Ponderings - carbohydrates

[TiredofHiding]

After getting on here yesterday and finding a place where I could finally be honest about my drinking, I have thought of so many things I want to share or ask or ponder with you who know what this is like - - so forgive a million posts from me!

One thing I have thought about over the past year is carbs. I know alcohol is a carb and turns into a sugar in the blood just like any other carb. I know I have little control with sweets - cookies, cakes, donuts, chocolate - and when I have followed a restricted carb diet I do fairly well (until i start drinking again). I wonder how much of a connection there is. I hear people who turn to sweets when they stop drinking to fill that urge. I wonder if abstaining from carbs will help keep those spikes in sugar and drops from occuring. I am starting the South Beach Diet again, which is what my doctor recommended and I'm curious if anyone else has had any experiece with carb restriction or if I am just over-thinking everything in my quest to kill the drinking and lose the weight!

[buckledown]

Ponderings - carbohydrates

I definitely found that low carbs helps with the craving and sugar stuff...Good luck! Buckle

[AMELIA]

Ponderings - carbohydrates

Hey Tired of Hiding,
Have you heard of a book called 'Potatoes not Prozac'?
Or the 'Sugar addicts total recovery guide'?
Have a read.
I am totally convinced by the sugar/carbohydrate connection.
As a teen I ate bowls of sugar and honey, ice cream and honey, condensed milk, huge (and I mean huge) bags of sweets, cans of Coke by the dozen etc.
When I started to drink I stopped most of that,....and well, drank.
I swear there is a connection.
Even now, when I am abstinent, I dream of rivers filled with sweets!!!
Food for thought, NOT for the body!
x

[trixietrack]

Ponderings - carbohydrates

there is a connection for sure. I was never much of a sugar addict as a kid.
I started eating a lot of carbs when I was in college (pasta mostly), that is also around the time that I started experimenting with alcohol.
I started having mood swings and gained weight.
Now I am very careful with refined sugars and flour, it really does make a difference.
eating lots of greens and proteins also helps with cravings and keeps you nice and lean.

T

[Dolly Sunshine]

Ponderings - carbohydrates

I'm doing Atkins and my cravings totally went away after 3 days on it.

[jane jane]

Ponderings - carbohydrates

There's definitely a connection. Luckily, if you just power through the first few days of very low carbs, the craving really does ease up. I've posted recently about being hungrier when I don't drink, and how sweets taste better when AF, and that's this week's battle! There's no magic strategy or formula, you just have to flat-out refuse to eat any refined carbs, and hold on until the longing for them passes. I know several here have offered the opinion that trying to watch what you eat at the same time you are learning to be AF is just too many rules at once, and sets the stage for failure on all counts, but I disagree. Perhaps I'm just an all-or-nothing sort, but this works for me. Too---hot fresh yeasty bread and pasta make me want wine, so avoiding them makes a LOT of sense.

[TiredofHiding]

Ponderings - carbohydrates

I started back on South Beach and will continue with that. All the goodies that accumulated in the house over the holidays (including the bottled goodies) are all gone. I am hungry today and had my first "craving" a little while ago. It was more a flash and gone, but it made me remember one day has never been too hard for me, but 2? 3? 7? that's when it gets hard. If getting rid of the craving for alcohol is easier and faster by getting rid of carbs I am all for it.

I need to find something else to be interested in - I enjoy cooking. We used to play a game when we'd go wine tasting - I would create a meal to go with that wine - "grilled salmon with a lemon butter and asparagus" to go with a crisp viognier. I have a hard time creating interesting, healthy meals without thinking of a great wine to go with it (followed by other stuff in secret) so I should just keep it simple in the kitchen and avoid those creative urges.

sigh.