13 Ways To Reduce Your Sugar Intake and Lose Weight

Losing weight is a battle that most are facing today and with so many diet tips, exercise fads and weight loss programs it’s hard to figure out what’s best. One thing we know for sure that effects your weight is SUGAR.  Let’s talk about how to lower your sugar intake and in turn lose weight!

All the research is the same when it comes down to sugar intake. No matter which way you slice it, processed sugar is very bad for you and will only hurt your weight loss journey if you want to lose weight and keep it off.

Sugar is high in calories and deficient in nutrients. It doesn’t curb your hunger which is going to create the cycle of wanting more food and eating more, which means WEIGHT GAIN. Not to mention that sugar is also bad for your health in general and is linked to many diseases including heart disease and cancer.

My Weakness…

I still struggle with sugar. I am a recovering sugar addict! If I eat a brownie, I can’t stop at one. I have to have two and I mean HAVE too. After I eat two brownies, I stand there and debate if I want another. Of course I want another, but I struggle because I know I shouldn’t. It’s bad. Many years ago I had an obsession with Rice Krispies cereal. I didn’t like it plain because the cereal isn’t sweet at all by itself. I would fill up a large bowl of Rice Krispies, add my milk and then get out the sugar bowl. You can see where this is going, right?… I would continue to dump a tablespoon over the cereal to coat the Krispies. Then when the cereal was gone, I would scrape all the remaining sugar that was left in the bottom of the bowl… I did that almost every night. Can anyone relate?!!

Over the past 10 years I have really changed my lifestyle and have reduced my sugar intake drastically. It has not only improved my physique, but it has improved my overall health.

Below are some different ideas and tips (that I use myself) on how you can help fight the battle and eliminate or reduce sugar from your diet….

How To Lower Your Sugar Intake

Breakfast

• Start your day right by eating a healthy breakfast. A lot of breakfast foods contain sugar. Stay away from muffins, bagels and sugary cereals. Replace your cereal with plain oatmeal. Not the boxed oatmeal that is flavored with brown sugar! Go for Plain Oats, Old Fashioned Oats or Steel Oats(this is the best kind) and add your own ingredients like honey, apples, cinnamon etc. I eat that every morning for breakfast. Not only is it healthy, but it tastes amazing and it’s very filling. You won’t be reaching for a snack before lunch.
• Coffee – Start slowly weaning yourself off adding sugar to your coffee. I didn’t think it was possible for me to do it, but somehow I did! I slowly cut back and over the course of 2 weeks I managed to cut it out of my coffee completely. Now when I have a sip of coffee with sugar I think it tastes disgusting! It’s so weird how that happens. I have gotten so used to plain coffee (with creamer) that the sugar actually tastes bad to me now. Don’t do it cold turkey though. It’s too difficult to cut it out that quickly.

Processed Foods

• Stay away from processed foods as much as possible. They contain lots of bad stuff and sugar hides them. Read the labels and check out the sugar content for everything you purchase. Sometimes we get caught up looking at low fat or low cal, but forget to look at the sugar content. Usually they make up for the one by adding more of the other.

No More Soda or Juices-Only Drink Water

• This is all I drink besides coffee. There are so many health benefits to drinking water. It will keep you feeling full as well which will aid with the weight loss. If your prone to drinking soda and fruit juices cut them out or limit them for a special treat only. If you don’t like the taste of water add a lemon to it to enhance the taste. Flavored waters are no better as they still contain sugar, so you have to flavor it on your own.

Yogurt

• Yogurt has so many health benefits and most would say it’s good for you. However, sugar is lurking in your yogurt. I hesistate to buy my kids yogurt anymore because of how much sugar is in such a small serving. I want them to get their dairy and protein, but not with a high sugar content. Look for yogurt that has little to no sugar at all. Chobani has great options.
• My go to late afternoon snack is Chobani Plain Full Fat Yogurt(they have low fat as well) with chopped dates and walnuts. It’s full of protein, healthy sugar and omega’s 3′ 🙂

Peanut Butter

• Another place your sugar is lurking is peanut butter. Peanut butter is definitely good for you and packs a lot of protein and Omega’s 3’s. However, you have to watch out for the added sugar. Look for, All Natural Peanut Butter (I use Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter). This means on the ingredient list you should only see Peanuts. Sometimes you may see peanuts and salt depending on the brand. If the ingredients say peanuts and sugar stay away. I was addicted to regular peanut butter and had a tough time in the beginning going to all natural pb. Now when I taste the regular peanut butter it’s actually too sweet for me! It’s amazing how our tastes change. I’ve gotten my kids to love it too because I slowly weaned them off the sugary kind.

