Will desire to "treat yourself" ever really go away?

[Staceyann]

I just finished a whole 30 on August 13, and started a second one on August 15.  The only thing I allowed myself on August 14 was two teaspoons of coconut sugar in my morning cup of coffee, and a piece of 85% dark chocolate after dinner totaling 200 calories.  

 

With virtually NO sugar in my diet for this long, I have stopped wanting things like chocolate croissants, bakery treats, etc., but I still feel like "treating myself" to something sweet, like a bowl of cherries, after dinner.  I also really wish I could have a small amount of natural sweetener in my coffee, etc.  If I keep going on Whole30 indefinitely, will these desires ever seriously disappear?  I feel like they may just be very strong habits (wanting a sweet taste at those times of day), but since they are lifelong (I'm 34), I wonder if I will ALWAYS be remembering and wanting something sweet for "dessert" and sweetened coffee.  

 

I noticed that many people on Paleo must still want dessert -- every Paleo cookbook I own includes sweet treats, and blogs are constantly posting recipes for them!!  Also, babies are all for sweets straight out of the womb, so I think it's somewhat biologically programmed too!!  So I guess I just wonder, is it worth it to do a Whole100 or whatever necessary to completely kick these desires, or would it need to be a WholeFOREVER to avoid sweet coffee and dessert.  

[amberino21]

Do you want to avoid the sugar and chocolate (or dessert) more than you want it? You make the choice!

I could eat dessert every night, but choose not to as my desire to maintain my physique and achieve performance goals are greater than my desire for dessert.

[lexes42]

You're right - it IS biologically programmed to prefer sweet tastes.  Nursing milk and baby formula aren't salty, sour or spicy!

 

I'm not sure I believe the sugar dragon is completely slayable either  but there's a difference between enjoying cherries and craving a frappacinno with a cinnamon crunch bagel (dammit, now I want that).

 

It's not a Whole 365.  I think when you're off roading you just monitor  the sugar dragon and when he becomes all powerful and nothing will do but a root beer float, you yank him on the choke collar and go whole7, whole 30 or whatever again.

 

Did you see the whole 9 facebook post last night. hilarious...  Since I was on Day 21 yesterday I appreciated the tag line:

 

Cookie Monster is having a rough Day21

[GFChris]

I've got a little more than a decade on you, age-wise. Before my Whole30, I was frequently downing 1/2 a bag of M&Ms in one sitting. That's one of the reasons I went on the Whole30: to stop mindless snacking in front of the TV after dinner and reduce/eliminate the crap I was eating.

I finished my Whole 30 at the end of June and honestly have had little to no sugar cravings since. But that's just me.

They don't want anyone to do a WholeFOREVER. A Whole100 may make sense for you to ultimately conquer your sugar dragon, or at least get a firmer handle on it. It's about changing your behavior to food, and coming up with non-food options to treat yourself. 

[JJB]

My desire to have something sweet is always there if I allow myself to have sugar on any kind of regular basis. I finished my W30 in January and struggled with cravings until July, because I kept getting treats every few weeks, then once a week, then more than once a week. I felt so out of control and disappointed that this diet change didn't "fix" me once and for all. I decided to kick sugar for good last month...I'm now on day 40-something of no sweets and I can tell you that the cravings have been completely killed. I do still wistfully daydream about ice cream and donuts sometimes, but it's not accompanied by actual cravings and the fear that I might buy them when I go to the store (this was literally constant a few months ago). I was substituting with apple sauce after dinner for the first few weeks, but I gave that up and have stayed mostly away from fruit for the last ~3 weeks. It really doesn't bother me at all, which is just amazing considering how much sugar I used to eat on a daily basis. I know it's not practical to avoid it forever, but honestly I dread the day that I do give in and have dessert again, because I know I'll be messed up for 2-3 weeks while I get it (and the cravings) out of my system again.

 

So to sum up...in my opinion the idea of rewarding yourself with food is caused by sugar/carb cravings and will diminish if you stop eating it.

[KitchenWitchy]

My experience: I'm 35, lifelong sugar junkie, on day 12 of my second whole 30. During my first w30 in april this year I spent a lot of time and effort finding or recreating yummy sweet foods and since they were compliant, I was able to justify to myself that this was ok. And it was - I had many of the benefits of the whole 30, but in the end I didn't fully transform my relationship to food. I went off road and ended up stuck in a Ben & Jerry's ditch. This time around I'm relinquishing my desire for sweets and doing the 30 days without nuts or nut butters, limited fruit (only as an ingredient, not a standalone food) and no snacking. I haven't been craving sweets, though I am appreciating the sweetness of sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, etc.

Based on my experience I believe it may be possible for me to one day not crave sweets. I've already stopped expecting them, which is part of the battle. It's not going to happen overnight, but then, the old habits didn't form overnight either.

[notacommittee]

The taste for sweetness is hardwired into us. Back when food scarcity was our big problem, this was an advantage because it steered us towards energy-dense foods.

 

Now, "the taste for sweetness" does not necessarily mean "the taste for overly sweet processed sugar products" as those did not exist back in the day. I think that if you can wean yourself off the susperstimulus of processed sugar, it's reasonable to expect that your taste for sweetness will be satisfied with natural sugars in sweet whole foods (i.e. fruit).

 

The desire to "treat yourself" (namely, the desire for pleasure) is also hardwired into us.

 

So considering that these desires themselves are literally in our DNA, I don't see how the desire for some kind of sweet treat will ever truly disappear. That "sweet treat" might be a bowl of fruit instead of a bowl of chocolate fudge, but really, if you want a bowl of fruit, what's wrong with that? How does that make you less healthy? I can see how it would be useful to eliminate it for a time if you're using the fruit to mask other emotional needs that you want to deal with, but there's a point where it just gets puritanical and silly.

 

I just think there's a huge difference between an evolutionarily appropriate sweet food that you enjoy and a processed nonfood that preys on your natural taste for sugar to make you sick. And I don't think the first is bad.

[melodyisis]

I usually enjoy a piece of fruit as part of meals which yes I consider dessert on some level but really I just love fruit and how it tastes. I don't really think I'm craving sweets or sugar...can't I just enjoy the taste of fruit as natures candy?

but I too wonder if the "treat yourself" desire could ever fully go away