Are you addicted to sugar?
Addiction to sugar is like many other addictions; it is heavily dependent on dopamine, the neurochemical that causes us to feel pleasure. Dopamine is a natural chemical which the brain uses that steers us towards pleasure and away from pain.
The dopamine effect means that many people think they are addicted to sugar, but in fact, this can be a psychological effect and becomes a habit. This habit that can be broken by retuning the subconscious to react differently. Dependency on chocolate, sweets or fizzy drinks can also often stem from an emotional or unconscious connection with sweet food or drinks.
One of the easiest ways to create change is to help the mind make healthier connections.
Cognitive Hypnotherapist and creator of Thinking Slimmer, Sandra Roycroft-Davis explains:
“In cases of addiction, Cognitive Hypnotherapy is often the long lasting solution. Many people unconsciously form bad eating habits and these habits can easily get out of control, a bad habit can easily be changed and delving into the root of the issue it can be resolved in a relatively short amount of time. People then no longer have the need to consume the quantity of sweets, chocolate or fizzy drinks that they would have in the past".
Weight gain is often a side effect of sugar addiction and the sweet stuff can be one of the hardest hurdles to overcome and restrict when dieting. So if you’re struggling to limit your sugar intake follow Sandra’s handy tips:
· Constant repetition forms bad habits. Consciously avoiding that habit for 21 days will help to break it and form a new habit, so whilst at first it may be hard to resist the biscuit tin, just 3 weeks of perseverance will form new and positive habits. However, listening to Thinking Slimmer’s ‘Beat that Sweet Tooth’ Slimpod will help you to create a healthier relationship with food and put you back in control of your eating habits, effortlessly.
· Keep a journal of when and what you eat, as well as how you feel before and after eating it, this will help you recognise why and how often you reach for a sweet treat and the cause (e.g. stress, boredom, loneliness, tiredness e.t.c)
· Your subconscious is a powerful tool, and is responsible for an estimated 90% of what we do every day. Cognitive Hypnotherapy techniques can play a big part in helping to retune your behaviour. It’s proven successful for people who want to lose weight and give up smoking or drinking and the same can be said for those wanting to give up bad habits such as sugar.
· Reinforcement of the same positive messages helps to retune the mind and how we think. Products, such as Slimpods by Thinking Slimmer use modern hypnotic techniques to change and break bad habits, harnesses the power of unconscious persuasion to gently retune the mind so people eat less and make healthier choices.