesn't seem like it's so difficult, and that I can do another week and so on. 

That's a good tactic.   A week isn't the same as 'for ever'... but it's long enough to get the ball rolling.  Sugar-tolerance is one of those things that is actually easier to knock on the head than you might think.  Takes about 3-4 weeks to normalise the tastebuds but people I know that have done exactly what you describe report big changes after as short a period as a week.  Typically they find sugary foods less appealing than they used to.  Sugar won't be hampering your weight-loss all by itself but the fact that you can't stop at one or two cookies might be.

Have fun!

I have the same problem with deserts. Pretty much any kind of desert. Sweets are my biggest weakness. Here is what I do. During the week sweets are off limits. Everything because like you I cannot stop at one bite or one piece. But on Friday and Sunday I allow myself to have desert. I still stick to clean/balanced eating during the day, Friday and Sunday we get takout. I watch with the dinner although I am a little more lenient. It is the only time I eat fried anything and I get cheese potatoes. Then for desert I have whatever I want. Not an entire cake or pie, but I order desert with my dinner. My favorites are a cookie bar and a brownie. I get both. Pretty much I have myself convinced that if I put the cookie bar on top of the brownie it counts as one desert.   Anyway I let myself have that on Friday and Sunday. Since I order it I cannot have more than what I order and it is not in the house during the week to tempt me. It is funny because before I started eating clean/balanced and ate whatever I wanted sweets were just part of my everyday eating. But I did not really appreciate them, savor them, take my time eating them. Now I do and it is so much better. I look forward to my desert days all week. I don't think sugar is a bad thing. Far better than artificial sweeteners and you can fit it in and not gain and still loose if that is your goal. Just be careful. On my desert days I eat a normal breakfast but no lunch because I eat dinner early those days so the calories almost balance out. I think if you completely cut out the food you love the most it may backfire. Try an alternative. Just don't keep sweets in the house.

I definitely want to give that type of plan a try, but I want to reach my goal weight of 149 ish before. Desserts aren't essential, and they shouldn't be part of my daily diet, so I am doing this in order to lower my sugar tolerance, and hopefully my cravings for desserts. I need to teach myself that I really don't need that piece of cake or that bar of chocolate first. Hopefully I am not settng myself up for failure, but I think I need to teach myself self control (for desserts), before I can try that kind of lifestyle or diet, because I am afraid that I might over do it right now if I try to limit it to 2 days a week. I want to try this out first, I think I have enough self control to do it. This is the exact same way I stopped eating meat. I started out with a week and then it turned into a month and now it's been a year. My goal is not to ever eat sugar, just actually be able to eat it in moderation like one is supposed to. For that I think I need to get over my addiction/obsession with it first. 

With that said that sounds like a great plan! I will probably use that strategy in the future.

For lent last year I did a total sugar fast for 40 days.  No honey, sweetened juices, gum, nothing.  Because I had the mindset of "I CANNOT HAVE SUGAR" I did okay.  I did it again for 3 weeks before Thanksgiving.  I felt really good about it.

Unfortunately, it did not change my tastebuds.  I hope it does for you.  I came online today to vow to get back on the wagon.  Since the holidays, I've pretty much been on a non-stop binge.  I just can't seem to find the motivation to be disciplined again, even though I feel like crud when I eat junk and my waistband is getting tighter.  I just finished eating my second 500 calorie muffin today.  AAAAAHHHH! 

So there you go.  I think I'll do a week of no sugar right along with you to help me get my mind back in the game. :)

good luck. you are a better woman than i.

;)

awesome that you're joining me pavlov! Second day, and I think I had a sugar headache, I ate an apple and it went away. I'm following Jane's advice and trying to eat whole grains &Proteins. So far so good. I work at a coffee shop, and we sell pastries and all of those goodies....so I need some strength... I making sure I am full before tonights shift. I can do it! haha. 

So I've held strong, and have actually lost 3 lbs!! I was 165 last wednesday, and as of this morning am 162! My goal weight is 149 (145-150). Not being able to control my sweets intake was really killing my diet! I think I'm going to give up sweets until I reach my goal weight. It seems so feasible right now.