Tired = chocolate time!

Hey guys,

Basically my problem is that when i get tired I ALWAYS crave sweet things. It really annoys me. I try and counteract this with coffee and a bit of sugar, and recently i've been buying light hot chocolate. Anyone got any other brain wave-other then getting more sleep, as to how to combat my cravings?

Brush your teeth! You won't want to eat anything with that taste in your mouth.

Original Post by delaney86:

Brush your teeth! You won't want to eat anything with that taste in your mouth.

Likewise, a piece of gum helps me a bunch!

Gum works for me, and brushing my teeth (as delaney said), or finding something else to focus on.

I recently took a knitting class that went from 7:15pm - 9:15pm. I would get out of work pretty hungry (I'd have a small snack before leaving work, like a granola bar or something to keep from STARVING), and would knit through what would normally be my dinnertime (I would eat something when I got home, of course). The knitting distracted me so much that I would forget I was hungry during class! Maybe if you feel a craving coming on you could dive into some kind of project that interests you and holds your focus.

If you solve it by eating sugar, you're gonna keep on craving sugar. Try to stay off sugar completely, the first 3 days are hard, but by day 4 most people have lost their craving for sugar.

Best is of course to get off all simple carbs, but that requires a bit more work :-)

Yeah, i do the whole Low cal hot chocolate thing, that works for me. Try sweet flavoured teas too (sweetened with splenda naturally!). Chewing gum also helps, but look out for teas flavoured "cookies and cream" or "apple and cinnamon" or even "choc-orange" They fill you up with water rather than empty calories. Do you have any triggers? Big peaks and dips in your blood glucose levels? Try low GI options for a while. Try to get off the sugar track too. You're chasing a fix that can't be sustained, sweet pea!

Well, there are 3 solutions.

1. My favourite - eat what you crave. Eating low calorie substitutes just prolongs the craving and you might eventually give in and eat more than you would have if you'd just eaten what you wanted to begin with. Sugar isn't the devil, and I eat sweet things like chocolate or a slice every day.

2. Train yourself to need less sugar. Our modern palates are trained to like sweet foods (because adding sugar to food is cheap and an easy way to mask cheap ingredients). Switch gradually from sweetened foods like crackers, yoghurts, sauces etc to versions with no added sugars. You will gradually crave the sugary stuff less.

3. If you think chocolate is going to break your calorie bank, opt for something smaller. A chuppa-chupp sometimes does the trick for me if I'm not craving anything in particular.

The one thing I would avoid is low-calorie substitutes like chocolate-flavoured artificially sweetened puddings. I find artificial foods taste artificial, and I still want the real thing when I'm done.

Original Post by loozyloo:

Yeah, i do the whole Low cal hot chocolate thing, that works for me. Try sweet flavoured teas too (sweetened with splenda naturally!). Chewing gum also helps, but look out for teas flavoured "cookies and cream" or "apple and cinnamon" or even "choc-orange" They fill you up with water rather than empty calories. Do you have any triggers? Big peaks and dips in your blood glucose levels? Try low GI options for a while. Try to get off the sugar track too. You're chasing a fix that can't be sustained, sweet pea!

I know you are trying to be helpful, but I find it very worrying to see someone with anorexia posting diet tips. I worry that you are following these tips yourself instead of following a weight gain diet. I hope you can take this comment in the context it is meant, as a voice of concern not criticism.

 I used to have the same problem, everyday around 1-2pm I would find myself EXTREMELY tired.  To the point I would nod in my office until I got a piece of chocolate or a cookie and some coffee.  When I changed to healthier eating I was really worried that it was going to get bad.  Now everyday I eat a piece of fruit around 1pm.  Cantalope, banana just something that has some natural sugar in it and I am good to go.  I have even cut down to just one cup of coffee a day and a couple of diet sodas (with caffine) a day.  This is a big change for someone who used to drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee and umpteen sodas a day. 

if you don't want to cnsume to many calories or trying to lose weight i would suggest Yerba Mate tea or roobios tea, roobios is caffeine free and yerba mate has caffeine but it dosn't make you feel the way coffee does, coffee makes you crash and jittery but Yerba Mate doesnt make you jittery but it gives you energy without a crash. It also has vitamins in it and is 0 calories, you might have to get used to the flavor though, i like it but the first time i drank it i was like, "hmmm" lol roobios tastes good to and its got a ton of antioxidants. the best thing rally is to take a nap though you don't want to burn out your adrenal glands~erica

There are teas flavored like cookies in cream?