than its impact on serotonin.
Nicki’s Emotional Addiction
‘For me, sugar is associated with wonderful thoughts and happy memories. When I used to think of it, I felt contented. And looking back on my idyllic childhood, I understand why. Food – especially sweet food – was given to me with unconditional love and care. Each week, my grandmother would bring me freshly made fudge or toffee and it’d be handed to me with a big kiss and a hug.
‘My other grandmother also baked the most wonderful cakes – apple cake, marble cake, cheesecake – and the family would all sit down to enjoy them together. I remember going to the funfair with my parents and always having pink candyfloss and pink and white nougat. But perhaps most significant was what I did every Saturday morning, without fail, with my best mate, Tania. We’d pool our pocket money which we’d be given as a reward if we’d behaved and done all our homework that week. We’d then cycle down to the corner shop to spend the lot on pick ’n’ mix. We’d put it all on the bedroom floor and spend the entire morning playing with our dolls and working our way through our stash of sweets. We were both in heaven!
‘Also, every day after school, we took it in turns to go back to each other’s homes for tea and there would always be buttered toast with jam, French fancies, jam tarts and Wagon Wheels on the menu. Sugary foods were what I ate on happy family gatherings, fun times with my best friend and as a reward for being a good girl. How could sugar be a bad thing when it had so many good associations?
‘As a result, sugar became a sure-fire way of making me feel happy. Even if things were going wrong in my life, I knew I could always get a high – however temporary – from eating sugar. It took me back to those “happy places” of my childhood. But as all sugar addicts know, this love of sugar – wherever it stems from – comes at a price.
‘In many ways, my overwhelming desire to eat sweet foods felt physical – I’d experience the sugar highs and lows throughout the day as a matter of course, and would reach for sugary foods to keep me feeling balanced. But there’s no doubt in my mind that my sugar addiction had extremely strong emotional roots, too, stemming from positive childhood messages about sweet foods. I also know I have an addictive personality, which doesn’t help in my fight to do things in moderation – including cutting back on sugar. In my experience, beating sugar addiction needs a two-pronged approach. You need to work at the physical side, through nutrition and exercise, but understand when, where and why the emotional side starts kicking in, too.’
GETTING OVER YOUR ADDICTION
As well as offering psychological support, experts who help people overcome eating disorders encourage their patients to return to eating regular meals based on complex carbohydrates and protein. These foods satisfy hunger and provide slow-release energy. Patients get into the habit of eating properly to satisfy their emotional needs but also to help stabilize blood-sugar levels and prevent the need to binge on sweet or refined foods.
Nicki’s diet works on these principles – regular eating of the right foods to keep you from bingeing on sugary foods, plus keeping a food diary to get you more in tune with your eating habits.
Keeping a Diary
When you get to the 21-day plan (Chapter 13), you’ll see that the first day’s task is to start keeping a food diary.
So why are we asking you to keep a food diary? Most of us eat food without thinking about how it makes us feel – it’s just like fuel to fill our faces and stomachs. But it is important to know what you’re eating and how it makes you feel. For starters, if you’re not clued up about food, you can end up eating more than you should, the wrong types of food or going a day eating hardly anything. Actions like these can lead to weight gain and feelings of illness and/or unhappiness. Writing it down in a diary helps you to take a good, hard look at your eating habits. Also, if you don’t write it down, it’s easy to forget that mini chocolate bar you ate, or the half portion of chips you finished off your kids’ plates!
There is an example of Nicki’s food diary here. Nicki found that filling in the diary helped her understand the times of the day when her cravings were at their worst (such as on waking and the ‘post-lunch’ dip), and aware of foods that made her happy or short-tempered, satisfied or bloated. Working from left to right, these are the columns to be filled in:
• Time of day – put in WHEN you ate.
• Food/Drink – fill in WHAT you ate. Put exactly what you ate (e.g. one large baked potato with tuna and sweetcorn, NOT just ‘jacket potato’).
• Physical symptoms – write in how you felt PHYSICALLY (e.g. rushed, sick, hungry, full).
• How you’re feeling – put in how you felt EMOTIONALLY (happy, grumpy, tearful, normal). For ideas of how you might feel (rather than just filling in ‘fine’) see our list below.
• Other factors. Here you might want to put in such things as ‘Have PMS’ or ‘Had argument with colleague’ or even ‘First day of holiday’ – anything that may be relevant to the choices you’re making and how you’re feeling. Also record your exercise here. Don’t forget it’s not just the gym that counts. ‘Walking the dog’ goes in here, too!
How You’re Feeling: Some Suggestions
PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS: POSITIVE
Full of energy/energized
Clear skin
Bright eyes
Satisfied (just enough food!)
Relaxed
Pain-free
EMOTIONAL SYMPTOMS: POSITIVE
Happy
Clever
Beautiful
Calm
Contented
Positive
Grounded
Confident
Proud
Strong
Pleased
Bubbly
Popular
PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS: NEGATIVE
Bloated
Constipated
Indigestion
Headache
In pain
Tired
Drowsy
Poor concentration
Spotty
Bad skin
Trouble sleeping
Gained weight
PMS
Toxic
EMOTIONAL SYMPTOMS: NEGATIVE
Negative
Sad
Restless
Knackered!
Depressed
Angry
Grumpy
Fed up
Blue
Bored
Impatient
Ratty