When you’re trying to heal a sugar addiction, it helps to start with the simplest solution first. This means looking at the physical component of sugar addiction before digging into the spiritual and emotional side.
For example, I was reading on the forums about a woman who’s struggled with sugar addiction for many years now. She suspected she had an overgrowth of candida, which was fueling the intense sugar cravings. After eating a low sugar diet specifically designed to heal candida overgrowth, her sugar cravings have greatly decreased.
Another example: I coached a woman who I suspected had low blood sugar. Eating breakfast every morning did wonders for lowering her sugar intake. She found that eating regular meals, starting with breakfast, greatly decreased the sugar binges.
By implementing small physical changes, both women greatly decreased their sugar cravings and sugar bingeing. This fuels their belief that they can heal – which reinforces the behaviors that keep them sugar free. It’s a positive cycle!
These examples demonstrate the power of grounding, one of the 6 practices of growing human(kind)ness, a therapy I teach to heal eating disorders. Grounding is caring for your basic physical needs in a regular, rhythmic manner. It’s the first step, and quite important. Here are some examples of grounding: Eating breakfast, eating regularly, having a regular daily schedule (particularly important for women who are home during the day), an exercise routine, or getting bloodwork done to see if you’re showing signs of insulin resistance, a vitamin deficiency, or low blood sugar.
Many women who binge or overeat have a hard time with structure, routines, and schedules – I’m in this category too! The thing we resist is what we most need. We thrive when we give ourselves this structure and care. For example, when I got blood work done, I found that I had low vitamin D (which contributed to the winter depression and led me to overeat), and low blood sugar – which helps physically explain why I crave sugar and binge if I skip meals or eat too many simple carbohydrates. With this information, I had the power to care for these needs.
Yes, there’s still the emotional component of overeating that needs to be addressed. I had to dive into that in order to find lasting healing, in order to keep doing the physical work that keeps me healthy, vibrant and feeling good. That’s why we do the emotional and spiritual healing – to uproot the subconscious barriers that keep us from doing the physical work that heals us, like exercising, eating regularly, eating whole foods, and setting limits on junk food.
It’s a powerful trifecta.
If you’re struggling with bulimia, bingeing, sugar addiction or any form of overeating, I would say start with the physical component first. Start with grounding, your base camp, the strong, rooted foundation that enables you to climb the mountain (the emotional and spiritual work of breaking free on a subconscious level.) Try making one small change in your life and see how different you feel. Consider these grounding practices:
- Eat breakfast with protein every morning.
- Eat every 3-4 hours.
- Get blood work done. See if there’s not a physical contribution to your eating problems, like candida overgrowth, a food allergy, low blood sugar, or a vitamin deficiency. As Julia Ross points out in The Diet Cure, if you’ve been a chronic dieter, you may have deficiencies that are contributing to your bingeing or overeating. You’re trying to feed yourself these missing nutrients. Interestingly enough, Jon Gabriel’s weight loss program The Gabriel Method speaks to this as well – how our bodies store fat and consume extra food because we’re not giving ourselves the nutrients we need. Then our bodies believe that they’re starving and hoard fat – even though they’re overfed.
- Create a regular sleep schedule. Too little sleep creates a serotonin deficiency, which we try to make up for in – yep, food.
- Take a brief afternoon nap when your energy naturally drops.
- Give yourself stress breaks, like meditation, deep breathing, stretching, or yoga. When we’re caught in fight or flight – and how much of our modern life feels this way – our body feels under attack, and we may eat to soothe ourselves.
I love it, Karly! That’s such a great article. I agree with this whole-heartedly. While the emotional and spiritual work is ongoing, I would never be where I am in my journey without looking seriously at the physical component. I had to take out a lot of foods that I was intolerant of or didn’t digest well. It was really hard for a long time. However, after mourning my losses and moving on, I’m so much happier for it. It feels so much better to give your body what it needs physically. Then I feel like my body is working for me–and with me– not against me. I would add to this list that doing cleanses (e.g. parasite cleanses, virus cleanses, liver-gall bladder cleanse, general toxin removal, etc) was hugely helpful in my path.