Canned Fruit and Fruit Cups

• Check the ingredients and make sure your fruit doesn’t say packed in syrup. It needs to say packed in Fruit Juices. The syrup is all sugar and not natural at all.

Applesauce

• Check the label on your applesauce. Under ingredients, does it say apples AND sugar? That means that additional sugar is added to it. I buy unsweetened applesauce. That means that the ingredients will say, apples. Nothing else. If you look at the nutrition facts it will still say there is sugar, but that is referring to the good sugar in the apple itself.

Salad Dressing and BBQ Sauces

• These are always loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Look for labels that specifically say no high fructose corn syrup. Then check the sugar content. I think it’s difficult with bbq sauce to find a good one so I just wouldn’t use a lot of it. It’s easier to find salad dressing with a low sugar content. There are lots of oil and vinegar combinations you can make on your own or buy.

Tomato Sauce

• Another surprise to me was that high fructose corn syrup is added to sauce to sweeten it. I found a new tomato sauce that has no added sugar and my family loves it, Ragu Simply Traditional Pasta Sauce. Of course, another option is to make your own so you have control of what goes in it!

Choose Sugar Substitutes

• If you’re baking look for ways to sub out the sugar and replace with something similar, but healthy. For example, I make homemade muffins that use maple syrup instead of sugar. I’ve also made granola using agave nectar instead of sugar for sweetness. These are healthy sugar substitutions that will satisfy your sweet tooth!!

Get More Sleep

• It’s too hard to cut back on sugar when you are sleep deprived. I am always susceptible to eating bad when I’ve had a rough nights sleep. It really never fails. That’s when I don’t have the strength to fight the temptation… which leads me to the next point….

Stop Buying It!

• If you don’t have it in your house your less likely to eat it! Sometimes I will not buy cereal for a week so that I force myself to eat a healthy late night snack instead of 2 heaping bowls of cereal. I know it’s easier said than done if the rest of your house wants the junk though!

Plan Your Snacks Ahead Of Time

• If you don’t have time or interest in meal planning, you can still just make sure you have snacks on hand ahead of time because that ‘s when you’re likely to reach for the sugar. If it’s 3 O’clock and I’m hungry and tired I start to think about sweets. It’s inevitable for me. In order to prevent myself from grabbing my kids cookies I need to have healthy snacks ready. My healthy yogurt and dates, cucumbers cut up to go with hummus, natural peanut butter and apples, etc.
• Check out these healthy muffin recipes. They will satisfy your sweet tooth, but they have no sugar!! These are fantastic for mid afternoon or night time snacks.

How To Lower Your Sugar Intake| First Steps

My advice is to not implement all these changes at once. If you do everything at once you will most likely have a difficult time and get intense cravings and most likely it will backfire. I would start slowly cutting back until you can wean yourself off of things.

Quick example:

Week One| Start with eliminating the sugar slowly from your coffee along with drinking only water. Change from muffins, bagels or bread to oatmeal for breakfast.

Week Two| Clean out your pantry and replace your canned fruits, peanut butter, applesauce, salad dressing etc, with the unsweetened or healthier versions. Buy fresh whole foods and prep for snack time.

Week Three| Try to get to bed earlier. If you can’t sleep just try to get up to bed earlier to relax and wind down. It will make a difference. Now would also be a great time to implement an exercise routine if you haven’t already started one.

Week Four| Hopefully you are starting to see changes and are feeling motivated to continue!! You should have more energy and the cravings should be less intense.

If you do this gradually it won’t be so frustrating and will make you less irritable. Trust me. I tried doing it all at once before and it didn’t work. Slow and steady….

With all this being said, I still have sugar in my diet. I follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of my diet is healthy and 20% is not. I allow myself cakes and sweet treats on the weekends along with a bowl of sugary cereal. That’s how I can continue this as a lifestyle. I talk more about this in my how to stay lean post.

If you have any questions let me know!

Pin for Later or Share! Thanks so much 🙂

XO,
Nicole

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